Problem with plants...

**oqs** · 5th Oct 2002, 13:47

i think my tank is short of some nutrients. 2 types of plants, b. japonica and d. diandra, are giving out pale new leaves. below are some pictures of the plants.

look at the centre of the picture. the new growth is brown and translucent.

pale, translucent and small new growth.

pale and distorted new growth.

figured out it might be either calcium or iron deficiencies. any opinions?

how do i go about increasing calcium content in the water? can plants take in the calcium from baking soda? i've been adding to raise the kh.

ferts i've been adding:
Seachem flourish
Seachem K
KNO3

**oqs** · 5th Oct 2002, 13:47

i think my tank is short of some nutrients. 2 types of plants, b. japonica and d. diandra, are giving out pale new leaves. below are some pictures of the plants.

look at the centre of the picture. the new growth is brown and translucent.

pale, translucent and small new growth.

pale and distorted new growth.

figured out it might be either calcium or iron deficiencies. any opinions?

how do i go about increasing calcium content in the water? can plants take in the calcium from baking soda? i've been adding to raise the kh.

ferts i've been adding:
Seachem flourish
Seachem K
KNO3

**oqs** · 5th Oct 2002, 13:47

i think my tank is short of some nutrients. 2 types of plants, b. japonica and d. diandra, are giving out pale new leaves. below are some pictures of the plants.

look at the centre of the picture. the new growth is brown and translucent.

pale, translucent and small new growth.

pale and distorted new growth.

figured out it might be either calcium or iron deficiencies. any opinions?

how do i go about increasing calcium content in the water? can plants take in the calcium from baking soda? i've been adding to raise the kh.

ferts i've been adding:
Seachem flourish
Seachem K
KNO3

**oqs** · 5th Oct 2002, 13:47

i think my tank is short of some nutrients. 2 types of plants, b. japonica and d. diandra, are giving out pale new leaves. below are some pictures of the plants.

look at the centre of the picture. the new growth is brown and translucent.

pale, translucent and small new growth.

pale and distorted new growth.

figured out it might be either calcium or iron deficiencies. any opinions?

how do i go about increasing calcium content in the water? can plants take in the calcium from baking soda? i've been adding to raise the kh.

ferts i've been adding:
Seachem flourish
Seachem K
KNO3

**PeterGwee** · 5th Oct 2002, 16:52

Are those brown leaves old ones? If they are..you can just trim them off. The new leaves looks quite alright to me [

] ...If you concern maybe can buy those calcium pills from pharmacy(Dunno if they sell though) or just change your brand of fertilizer to see whether other brands work. Dennerle works better but more expensive..up to you. Do take note that pH has to be slightly acidic in order for easier uptake of nutrients for the plants....too alkaline and nutrients are insoluble and cannot be taken in by plants.

Oops almost forgot..the stems of some your stem plant looks brownish..(sorry if i see wrongly)..pull one of them out and check their roots..is it rotting?

**oqs** · 5th Oct 2002, 19:03

those brown leaves are new ones. the plant is basically sprouting brown leaves. pH is at 6.4. should be all right. anyway, the stems aren't brown, they are red actually.

**ryan** · 5th Oct 2002, 20:20

are your plants bubbling?
how long do they take to bubble?
are u getting algae problems?
if not then maybe add more liq fert?
what base fert u using?

**vinz** · 6th Oct 2002, 00:20

Err... baking soda is Sodium Bicarbonate. No calcium in there...

Calcium deficiency could be one cause... the other possiblity is Iron. Noticed you did not mention Fe in your list of ferts. Have you read the deficiency tables at [url=http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/nutrient-deficiency.html]http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/nutrient-deficiency.html[url]? Look at the entries for Fe. I doubt Ca is lacking as it's present in Flourish.

Got a gH test kit? gH is indicative of Mg and Ca levels, but that's no measure of which. Check out Seachem Equilibrium for Ca. I heard of ppl using Ca pills, but no personal experience nor details. Do know you should check what are the other ingredients in the pills.

**DEA** · 6th Oct 2002, 01:02

i would say K or Fe
cos i kena the same thing as you for the blyxa, followed by melting but it went away went i upped the Fe and dumped in a hell load of K

**oqs** · 6th Oct 2002, 01:55

yah my plants are still bubbling. didn't really go and time, but should be within less than 3 hours of lighting. not getting any major algae problems except for the usual green spot algae on the glass.
opps.. how did i link calcium with baking soda in the first place.. [:0] my mistake.. anyway i did took reference to the table and found that it's either calcium or iron, but i'm thinking it's more towards calcium from the description. Flourish do have iron too... but it's in iron gluconate form instead of the normal EDTA iron.
think i will try to increase the iron content first b4 going out to get the calcium pills.
how much K did u add into your tank, DEA?

**CK Yeo** · 6th Oct 2002, 10:08

Distorted growth is a sure sign of Calcium deficiency. (although cannot see clearly if your blxya is distorted)... they usually show up on stem plants like MM first.

Add Ca(No3)2, Ca(OH)2, Ca(Cl)2, shells or coral.

Stunted growth can be caused by N or/and P deficiency. But since you are dosing with KNO3, my guess is that you need some P.

**oqs** · 6th Oct 2002, 11:09

where can i find these chemicals with calcium? does calcium pills usually use them?
need some P? i'm still quite skeptical about adding P to the tank. maybe i should go and get a test kit for P first. btw, does commercial test kits test for small amounts of P too? think the so called targetted amount of P for the tank is 0.5-1ppm.

**DEA** · 6th Oct 2002, 14:20

me just dumped in a lot of flourish potassium
the new blyxa leaves that i got were very shiny golden, and well formed, but simply melted away

**oqs** · 7th Oct 2002, 12:16

DEA, your description of your b. japonica is exactly like mine. but from the charts, K deficiencies show in older leaves first. and the problem is my older leaves are all right. the new ones are dying.
actually, most of my other plants are growing okay. only these 2 are causing problems. suggestions?

**dannyfish** · 7th Jan 2010, 16:47

Originally Posted by CK Yeo

Distorted growth is a sure sign of Calcium deficiency. (although cannot see clearly if your blxya is distorted)... they usually show up on stem plants like MM first.

Add Ca(No3)2, Ca(OH)2, Ca(Cl)2, shells or coral.

Stunted growth can be caused by N or/and P deficiency. But since you are dosing with KNO3, my guess is that you need some P.

Where to get those coral chip or calcium products? is that a baking soda that contain calcium?

**barmby** · 8th Jan 2010, 11:34

Coral chip - go to any typical LFS.

Baking soda can be bought from NTUC supermarket

**dannyfish** · 8th Jan 2010, 12:35

Originally Posted by barmby

Coral chip - go to any typical LFS.

Baking soda can be bought from NTUC supermarket

how much is the coral chip?

Does the baking soda contain calcium??

**barmby** · 8th Jan 2010, 12:54

From FOC to $5 per package depends. Price is relative to size. If you PR well, you can get free.

baking soda contain calcium? I don't think so.

**dannyfish** · 8th Jan 2010, 12:58

Originally Posted by barmby

From FOC to $5 per package depends. Price is relative to size. If you PR well, you can get free.

baking soda contain calcium? I don't think so.

i dono at where read before got this calcium Bicarbonate....tat y i thought baking soda consist of calcium....
so is there other commercial product tat contain calcium?
thk for the fast reply...

**barmby** · 8th Jan 2010, 13:00

OK. I am not sure. Therefore, i do not want to mislead you. Others may know. However, I can be sure that the one I used and bought from NA... don't have calcium