brown spot on plants

[charleslyk]

hi all,
have been experiencing this problem of brown spot forming on either the leaves or stems of my plants and then eventually rot at that point. For eg, when the spot appears on the stem, it will slowly enlarge and finally the whole leave will break at the rotting part and float away.

Anybody experience this problem and care to share the solution?

I suspect its magnesium deficiency?

thanks,
charles

[PeterGwee]

Why guess in the first place? You can do routine dosing of macro and micros and make sure they never run out, at the same time doing large water change to prevent possible dosing errors or testing errors. By the time a deficiency is showing, its already too late...keep up with your fert regime and gave the "stunt" plants some time to recover back to health.

[DEA]

are you using any form of base fert? this doesn't sound like it should happen with a good substrate

try clearing out the dead leaves (important~!) and sucking up any crap before dosing the fert
i suggest potassium, magnesium and calcium
adding iron judiciously will help too, provided you keep an eye on the algae solution

alternatively, it could be shrimp that are killing your plants
just a thought

[charleslyk]

hi dea,
i am using base fertiliser. Does not seem to be caused by shrimps as i have only about 4 in my 2.5 ft tank.

Its was happening on my nuphar japonicum (holes in the leaves) then now my crinum natans? as well as narrow leaf ferns have it.

The could yellow at any point and then rot and eventually break away.

Doubt its K since i have been continuously dosing K2SO4 and occasionally adding Seachem K.

Suspected its MG but yet to dose it.

Currently also experiencing rampant hair algae growth so anybody has any inkling what's happening?

cheers
charles

[PeterGwee]

One missing nutrient and the entire uptake of whatever available nutrient slows to a crawl....what do you think? Dose everything as a routine and that makes sure nothing runs out.