Deficiency ID help

[Ccarter]

My crypts have been doing well for the 2 months I’ve had them. Just noticed 2 of my crypts have a leaf as seen in photo now. I’m new to planted tanks and not experienced to diagnose what nutrients I’m missing by looking at the plants. Any help is appreciated.

It’s a low tech tank, eco complete substrate, and a little bit of flourish and potassium dosing.

 

[Colin_T]

It's lacking iron and possibly magnesium but I have never seen spots like that. Iron should be checked at least several times a week.

Others will be on shortly and they can offer more advice.

 

[Ccarter]

It's lacking iron and possibly magnesium but I have never seen spots like that. Iron should be checked at least several times a week.

Others will be on shortly and they can offer more advice.

Thanks I’ll have to get some more test kits I guess

 

[Colin_T]

How often are you dosing with the fertiliser supplements?
If you are only doing it once a week, try doing a half dose twice a week or even a half dose every second day.

Plants like a steady supply of nutrients and if you only dose once a week, they use all the nutrients really quickly and then have nothing available to use towards the end of the week. If you use a lower dose or even a normal dose but more frequently, the plants can use the nutrients and build up their reserves, and they will be less likely to have deficiencies. However, you need to monitor nutrient levels to make sure they don't get too high.

Some people find it easier to do a 50% water change twice weekly and do a full dose after the water change. Other people just dose a couple of times a week and do a big water change once a week to dilute any nutrients.

 

[Ccarter]

I forgot to say I also have root tabs by them. I’ve been liquid dosing every 3 days about with half doses, I can try increasing a bit. I’ve been water changing about 35% once to twice a week. I’m in Fl and my water is in the higher ph group, haven’t tested it in a while think it’s about 8.

 

[Colin_T]

If you have hard water the plants will have a bit more trouble absorbing nutrients compared to plants kept in soft water.

Try half dose every second day and do a 75% water change each week. Do that for a few weeks and see if things improve. If not you can go back to dosing every 3 days.

Do you have carbon in the filter?
I better ask because I new a few people that had trouble growing plants and they were dosing the tank with fertilisers and nothing grew. It turned out one of the people was replacing the carbon in the filter each week when they did a water change. And the carbon was absorbing all the fertiliser

 

[Ccarter]

If you have hard water the plants will have a bit more trouble absorbing nutrients compared to plants kept in soft water.

Try half dose every second day and do a 75% water change each week. Do that for a few weeks and see if things improve. If not you can go back to dosing every 3 days.

Do you have carbon in the filter?
I better ask because I new a few people that had trouble growing plants and they were dosing the tank with fertilisers and nothing grew. It turned out one of the people was replacing the carbon in the filter each week when they did a water change. And the carbon was absorbing all the fertiliser

I don’t run carbon, took it out as soon as I decided to add plants. I have some fish in the tank, doing a change that big won’t mess with my bio system and the fish?

 

[Colin_T]

Fish can tolerate a 75% water change every day as long as the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank, and has a similar pH, GH and temperature to the tank water. It won't affect the filter bacteria either

 

[Ccarter]

Fish can tolerate a 75% water change every day as long as the new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank, and has a similar pH, GH and temperature to the tank water. It won't affect the filter bacteria either

Thanks for the help