Hygrophila Polysperma

[elmo666]

Can anyone help. I have a small low tech set-up now, had to let my 100g go due to epilepsy. Anyway, feed with lush max, plant tube, sand substrate. The crown leaves are luscious green and all plants have good growth. The roots are extensive. However, the lower leaves start going into holes which get bigger, then the leaves come away from the main plant. Is this normal or is something lackimg in the nutrient department? Thanks

 

[Ps3Steveo]

More than likely lack of light down there, does the stem melt or do roots grow from where the leaves were?

 

[elmo666]

No roots on the stems. Think u cud be right. Looking at the smaller plants, no where near as many holey leaves on them. The main plant is around 12" high, must be 8" across. When the leaves shed just a bare stem remains. Now, am wondering if I have identified the plant correctly, as in a tank I had a while ago I do recall roots looping out from the stem/new leaves. Just took a really close look at the tallest plant, sad to say even the upper leaves are going into holes. Just to compound this, the smaller plants, maybe 4" high, are not suffering as much. The vallis in the tank is thriving, throwing off lots of runners. As u wud expect, the java fern is growig a treat along all my wood. If is isn't the plant stated it's something very close to it. I don't recall the leaves being as big tho, they must be 4 to 5" long on the biggest plant.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

How old is the plant?

 

[elmo666]

The large plant is probably 6 months now, the other smaller plants are all cuttings taken from it.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Hmmm must be a light issue reaching the bottom leaves then mate, unless its the same plant with holes at the top too then we need to look into deficiencies, a pic of your tank, lighting specs, fert and CO2 regime etc.

 

[elmo666]

Hi again. Tried to upload pics here for you but for the life of me I couldn't. I have a post in tropical discussion, "confused.com", where I did manage to upload a couple of pics if you want to take a look there. Now, to answer some of your questions, tank set-up is as follows:
Juwel 90ltr 15" deep with standard juwel filter (no carbon or nitrate remover)
Temp is 78, ph 6.8, hardness varies tbh as I don't adjust tapwater.
Single plant tube. Stocking: 5 small angels, 4 bolivian rams, 6 neons, 6 black phantom tetra, 6 mixed cordoras and 1 dwarf bristlenose. Dosed with lush max 2.5 ml 3x weekly. 25% weekly water change.

 

[elmo666]

Just been sat here looking at the tank and something just dawned on me.............the plants were fine prior to adding this lush max fert. Earlier 2day sent another e-mail asking for a breakdown of whats in it. The first reply basically just repeated the ebay listing: nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and trace elements. Seems strange ha adding ferts would cause this, guess it could just be coincedental

 

[stu40]

What were you dosing before?
You have enough light, now more ferts than before?
So what's the limiting factor, CO2??, and is it showing this up with through the holes in the leaves?

 

[elmo666]

Ok Stu, that seems fair. Very short history. Had an aquamedic 450ltr set up with 4 t5's. Used home-made yeast generated co2 and dosed with high end ferts. My epilepsy is worsening, and as my tank was 2' deep, used steps te get up to clean it. The wife was getting really worried about finding me floating in it as I liked to mess with it when she was out. So 6 wks ago got rid and bought the 90ltr juwel set-up I have now just to keep my hand in. With it only having one tube decided to go for the low tech approach to plants. If you look in trop disc you can see a pic (confused.com). Being a figgiter tho, I wanted to improve growth, so went on ebay and bought some cheap ferts as everything else went with my pride and joy. So, there you have it, holey leaves. Do you think I should make another co2 generator and pop it on, got nothing to lose I guess.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Well what lighting do you have over the 90 litre ?

 

[elmo666]

well that was fun matey......not! It's a 24" T8 classica 18w tube. Struggled to get it out, nothing more on it am afraid. Hang on a mo, I still have the box I slid the old marine tube into. Right, it's a high output natural daylight tube, as recommended bu the lfs. In the past have always had a combination of day/sun light tubes. Sadly, a little restricted with the Juwel hood. (by the way, my memory is nothing short of crap, owing to my epilepsy, so apologise in advance if am repetitive)

 

[elmo666]

Quick update, got this reply just before regarding the composition of Lush max.......Hello, The analysis of Lush max is as follows:N 1.3300% P 0.1231% K 3.8781% Mg 0.3885% S 0.5126% B 0.011% Cu 0.002% Fe 0.105% Mn 0.018% Mo 0.002% Zn 0.012%. Dosing at the levels suggested should rule out any chance of deficiency for all but the heaviest of planted jungles. What is more likely is that the light:CO2 ratio is not balanced well. Meaning too much light over the tank for the natural or injected CO2 levels meaning the 'deficiency' (and it is still a nutrient deficiency of sorts) is actually the CO2. This is an incredibly common problem normally leading to a never ending struggle with algae. BBA (short fluffy black growth on hardscaope) and staghorn (longer dark hairsy growth on plants leaves) are a very common sign of this and are often followed by many other types of algae. Another common failing is that there are too few plants in the aquarium and therefore algae finds a space to occupy for want of finding a better way to describe it. It isn't known by experts or scientists why but the very heavily planted aquariums that do not have to much light above them are the ones that have the least algae problems whether they are dosed with no ferts or overdosed by crazy multiples of the recommended dosing. Let me know and I'll see if I can advise but all of my tanks even those that are pressurised are algae free and are in the 1WPG region.

 

[stu40]

Just looked at pics in thread on 'Tropical Disc', probably should have done this earlier

If it's the plant i think it is, that's Hygrophila Corymbosa.
Coincidentally, i've been having exactly the same problem as you.Holes in old leaves, not in the new.
Long story short, don't know if this helps, i took a cutting, and put in a different area (one with better flow).
Guess what.Better growth.Nothing else changed

 

[elmo666]

Ha ha, you have hit the nail on the head my friend. The main large plant is the one giving me all the grief. I took numerous cuttings, all of which are doing well, tho growing slower. I wasn't sure I had the identity correct, when I had what I knew was polysperma years ago, I recall it having much smaller leaves and throwing off side roots up the stem. Is this just the nature of this plant or do you think we can knock heads and get to the bottom of the cause. Thanks alot for your input.