Leaves Like Swiss Cheese

[nmdelrio]

Two of my plants are riddled with holes. the new leaves of the plants are brownish-red but the older leaves are green. I do not exactly what these plants are. I would not say the other plants are happy either.

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Is a plant eater doing this or is this because of a nutrient deficiency?

I use APF Aquarium Plant Food (from Aqua Craft, USA) as per instructions on the label. Guaranteed analysis: total N= 0.15% available phosphoric acid (P2O5)= 0.01% soluble potash (K2O)= 2.90%.

I also use PHYTO-Fe (NT Laboratories, England). No composition on label.

No CO2 injection, I do not plan to.

Lighting: 2x 18W Arcadia Tropical, and 2x 18W Arcadia Freshwater. 220L tank.

Substrate: Aquaclay Ground.

The only H2O params I have available right now are NH3=0.3 pH=7.2 NO2=0 NO3=30. Temp=26 degC

Fishes: rosy barbs, tiger barbs, emperor tetras, serpae tetras, CAE (small), red-eye tetra, black-skirt tetra, common pleco, dwarf gourami, pictus catfish, bala shark (small), black ghost knife, zebra danios.

Weekly water changes 25%-30%.

Any ideas, anyone?

Thank you.

 

[NAL]

Hi,

Personally I would say that something is eating your plants, without a shadow of a doubt. My advice: catch that Plec! When you get deficiency, they often take the form of small holes, which are often associated with discolouration and dead tissue-those look like pretty fresh snack marks from something dining on what looks like an otherwise respectable Echinodorus. The young leaves of these plants often do have more vivid colouration than the older ones. I have a beautiful E.schlueteri Gruner Leopard, and it displays vivid red-brown spots on the early leaves, which tend to fade with time somewhat. As regards your parameters and set-up I see you have a little nitrite there, which shouldn't be the case if the tank has been cycled. Assuming your Nitrate is in ppm, then you've got plenty of N available, particularly for a low tech set-up. I'm not too sure about the macro fert your using, but if you're in the states or the UK, dry ferts are readily available to help you finesse you dosing. Given you have low light, no CO2, you might want to consider a general trace element mix rather than going to heavy on the macros-something like Flourish or Tropica Master Grow. Finally, if you have a lot of Sword plants in there like those, I'd suggest some root tabs-these can be very hungry plants and I've found they do best when they receive a regular supply of additional nutrients to the roots by this method (even if you are using a plant-specific substrate).

Hope this helps you out.

Nick

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Looks to me like a sword plant and a lotus of some kind. Both need nutricious substrates and would benefit from more light and co2. At least try some ferts on the gravel pushed in at an angle to end up on the bottom class under the plant.

 

[nmdelrio]

I think I will start with the ferts.