brown spots on plants

[peteypob]

Hello everyone,

I noticed on my plants they are starting to get brown and yellow parts on them. They also have little holes in them as well. I am just setting up a CO2 system in there as I write this. Will this help my delima or do I need to add anything else to help my plants?

[Don_Lee]

Hi Petey,

CO2 seems to help plants health alot generally, but I would need to know other details in order to help more. Are you supplementing any nutrients? What is your substrate? What plants are we talking about? What is your water like?

Don ;D

[peteypob]

HI Don,

I have Eco-complete substrate by Caribsea. The spots are on my Amazon swords, Red melon swords, and I dont really know the rest names. My water parameters are pH 6.5-6.8, Nitrate 15, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, GH 5, temp @ 87. Im not putting any nutrients..maybe you can suggest something ;D

-Pete

[Wahter]

Are these spots appearing on the old leaves or the new leaves? If it's the old leaves and the plants are recent arrivals, ie. within the last month, it could be that the plants were raised emersed (above the water) and it's adjusting to being submerged.

[Don_Lee]

Hi Pete,

Well, you have good as I have heard that EcoComplete is good stuff. Swords are going to need a rich substrate. I tend to like Seachem products, and would think that Seachem or Tropica's fert would take care of any overt deficiencies in the water column. Of course, I should have asked, what is your lighting like?

Don ;D

[Don_Lee]

PS- Have you checked your iron levels?

Don

[peteypob]

Thanks for your responses. I have not checked my iron levels, how would I do that? My plants have been in there for about four months, the spots are on the older taller leaves.

-Pete

[peteypob]

P.S

Lighting one bulb Life- Glo and and a Aqua-Glo

[Don_Lee]

Good point Wahter. What size tank and what wattage bulbs?

Don

[stygian7]

I'm still relatively new to planted aquaria, but it sounds like a possible K deficiency. Check out the nutrient deficiency chart on Chuck Gadd's website:
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Just my $0.02.
-Kevin

[peteypob]

30gal and both are 20w

[Don_Lee]

I would be looking at iron or potassium(K). Lets see what some others think. I would start with a good overall fert from Seachem or Tropika.

Don

[peteypob]

Good deal Don, now when your talking about fert from searchem what kind are you suggesting?
-Pete

[Don_Lee]

I believe Seachem's overall fert is "Equilibrium." Check out their website, I believe it is seachem.com. They have quality products IMO.

Don ;D

[ChloroPhil]

The suppliment Don's thinking of is "Flourish". Not to be confused with the other products in the Flourish line. Plain Flourish is a mix of a little of a lot of chemicals and is a good "extras" suppliment. While They say it's good as a total suppliment, it's not and really should be used to fortify an existing supplimentation regimen.

Equilibrium is a water re-constitutor which is also great for increasing the Ca, Mg, and K levels in water.

Best,
Phil

[Wahter]

You might also want to increase the intensity of lighting (add another light) over the tank - you have 40 watts over a 30 gallon tank right now.

Is the new growth smaller? new leaves should be as large or larger than the leaves they are replacing at the 4 months you've had them.

[Don_Lee]

Thanks Phil, Flourish is what I was thinking of. I think that Flourish can be adequate for an overall fert with the right water situation, but often needs to be supplemented depending on lighting etc. I tend to think it might be a place to start unless you have a very high lighting/high growth type of tank, in which case you have to begin to think about more specific or "intense" type fertilization.

Don

[ChloroPhil]

Don,

You're absolutely right. I guess I've programmed myself to think towards a different way of keeping tanks. SHAME ON ME! :spank: Bad Phil, bad Phil!