What deficiency is this? GH / Ca:Mg thing?

I dose ~3ppm NO3 and ~0.75ppm PO4 daily.
.1ppm Fe from CSM+B+Extra Fe daily.
>20ppm K from KCl weekly.
50% water changes.

6.2-6.4pH and ~4dKH for >40ppm CO2. I have increased this but am using DIY so must wait. I do not use mist in this setup but L. guinea is close to the CO2 reactor. I have placed trimmings into another tank with mist and can post update.

Thank you.

Joe,
Have you thought of upping KNO3 to 5.25-6ppm? It seems as though you've got plenty of CO2, so I was wondering if you were limiting the NO3 too much. Go for a 7:1 or 8:1?

CO2 seems to be the likely candidate since its DIY CO2 (The readings need to be taken over a course of a day or two to really show any issues. Even if the readings are good, the plant growth is telling you something else. Notice the smaller new growth? Classic sign of low CO2). The other thing is you are running macros way too lean as turbomkt mentioned.

Regards
Peter Gwee

I do suspect macros and am considering switching back to every other day dosing with excess. My goal with the current dosing was to maintain lower N for color from my other plants, and this is working without stunted growth or small leaves with other species. My numbers above for macros and traces are the input, not target/measurement, and is roughly half of my leanest successful dosing under EI.

I will make your suggested changes and observe. I will start with ~10-12ppm NO3 and ~1.5-2ppm PO4 every other day while continuing to adjust CO2.

However, I am surprised I see this in L. Guinea but not other species. I suspected Ca:Mg because many proponents of a ratio point towards stunted new growth, and many have grown L. Guinea. This is my first time growing this plant.

Thank you.

It's not a hard plant to grow.
Your KH is fine, so is the GH, Gh is easy tio rule out, just add some and wait and see.

I do not know how many folks point the finger at GH, yet, when they add GH booster, they exhibit the same issues

Stunting tips are generally CO2 or NO3 being too low IME.

This plant and the others will look better with good KNO3 dosing and good GH's.

Color etc as well.
The higher GH/PO4 does help with color as well, not just the lower NO3.

You can run NO3 lower, but you need less light to make it easier and noty bottom out and stunt.

So that and the CO2 are working against you as well as high light.



Regards,
Tom Barr

Thank you.

Keeping light, Co2, temperature, KH and GH constant, I notice stunted tips on my guinea if I neglect to dose macros for a few days. If I get back on dosing routine, they begin growing very quickly. Missing a dose has a noticeable effect but they spring back very well.

My GH is 6 and my KH is 5, reconstituted RO water. 3 x 13w over 2.5g. Aquasoil. Dunno the Co2 levels but I'm blasting pressurized Co2 from a nano diffuser with a 40 gph water pump and the HC pearls well so I know the Co2 is up there.

Hi,

Why not just test to determine the amount of NO3 and PO4 that is actually in the water column?

The results would be close enough to confirm or eliminate the cause as being a shortage of those two nutrients.

That would seem to be better than searching in the dark for the light switch. <g>

Bill

Thanks Richard.

Bill, I fell out of the habit of testing and don't have current NO3 and PO4 kits anymore. I probably should have when borrowing from other methods.

I have moved forward with the dosing and suggestions above. Thank you.

Anytime you feel the need to test PO4 or NO3. o a water change, cleaning, and do at least 50-60% and then dose the nutrients back, then you are spending your time in a more productive manner.

Testing is a guessing game, you know why and what you did to get the plant to stunt.

Generally it's neglect, and..........that's all the test kit will tell you if it's accurate in this case with the Ludwigia if it's NO3/PO4.

But you can already resolve that without a test kit by the water change.
Then it's just a matter of CO2.

You know it's low or CO2, so why not just start doing the work rather than tinkering and testing?

Don't beat around the bush, take care of the tank, do frequent water changes/dosing and the plants do very well, algae hates it.

This is the same old thing 100X.
I'd do this and then if you feel the need, then test.

Test kits lead folks astray often times or give readings that send the aquarist off some time wasting road. They think their NO3 is too high, when it's really too low and the same with PO4.

If you think the NO3/PO4 are too high(you need to know what range that is, it's very high BTW and does nothing to plants even at 10ppm /100ppm PO4/NO3) do a large water change, that takes care of that fear.

Now dose 1ppm PO4 and 10ppm of NO3, now you know you have enough of each but not too much.

Regards,
Tom Barr