Hello

I'm running my tank with EI. But i can't figure out what the problem is with my pogestemon helferi (they never did well). New leaves in the center are pale, sometimes even white! The plants are keeping "unnatural"compact. All other plants do grow very good and green. No torted leaves etc almost no algae in my tank. I've 2w/g light 30 ppm co2. Add nutritions, po4 no3 are 1.0 and 20. I also dose 5 ppm extra mgso4 and kso4 weekly and 0.5 additional fe weekly. I've no soil at the bottem. Do i need to feed their roods extra??
can somebody advise me?

Hi,

Sounds like a nutrient deficiency to me, possibly Iron?

BTW, what do you mean by no soil at the bottom?

Is this a bare bottom tank with no substrate?????

When you say you dose weekly 0.5ppm of iron, you only dose once a week?
Try spreading the dose out, 3x a week etc.

Downoi tends to be a more sensitive pl;ant than the others you have, direct the CO2 to this part of the tank also. the plant should do pretty good in plain sand, but if possible adding ADA aqua soil would help.



Regards,
Tom Barr

You have no mention of trace minerals, which are also needed in the
form of Plantex CSM+B, Flourish Comprehensive or Tropica Plant Nutrition.

You need those trace elements for Downoi in addition to N03, P04, Mg, Ca
and good C02.
White leave's indicate poor trace.

Yes i'm running a bare bottem tank gerryd. With ei it should be possible.
*Do i have to add soil?
I also dose 2x de recommended dose of trace-elements (in the netherlands we all buy profito from Easy-life; it seems to be the best to get here, but i'm intending to buy csm-b in the states) .
*About the fe, should i increase the dose? (I dose between 0.5 and 0.75 ppm /w)

Another detail is that the downois seem to get a little greener in there hearts at the end of the week. When i do a ww in the beginning of the week they go back in their colour(pale).
My flow over the tank is high and (almost)all the leaves (i added a hydor pump ) in the tank are "waving"
*Do i have to increase the traces to 3x the recommended dose?

(other plants. C.helferi, r.rotundofelia sp. green and red, riccia, h. polysperma, h. zosteriofolia, some cryptos,l.aromatica, proserpinaca palustris, m.matagrossense, m.fluviatilis are doing very fine)

Gerryd, sorry it is not a bare bottem tank, i read your post wrong. I've as substrate just only filtration sand for swimming pools. No nutrition soils like ada or so.

This is a huge clue and tells me that you are underdosing.

As nutrients accumulate in the tank towards the end of the week, the plants have more to feed upon.

With the weekly reset, you are once again lean..........

I would increase my overall dosing by say 25% and go from there.

Many of us dose more than EI baseline.......

You may also want to dose daily (if possible) as this will also help.

No, you don't have to have a substrate, I was surprised thinking you had a bare bottom tank is all.

Hope this helps.