Help Stripes on rotala, is it a deficiency?

[riioKen]

If it were me, I would be doing a major reset of the tank. Clean all the algae off the back wall

The green at back is a "poster" (I can't remove it, seems glued on the back), I regularly clean glass with a credit card (for GSA, its 2 week without cleaning glass and the GSA isn't coming back, there is GSA on left side of the tank that I haven't cleaned due to outflow and intake placed, this week I try to remove as much as I can)

remove any dead/decaying plant matter, trim off poor old growth

I plan to do it this weekend,

In the end I don't think you are far off, and IMO poor CO2 is likely your biggest issue.

Maybe you're right about CO2. It's always hard to control it properly.

As to light, do you have any idea of what PAR that is producing at the substrate? It would be helpful to know. Both too much and too little can cause issues.

It's a chihiros WRGB2 Slim60 on a 35 height tank.

I'll follow the tips that all of you gave to me, and I try to update the post hopefully with good news in the next weeks.

 

[Yugang]

I have a question btw. My tap water is hard (around 10gh and kh8), tropica soil lower kh to 3. When I do a 50% WC, the kh swing to kh4-5 for 1 day, then it decrease again to 3. This swing can lead to this problems?

IMO poor CO2 is likely your biggest issue.

Indeed a combination of kH = 3 and high degassed pH is unlikely. With KH 3 you expect pH degassed around 7.3, definitely not at 8.

When KH is not stable, using pH as a proxy for CO2 is meaningless. The obvious sanity check imo is to get a drop checker, this will take out all the guessing about KH and chemistry, and gives you a pretty good idea if the CO2 is at a reasonable level.

When drop checker is indicating something that you're happy with, lime green or perhaps yellowish green, then you can dig deeper and use pH profiling for checking stability.

 

[GreggZ]

The green at back is a "poster" (I can't remove it, seems glued on the back),

LOL I thought that was a bunch of algae on the glass!! Makes sense now.

 

[riioKen]

I want to proceed by step, but, considering that I'm starting a new tank (330 litres in the living room) I'm thinking in invest into RO system. I thought about Arka MyAqua 1900, do you think that this way I'll be able to control more my water and improve the heathy of the plants or is not needed?

Maybe i can cut with 50% of tap or similar. Can you give me some tips? I don't have experience with ro systems

 

[Burr740]

The plants that you currently have just need better maintenance and ferts tweaked a little bit, and co2 kept right. RO water is not going to change that.

If you want to start growing more sensitive plants that need soft water then sure RO water will help the cause. But all of the above will still apply and even more so with more demanding plants. My advice would be spend more time learning how to successfully run what you have. RO will be fine if you want to go that route but its not some magical fix.

Raise the ferts and clean things up a bit. Check and double check co2. Give it a couple months and see whats happening then

 

[riioKen]

If you want to start growing more sensitive plants that need soft water then sure RO water will help the cause. But all of the above will still apply and even more so with more demanding plants.

Okok, I don't want to overcomplicate it more than it is. The only thing that concern me is that the soil is decreasing the kh of the water to 3 (from natural 8), will plants be affected by this? When in future the soil exhaust its capacity to buffer water, and the kh increase again to 8, will this value bother plants?

As I said, I'm setting up a new tank, and I'm searching new plants, the water will be the same.

I have attached plants that I like, are this one more picky? Can you suggest me the quantity?

 

[Burr740]

Just keep the co2 good and dont worry about the KH or when the soil stops doing its thing. Take a look at Tsing's journal. His KH is around yours maybe even higher. None of those plants you listed are gonna care

But...you might as well save your money on the Rotala sunset and Florida TC. They will both be something else. The Florida might actually be Florida but the Sunset will 100% be cuphaea or something else

Try to have a good amount of your existing, already submerged growing plants to go in the mix when you start the new tank. Doing one from scratch with all TC is tough because on the initial converting period and the die off that comes with it. Try to have at least half submerged plants even if you dont plan to keep them long term

 

[riioKen]

Try to have a good amount of your existing, already submerged growing plants to go in the mix when you start the new tank. Doing one from scratch with all TC is tough because on the initial converting period and the die off that comes with it. Try to have at least half submerged plants even if you dont plan to keep them long term

Yeah, I want to fix everything in this tank, because I plan to transfer most plants in the bigger tank, but only if healthy.

Take a look at Tsing's journal. His KH is around yours maybe even higher. None of those plants you listed are gonna care

Great, I'll check his journal for sure.

But...you might as well save your money on the Rotala sunset and Florida TC. They will both be something else. The Florida might actually be Florida but the Sunset will 100% be cuphaea or something else

Well, you could be right, but on the site that I plan to buy from, its stated exactly what you said, but they are proud to have the "correct" plant

 

[Burr740]

They arent the first to say that Try it and let us know. It'll be the first Sunset to ever come in tc. I hope it is...

You should make a journal for these tanks of yours. Around here they call em build threads. Its a great way to learn and get feedback and have others learn too. Plus you will find it very useful to look back on down the road. Its like having your own personal notes with dates and pictures

 

[Freshflora]

They arent the first to say that Try it and let us know. It'll be the first Sunset to ever come in tc. I hope it is...

You should make a journal for these tanks of yours. Around here they call em build threads. Its a great way to learn and get feedback and have others learn too. Plus you will find it very useful to look back on down the road. Its like having your own personal notes with dates and pictures

Aquasabi has always looked really promising to me. They link directly to Flowgrow for plant info. If any retailer actually had Sunset my money would be on them or Tropica. But Burr is right that you shouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t the actual plants .

 

[Burr740]

The pic of the little cup does looks promising. Might be legit

 

[riioKen]

Aquasabi has always looked really promising to me.

Yeah, seems a very good site, for sure in Europe is the one with the most "rare" plants.

The pic of the little cup does looks promising. Might be legit

I'll let you know probably the next week.

 

[riioKen]

About the light (for the new tank), I have right now Week Aqua P900 with an hanging kit, will it be enough? Or maybe something like WRGB2 Pro90/120 will be better?

Just a new update of the growth, after only half week

 

[riioKen]

New update about water chemistry, I bought a good GH test, tested the tank water before WC and the result is GH 7.5

My assumption, that my GH in the tap is 11 or more is due calculating Ca and Mg from the analysis. But I never tested my GH (while the kh, yes).

 

[Unexpected]

About the light (for the new tank), I have right now Week Aqua P900 with an hanging kit, will it be enough? Or maybe something like WRGB2 Pro90/120 will be better?

Just a new update of the growth, after only half week

If the WA is long enough, I’d personally stay with it.

 

[riioKen]

If the WA is long enough, I’d personally stay with it.

It's 90cm vs the tank that is 110, photo for reference.

 

[Unexpected]

It's 90cm vs the tank that is 110, photo for reference.

I honestly think that’s fine.

Here was mine with just 2 lights and you have less gap than I had.

 

[riioKen]

I have increased photoperiod to 6h at 70%
After 2 days I can clearly see hair algae on limnophila aromatica leaves, bacopa caroliniana and AR rosanervig.

Can be attributed to lack of CO2?

 

[Burr740]

Yes, no, maybe. Leaves that are not happy get algae. You have a lot going on, several changes taking place. Make sure the co2 is good like has been discussed. Do the cleaning and maintenance stuff. Raise the ferts up a notch. Then just be patient. Manually remove anything that pops up in the meantime