Very small new leaves on stemmies. What do you think is up?

[BigWave]

Ca : Mg ratio's in relation to all the other elements is a subject no one has really looked into. Many of us have seen it 1st hand what high gH will do then even on the other side next to no gH. I know in Europe especially the waters there are high in one or the other so many of the commercial fertz are made to acomodate this. In the past I used to mess with all the different elemental ratios and combinations but it seems there is no right combination. We have proven over and over that high or low doses of this or that produce the same results. I personally have started dosing lean with everything including gH and let the nutrient rich soil be the buffer that my plants need. It works for me.

 

[BryceM]

Quick update.....

So, for the most part, things are improving. Everything stemmie (except for R. mac) is looking better. Algae definitely in retreat. My Apon. madagasgariensis is throwing up lots of new growth. So, I think I've convinced myself that I simply had too much Mg, or more precisely, that my Ca/Mg ratio really was an issue.

But....

I induced a moderate amount of crypt melt, which isn't a huge deal (and will happily postpone a needed crypt thinning), and I made my R. mac unhappy, but it's starting to come around too.

So, after lots of though, I did some careful testing of my well water and determined that I'll actually end up about where I want to be by mixing 25% well water and 75% RO. My well water Ca/Mg ratio is close enough to what I'm shooting for that this will end up making life easier, and hopefully reduce one more potential source of problems. Besides, years ago, this is basically what I was doing and it worked pretty well in those days. I'll need to watch the KH over the next few days to make sure my pH controller is set OK.

For reference (as I'm using this as a bit of a restart journal), the well water is right at 300 ppm total GH and about 12 KH with a Ca:Mg ratio of about 3.5:1.

I'll run this a few weeks, and then gradually decrease the light a bit. I don't really want to do both at the same time since it will make sorting out what I'm seeing a bit more difficult.

Photos next time, I promise.

 

[BryceM]

So, an update. I think I'm about 3 weeks in to using a 3:1 RO/well water ratio. So far, things are improving. Switching mixing my own CaSO4/MgSO4/NaHCO3 DIY mix caused a bunch of crypt melt and shocked a few of my stemmies like R. mac and Myrio, but everything else is looking much better. The crypts are settling down and the other plants are recovering.

B caroliniana is looking gorgeouis and even the B. colorata is starting to look like a legit plant.

Next up will be a gradual lighting change to overall lower levels with a full-power 2 hour noon burst. I want to do that, but I didn't want to change too many variables at once.

As promised, some photos:

 

[BryceM]

Another update.

I recently adjusted the photoperiod to run my Chihiros lights at 40% for most of the day and a 100% noon-burst for 2 hours. It's slowed down some of the stemmies, especially R. macrandara, and the red's aren't quite as intense, but the tradeoff for WAY less algae seems good. In these photos you'll see a bunch of alage on older Anubias leaves still, but it's pretty manageable and newer leaves are staying pretty clean. The crypts are recovering from their big melt, and are starting to look better. B. caroliniana is 100% dialed-in, but it's not such a difficult plant. B. colorata is happier, but not perfectly happy. More light would help out this for sure. My Apon. madagasgariensis has gone nuts and has pushed up 5 or 6 ENORMOUS new leaves. They extend basically to the surface now. What a gorgeous plant!

Within the next trim or two I should be able to discard the lower, older portions of the B. colorata and other stemmies that are still harboring some BBA . The scape isn't at all what I'm aiming for. We'll get to that once everything is growing well and I've got it a bit more dialed in.

Again, this substrate is 5 or 6 years old and probably pretty inert at this point. I'm considering doing a gradual swap to something newer. I suspect a richer substrate would improve the look of everything. I think my CO2 has been running too low. I recently calibrated my pH probe and found out it was off by 0.25 and the plants were showing it. I recalibrated and dropped another 0.05 units.

I've got a new "showcase" plant that is coming along. When I get some of the stuff moved out of the foreground, I'll post a photo. Until then, here's a few updates.

 

[BryceM]

So interesting to go back and read this.

Since the last update, I think I've narrowed down the culprit..... at least somewhat.

I do think Ca/Mg ratios were off, and that my recipe for reconstituting the RO wasn't very good. Mixing 3:1 RO and well water has fixed that, and it's easier anyhow.

The other interesting thing is that I was dosing micros with a commercial dry CSM+B mix and sometimes supplementing with some old SeaChem Floruish I had lying around.

Well, it turns out using old Flourish was probably a bad idea. It had a strong tendency to cloud the water and I finally bought a new jug of it. The aquarium's response has been dramatic. Everything looks better now. I'll post a pic when I think about it. Most likely the chelates had degraded. The crypts are getting so tall and thick that they're a nuisance. I'm also seeing much less dying off of older portions of the stemmies.

So, like with most things in this hobby, it takes a long time to see the results of change and there are a lot of variables. Sometimes it's incorrect to make assumptions, but that's my take on it at this point.

 

[BigWave]

it takes a long time to see the results of change and there are a lot of variables

Why I preach about having a journal for each tank. Be it online or notepad. Write everything you do down so as to go back be able to pinpoint things.

 

[Burr740 67]

Why I preach about having a journal for each tank. Be it online or notepad. Write everything you do down so as to go back be able to pinpoint things.

My first few years when I was keeping detailed journals on tpt, cant tell you how many times a problem would come up and I'd look back 6 months to see "what the hell was I doing back when this plant looked good?!" lol

Really a detailed forum journal is even better than meticulous notes because you have pictures to reference along with the details

 

[BryceM]

Completely agree. Simple journaling might not always be uber-exciting to those following along at home, but it keeps everything in one place.