black and green spots on plants

skeletonhand

skeletonhand

Landscaper Extraordinaire
Sep 9, 2006
307
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Lincoln, NE
I have a 55g with 2 65w coralife light fixtures with no CO2 injection (yet). I've had these plants for 3 months now and they are growing but have black spots and dark green spots on the leaves and stems. Anybody have an idea what it is? I thought it was due to poor lighting, so i upgraded the fixtures and add some flourish excel a few times a week.

Thanks for any imput.

SKEL

moneywart black and green 1.jpg moneywart black and green 2.jpg
 
ok it doesnt look like algae. my guess is it needs Fertilizer. when you start off with low light you dont need co2. as you incress the light you start to need to add co2. which you are in the form of excel. as the light increases the plants start to use up all the ferts in the water.

basicly you should start adding PNK and trace. here is a link.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12585
 
I'll try adding some more NPK to the tank. I've been nervous about overdosing, and I think thats kept me from adding enough for the plants. I guess I could slowy increase the amounts and see if the plants do better w/o affecting the fish.

Thanks

SKEL
 
definately looks like a nutrient deficiency to me. what type of bulbs do you have in the coralife fixtures? i have those lights but i had to switch the bulbs because they come with 50/50 (10,000k/actinic) and if thats the case your plants are really only using half of the wattage you are providing them. (total between both lights would be 65watts @ 10,000k) the plants cant use the actinic light for photosynthesis so its basically 32.5 watts from each fixture.
 
I have the 6700K bulbs.

After reading the link that Mgamer gave me (thanks by the way). I saw that people were using greenlight stump remover for N in the aquarium. Since it's 100% potassium nitrate I looked it up on ebay and came up with KNO3 thats used for fireworks and rockets aka technical grade. It runs about 5 bucks a pound (shipping included) and it 99% pure. Has anybody ever used this for N in an aquarium?

Here's the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Potassium-Nitra...oryZ2567QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
 
skeletonhand said:
I have the 6700K bulbs.

After reading the link that Mgamer gave me (thanks by the way). I saw that people were using greenlight stump remover for N in the aquarium. Since it's 100% potassium nitrate I looked it up on ebay and came up with KNO3 thats used for fireworks and rockets aka technical grade. It runs about 5 bucks a pound (shipping included) and it 99% pure. Has anybody ever used this for N in an aquarium?

Here's the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Potassium-Nitra...oryZ2567QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Click to expand...

haha, no never tried the stuff. just dont smoke a cigarette while dosing the tank

oh and how much did you get the bulbs for? i didnt feel like waiting for shipping so i picked up some from my lfs and the bulbs were $30 each. i think i saw them online for $20 though.
 
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I actually bought the freshwater fixtures, so they came with the 6700K bulbs. Much better than the 15W crappy fixtures the tank came with.

The cheapest i've seen bulbs is around 25 bucks. I got the new fixtures about a month ago so I still have some time b4 they need replaced.
 
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Good call. They're cheaper than the KNO3 than I found, and you can buy it buy the pound instead of 5lb increments. Also they're located in IA, only a stones throw away from Lincoln, NE. :-)
 
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skeletonhand said:
I actually bought the freshwater fixtures, so they came with the 6700K bulbs.
Click to expand...

ohhhh my fault, i got a really good deal on mine so i didnt even search for different fixtures and prices. i didnt even know they made them like that
 
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