Leaves still turning brown

[southrock]

I posted a few weeks ago about older leaves on stem plants turning brown, and came to the conclusion that I may not have enough light. I have a 180g that had 4 96w PCs, and last week I added 2 more from AH supply - with 6 new reflectors that are pretty cool! The plants are really diggin the new wattage, but older leaves are still turning brown. I re-planted some Bacopa, using the green tops as clippings, and the bottom leaves are turning brown already.

I've read about excess Iron turning leaves brown (Iron chlorosis), so I stopped adding Iron altogether temporarily. There is Laterite in the substrate, I was thinking maybe that might be enough.

I can't seem to find many details about Iron chlorosis, and I don't really know if I'm barking up the wrong tree. I've noticed that there aren't too many threads about this sort of thing - alright, none - so I'm wondering if I'm doing something drastically wrong.

I mentioned tank size and lights, co2 injected 20-30 ppm, kno3 & k2so4, rotation of Flourish and Flourish Traces, temp between 80 and 82.

I'm stumped.

-SR

 

[southrock]

okay, maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree.

-SR

 

[djlen]

I don't know that what you're experiencing isn't the norm for stem plants. They seem to grow well on top and kind of wither and lose their leaves on the bottom. A while back, Tom Barr posted a thread in which he said that he periodically pulls the stem plants out of the substrate and cuts off the tops and replants them. I tried it and it works really well for me. They seem fuller and neater. I got sick of looking at brown stems on the bottom.
Len