Question on Dosing Mg + Ca

[imhandy2]

I'm just surprised none of those crypts melted on me.

Roan

Roan or anyone, when crypts melt, is that due to a potassium or calcium deficiency. The reason I am asking is that I am also getting the same affect with my tiger lotus, starts out as pin holes then spreads, some leaves on a small lotus that I uprooted and repositioned seems to be not growing or growing very-very slowly and laying on the substrate lifeless.

Any Ideas what is deficient when hygro leaves get the twisties?


Terry.

 

[daveedka]

Crypt melt is the result of looking at them crosseyed. No really Crypts do not like changes in anything, and will melt when things are changed regardless. Some folks have almost no trouble while other have a lot of problems. it's just the nature of Crypts.

Pottassium defeciency will cause piin holes, and Tiger lotus can be a picky plant IMO. I find that if anything disturbs a lotus it will melt away. If the roots are well planted it will come back, but if they are exposed or messed with they will die off completely. This is just my experience with tiger lotus, and i seem to have more trouble than most folks.
Dave

 

[Roan Art]

ROFL! I was just going to say pretty much the same thing, Dave

I pulled a crypt out of my 75g and threw it in another 75. It floated there for a week and then I planted it. It grew. Dunno why, but it did. I abused it. It should have melted and it didn't. Maybe it didn't out of spite. Dunno

Reminds me, I have pictures of the twisted vals I want to post. Stay tuned

Roan

 

[daveedka]

This has always struck me as odd, but Crypts do not seem to melt when floating around in the tank. But when you plant them, and then change something they melt very well. It's another one of the wonderful oddities of crypts I guess.
Dave

 

[Roan Art]

These are my current readings. I've very lightly added some DIY CO2 to this 20g:

pH 7.1
KH 3
Ca 40ppm
GH 10
Mg 19
CO2 8ppm

These are the twisted and pale vals:

These are my aromatica plants in that tank. The first one is how they looked before I started increasing the Ca and Mg. that particular plant is starting to show a LOT more red now:

And these two looked like the one above, but these are a week after ensuring upping the Mg and ensuring Ca is never below 40ppm:

I'm going to start increasing the Ca this week and see if it helps the vals out.

Roan

 

[imhandy2]

When I started dosing CaCl(calcium cloride), I started because I was getting the twisties on my alternanthera reineckii. At the time If O remember correctly from the tap my Ca = 20mg/l. I slowly upped it to 120 and I was still getting the twisties. I since trashed the plant due to frusteration and it was just a messy stem. Looking back maybe I should have bumped up my Mg a bit? I now keep my Ca at around 60 and my Mg around 40 and now thinking of dropping my Ca to around maybe 30 ish and see how my crypts fair out.


Terry.

 

[Roan Art]

I ended up taking a pair of scissors to the vals a few days ago. I decided that rather than have them try to fix the twisted ones -- some of the really pale ones were melting -- I would cut all of those off and try to get the plants to concentrate on growing new leaves. I do see some new leaves sprouting and they look good so far, however it isn't until they get about 1-2" tall that they start to twist and melt. I'm going to up the DIY CO2 in this tank in a couple of days. I need to get the kids to drink some more Gatorade

The aromatica in the tank is awesome. The water sprite in there is total heaven and my elatine triandra has TOTALLY gone wild. I started with maybe 4 little plantlets (hard to get and expensive) and three of them have multiplied and are taking up a 1x1" space each in the gravel. The fourth one has finally started to spread out a bit. I thought I was gonna lose those guys.

As an aside, I've been very religious over the past week with my BGA ridden 75g Boesemani tank. I've been dosing Odd and Even (EI) and I'm VERY happy to report that the BGA is totally in check and not spreading. In fact, although it may be just wishful thinking, it almost seems to be receding somewhat. I've been trying really hard not to test the nitrates et al in that tank. I'm afraid I might swoon if I do Can't be too bad in there, though, I've three new Goo obo fry hopping around the bottom

Roan