What is this on leaves?

[naturegrl]

Just added a few bunches of rotala to my tank yesterday. Just noticed some light colored dusty stuff on some of the leaves. I pulled the plant out to see if I could rub it off but it doesn't budge. feels a little rough. The specs are tiny so I hope you can see them in the pictures.

How worried should I be? Should I just pull them out?





What could it be?

 

[naturegrl]

I should add that the only fish I have that have ever spawned are my rams and their eggs are much bigger that these specs.

 

[Fordtrannyman]

Where did you get the Ludwigia 'X' repens?

Looks like some type of residue. Possible herbicide/insecticide dip?>?>

 

[naturegrl]

Hmmmm, I thought this was rotala. Anyway, they came from one of my lfs. I've purchased many plants from them before.

Insecticide????

Are these not aquatic plants?

 

[Blueiz]

Hmm... do the specs rub off? Did you do a bleach dip or anything on them? If it was pesticides the fish would be dead.

 

[tanker]

Looks like from a high light no nutrient tank. Plant pulled all the carbon from the water leaving behind a calcium deposit on the plant.

 

[naturegrl]

Boy, I don't know how I get so lucky with all the weird stuff.

I've never heard of this happening before--pulling carbon from the water and leaving a calcium deposit on the leaves.

Has anyone else seen this?

Should I just leave it and see what happens?

 

[tanker]

Trying to remember my chem.

If there is too little carbon in water and your water is hard, carbon is pulled from calcium carbonate in water, leaveing calcium deposits on the leaves.

 

[naturegrl]

Strange. Why don't my other plants have these spots then? My lfs doesn't use co2 but I have somewhere between 15-28ppm. Hard to tell with the chart. I have a drop checker coming in the mail soon.

Hope its not eggs from some kind of weird creature.

 

[Amphiprion]

Can Ludwigia use biogenic decalcification? I didn't think they were one of the plants that could...

Anyway, they are able to chemically strip CO2 from HCO3-, basically leaving behind a hydroxyl ion, which creates a small area of increased pH surrounding plant leaves. The zone of increased pH lowers the solubility of the rest of the CaCO3 in solution, creating a white, flaky crust on leaves.