White leaves?

[Mindcrime121]

Ok, I'm pretty new to freshwater plants and I have a situation... I ran my 20 gallon tank for about a year down south with a couple anubias and java fern with no trouble under the 15W light that came with the cover and 2 more 15W in a double strip fixture from my old Eclypse system in regular city tap water, with about a dozen tetra, 2 cory cats, and one clown loach. Fish thrived, plants and algae fluorished. For the majority of that year I was not there and it ran at my ex room mates place where no maintenance was done other than topping off the water as it got low from evaporation. Finally moved the tank up north to my new place, set it up again with tap water, one of the bulbs died from the eclypse light so I just ran the one that came with the tank and canopy. Plants did fine throughout the cycle process, but then after about 2 months I started seeing the new leaves coming out pale, to the point of almost being white, and then growth seemed to simply stop. Just before this occurred one of the anubias put out a flower. I bought new plant spectrum aruarium bulbs and am running all 3 again, but have still had a leaf or three come out white here and there. After a lot of reading, my conclusion is iron defficiency, and I think adding iron and trace element supliments should resolve the issue and get them growing and greening up again. Can you all tell me what you think? Am I on the right track now? I'm also lookingat a longer term resolution, iron impregnated plant substrate, but want to be sure this will be worth the expense before doing it.

 

[phanmc]

Often times a nutrient deficiency is due to more than just one nutrient, you may want to consider more than just adding iron or traces. I would also include the macros (potassium, nitrates, phosphates). Having a good substrate helps but isn't absolutely necessary if you add ferts to the water.

 

[Mindcrime121]

Lacking a test kit, I can't say for certain, but having cycled the tank with goldfish, having used city water, and having lost my 5 gallon water change jug in the moving around of things, along with my gravelvac, I'd bet the nitrate and phosphate levels are plenty high, no idea about the potassium levels though. Planning to take a nice sample to the LFS to have it all tested ASAP, but local for me is 45 minutes away in another town. I need to buy test kits but they are pricey. Haven't done a water change since it got set back up. My budget is limiting me on how fast I can replace and purchase the things needed to do this job the right way unfortunately, thanks to recent unexpected expenses, but I need to get a jug and start doing water changes. My intent is to use R/O water to better track and control what goes into the tank. I had serious doubts about it being my lighting, but had the opportunity to get decent bulbs so I jumped on it. Should be getting some expendable money to put towards this hobby this week, so I'm trying to nail down the most immidiate factors to preserve what I already have growing before adding to it. Everything I've read seemed to indicate iron sclorossis though. Very possible, even likely, that other things are deficient, hence the trace elelments I planned on buying as well as iron. It will al depend on what this store has to offer when I get there, as I've never been to it before. I'm imagining they will likely have iron and trace element suppliments at the least.

 

[phanmc]

I think your lighting is fine, anymore and you'll need CO2.

Using R/O water means you'll need to reconstitute it with calcium and magnesium. Unless your tap water is unreasonably hard or very acidic I wouldn't worry about it.

Plants use a lot of nitrates, I wouldn't be surprised if the test shows you have low nitrates.

If buying bottled stuff from the LFS I recommend Seachem Flourish, the comprehensive one with pretty much everything in it.

 

[Mindcrime121]

I've read good things about Flourish on this and other forums and was hoping to find it there, or Amano Green Fe (I think that was the name on the 2nd one, need to dbl check that before buying). My concern with tap water is the floride and other unknowns, as well as the possibility of copper from the pipes. I figured if I go with R/O and dose trace elements to put back in what is good for everything I'd be better off, even if it is a bit more work.

 

[Mindcrime121]

Well, I finally got to the FS in Chico and bought a bottle of Flourish, along with an algae control team, a HUGE mopani centerpiece, and more plants. Dosed the tank, so how long should it take for the whitish yellow leaves to start showing some color in them? A few days? A couple weeks? Or should I not expect the existing leaves to color out and simply be looking for new leaves to sprout with better color?