Wisteria help

happychem

redorkulated
Dec 9, 2003
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Halifax, NS
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My wistria's not doin' so hot. The new leaves come in fine, but the old ones get a little yellow/brown arond the edges and curl in like a cramping hand. The only thing that I can think of is low traces.

Is it possible to harm the inhabitants by adding too much trace mix?

Params: (tested this morning, just after lights on)
NO3: 5ppm - dosed to bring to 10ppm
PO4: 0.25ppm - upped to ~1ppm
KH: 60ppm
pH: 7.0
NH3 = NO2
yeah, CO2 is a little low (about 10ppm), I just changed the water Saturday evening, so it's creeping back up.

Inhabitants:
MTS' and Rams Horns
3 Otos
2 Albino Cories

The other plants:
Sunset hygro
java moss & fern
egeria densa
riccia
echino. tenellus, parviflorus & red flame (I think)

are all doing very well. Any help is appreciated.
thanks.
 
Anyone?

How about K? I am dosing KNO3, so I doubt it, but then, what else is there?

In other news,
I think the brown algae stage has passed, well, that and the Oto's eat pretty much any trace of it. Starting to get a little beard algae, particularly on java fern leaves. All the infested ones were removed. I'm starting to consider a bleach bath for the rest if the algae gets any worse.
 
Honestly, I'm not that sure. My wisteria grows like a weed - with a pretty low Co2 concentration.

I don't see how many wpg you have....but if your riccia is doing well (provided you're not floating it) then I would expect the wisteria to be doing well.

Sorry I couldn't help...

EDIT: Just looked - you have 80 over that 33g? Def. enough for wisteria.
 
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Hey Leo,
thanks for getting back. I've been doing some reading like Chuck Gadd's nutrient deficiency chart and one on Aqua Botanic and the symptoms definitely look like a K deficiency. I'll have to make a point of getting ahold of some KCl and see if dosing that helps any. It may be that the wisteria is just showing the symptoms faster than the other plants.

Actually, now I've technically got 104 over the tank (2x40W shop and a 24W that came with the tank) But the shop light hangs over about 6" on either side and the reflector is just mirrored mylar. The 24W that came with the tank is just a white plastic reflector. So all in all, decent lighting, but I don't think that it really qualifies as a 3wpg tank. Although, perhaps I should remove the 24W...
 
How heavily stocked with fish is the tank?

Actually, white is one of the best reflectors, after polished chrome that comes with many light kits.

Len
 
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IME (which is limited with plants!) sunset hygro grows faster than wisteria and E.densa grows about the same as wisteria. Nutrient deficiencies show sooner in fast growing plants. That said, I would think the sunset hygro is taking up nutrients quicker than the wisteria can and I would expect the wisteria to show nutrient deficiencies first.
 
Agreed, sunset hygro definitely grows more quickly, which doesn't help to solve the mystery.

The egeria is new though, and just a single stem. To make matters worse, it's a recovery job to start with, so it's not very useful in diagnoses.

The E. tenellus are starting to get yellow/brown at the top/edge of the oldest/tallest leaves. Whatever's wrong, it's persisting.

I replaced the yeast-CO2 generator this morning. Hopefully that will get my CO2 levels up. This one's got much less gelatin than the last, so it should have a higher output.
 
Try pushing the KNO3 up to 15ppm, keep the P @ 1.0 and top off the K(with KCl) at 1/2 dose. Just dose the KCl after your weekly water change.
Push the CO2 as hard as possible.
Add another bottle of Yeast mix. Put a 'T' in the line. Change one bottle every week to maintain at least 20 - 25ppm.
The key word there is maintain. If you are dosing at water change and again(for the elements that need it) at mid-week, you should be able to keep your parameters at peak levels.

Len
 
Will do! I just added a new 1 gallon bottle @ 4 cups sugar for the gallon this morning. It's pumpin' pretty good right now. I'll see what the CO2 is tomorrow morning and pick up a T-junction and hook up an extra 2L bottle if it needs boosting, I was considering it already, but I'm hoping that by adding the new bottle, I'll be able to get and keep the levels higher that the 14ppm I was getting before.
 
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