Not enough iron?

brendonjw · Feb 18, 2023

As per the title. Holes in the leafs of Java ferns and some anubius leafs turning yellow. It's it a lack of iron?
They are in a 240ltr tank that gets 20ml of api leaf zone each week after a water change. Stocking is about 40 guppies. 1 3 spot gurami and 11 Cory's. Should I up the leaf zone to 30 MLS?

JoAgain · Apr 27, 2023

Hope your plants have improved

I've had better luck with tab fertilizers. I use the seachem flourish brand if you ever wanna try it out, I recommend!

Byron · Apr 27, 2023

brendonjw said:
As per the title. Holes in the leafs of Java ferns and some anubius leafs turning yellow. It's it a lack of iron?

No. The black might be nitrogen (ammonia/ammonium), or a general nutrient issue. Same holds for yellow leaves. Yu need a comprehensive (= complete but in correct proportions) liquid fertilizer for the non-substrate rooted plants, and the others will benefit too. Substrate tabs will do nothing for plants not rooted in the substrate, but will help those that are. Flourish Tabs are incredibly good, and the Comprehensive Supplement is a good liquid.

Leaf Zone is iron and potassium. The other 14 or so nutrients are missing. I would certainly not add this with the others, as iron can kill plants and it causes plants to shut down certain other nutrient assimilation. Things have to be balanced.

brendonjw · Apr 27, 2023

Byron said:
No. The black might be nitrogen (ammonia/ammonium), or a general nutrient issue. Same holds for yellow leaves. Yu need a comprehensive (= complete but in correct proportions) liquid fertilizer for the non-substrate rooted plants, and the others will benefit too. Substrate tabs will do nothing for plants not rooted in the substrate, but will help those that are. Flourish Tabs are incredibly good, and the Comprehensive Supplement is a good liquid.

Leaf Zone is iron and potassium. The other 14 or so nutrients are missing. I would certainly not add this with the others, as iron can kill plants and it causes plants to shut down certain other nutrient assimilation. Things have to be balanced.

I've swapped to Seachem Flourish in this tank now (1 capfull a week after water change.) Giving it a few weeks to see, i know it wont repair those leaves but hopefully the new ones don't experience it.

I've also been fighting hair algae so have taped off half of the "Day" light thats 9k (from factory it came with Day 9k and Nature 6.5k bulbs) Lights are on for around 8 hours.

Oh i and i do use root tabs for my stem plants.

Essjay · Apr 27, 2023

That sounds like a Juwel tank? One option would be the expensive one of replacing the Day tube with another Nature tube.

10 Tanks · Apr 27, 2023

brendonjw said:
As per the title. Holes in the leafs of Java ferns and some anubius leafs turning yellow. It's it a lack of iron?
They are in a 240ltr tank that gets 20ml of api leaf zone each week after a water change. Stocking is about 40 guppies. 1 3 spot gurami and 11 Cory's. Should I up the leaf zone to 30 MLS?

Hello. A 63 gallon tank is a good size. Your plants will be fine if you feed your fish a variety of foods that contain Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. Frozen foods fed occasionally are rich in nitrogen. Easy to grow plants like Anubias, don't need any other fertilizer and moderate light is enough. Plants age, just like fish do. When a leaf can no longer digest nutrients it will become discolored and just needs to be clipped from the main plant. Clipping off old leaves stimulates new growth.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

brendonjw · Apr 27, 2023

Essjay said:
That sounds like a Juwel tank? One option would be the expensive one of replacing the Day tube with another Nature tube.

Yep its a Juwel 240, i've gone down the cheap path so far and used electrical tape around the Day tube to block off half of it. TBH i think the single tube would probably be enough but i dont want to take the other out and expose anything in case of rusting.

StevenF · Apr 27, 2023

You probably get better results from your fertilizer by taking your once a week and changing it to by spreading it out over multiple days (5 to 6 smaller doses). So 1/5 to 1/6th of your weekly does About 1 smaller dose per day.

The main reason for this is that the iron ingredient doesn't last long and the other micro nutrients are damaged by any KH in your water. One small dose a day insures you have some nutrient almost every day.

Essjay · Apr 28, 2023

brendonjw said:
TBH i think the single tube would probably be enough but i dont want to take the other out and expose anything in case of rusting.

If Juwel tanks are the same as when I had one back in T8 fluorescent days the light bar won't work with just one tube. Back then the lights wouldn't work if one of the tubes had broken let alone removed.

brendonjw · Apr 30, 2023

Essjay said:
If Juwel tanks are the same as when I had one back in T8 fluorescent days the light bar won't work with just one tube. Back then the lights wouldn't work if one of the tubes had broken let alone removed.

Yeah i thought that might also happen. I might just tape around all of the 9k bulb.

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