Echinodorus plant problems.

Hello. Can anyone diagnose what's happening with this echinodorus plant leaf.It has tiny holes which is surrounded by a dark film. My water parameters are ammonia 0/ nitrate 0/ nitrate 10ppm. Phosphate is 3ppm. Light runs for 8hrs with a 1 hour ramp up/down.100% power approx 3 hrs. I use root tabs every 6 wks, liquid potassium 10ml 3x aweek liquid iron 5ml 3x per week, tnc complete 10ml 3x aweek. C02 runs at 2bps. Starts up 1hr before light comes,an finishes 1hr before light shuts down. Everything else is thriving.

 

Hi Wayne73
I am not a true plant person and I have zero experience with adding extra CO 2.

I see a big BN pleco. A plant eater on a bad day ,or at least a fish that rasp’s algae off plants on a good day.
I see Siamese algae eaters, another fish that hunts any algae continuously.
I see dwarf rainbow fish. In my opinion they are also hard on plants.

The swords are not a very tough leafed plant.

I wonder if the BN and Siamese algae eaters are getting enough vegetables each week? It may be just the fish scraping the algae off or they are actually chewing a bit to much and damaging the leaves?

Look it’s a beautiful tank but if you don’t mind me saying it the tank has a lot of fish for a planted tank.

 

Just to add, plecos LOVE Echinodorus.

What tabs are you using? With all the fertilizing I don't think it's potassium deficit though.

 

Hiya ! Is this a fairly new plant ? I wonder if it’s just converting and starting to lose older emmersed leaves ? My echinodorus shedded older wider leaves within 6 months and they all grew back a lot slimmer . They looked like this when they started to wilt.

 

Thank you all for your input.Working backwards, the plants are approx 5 month old. As regards to the rainbows I've never yet seen any of them go even close to plants. I accept that the BN or the algae eater may be a little hard on the echinodorus leafs but again never seen them go hard on the plants. I put algae wafers in at least once a week,also courgette once a week. As to the fish population 15 rainbows 10 cardinals 2 clown pleco ( m/f). 1 BN. 1 algae eater. 2 otto. It looks crowded but it's a 55gallon aquarium. Thanks again I wasn't quite sure if it was a nutrient deficiencie.

 

Sorry Wayne73
I did not explain myself very well.
I have been watching Josh Sim videos.

A 7 time aquascaping world champion. He takes 600 pictures of his tank to get the one single winning picture. The fish are an afterthought in his tanks.
By the standards of his stocking your beautiful tank has a lot of fish. His plants don’t grow with fish to get his pictures. The small number of fish are added just for the competition photograph.
What you are doing successfully is have a fish tank and a green box of water garden.

My tanks are nothing compared to what you have.
When hungry my praecox rainbows chew on pothos roots like any fish.

 

Sorry Wayne73
I did not explain myself very well.
I have been watching Josh Sim videos.

A 7 time aquascaping world champion. He takes 600 pictures of his tank to get the one single winning picture. The fish are an afterthought in his tanks.
By the standards of his stocking your beautiful tank has a lot of fish. His plants don’t grow with fish to get his pictures. The small number of fish are added just for the competition photograph.
What you are doing successfully is have a fish tank and a green box of water garden.

My tanks are nothing compared to what you have.
When hungry my praecox rainbows chew on pothos roots like any fish.

Thank you for your praise Flyfisha. I understand I'm trying to balance a few things with a large plant load and fish population. To be totally honest I never realised dwarf neon would turn onto plant leafs. Maybe it's my bad on not understanding the various fish varieties needs. Maybe I'll hold off buying the one plant I really like which would be the, nymphaea tiger lotus plant as a centre piece.thanks again for your input.

 

You should be fine with a tiger lotus as long as you heavily root feed it. Make sure the plecos get enough green veggies and you should be fine. I kept a tiger lotus with a beast of a pleco , he batted it about a bit unknowingly but it still did well.

 

Just something to rule out: are these the oldest leaves that are developing these holes? I only ask because that is the way old sword leaves often look. They grow new leaves and let old leaves get ratty and die. I often trim a leaf or two off my swords when I do my water changes just to keep them looking vibrant.

 

Just something to rule out: are these the oldest leaves that are developing these holes? I only ask because that is the way old sword leaves often look. They grow new leaves and let old leaves get ratty and die. I often trim a leaf or two off my swords when I do my water changes just to keep them looking vibrant.

Hi Mudminnow, no they're not the oldest leaves,it can vary between old and newish leaves. I do a 50% w/change very week, an usually have to trim back all plants in the aquarium approximately every second w/change (2 weeks). If I don't it becomes a jungle.