# pogostemon stellata help



## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi Samee,

I understand that you do EI dosing; are you doing your 50% water changes? The reason I ask is I grew P. stellatus and I found that if my Mg / Ca dropped it would show similar deficiency issues. My water here is Seattle is very soft, and it is easy for my plants to use up all of the available Mg / Ca in my tank if I am not conscientious about doing my water changes. Now I add a little Seachem Equilibrium to the tank when I do a water change and try to keep my hardness at about 2.0 dKH and 6.0 dGH.

Pogostemon stellatus









Pogostemon erectus


----------



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

Thank you for the quick reply. I do about 30 to 40% water change every weekend. I dont have any kits to measure the levels of anything, so asked if someone who did, in similar situation, could help  So it might be a reduction to Mg / Ca. Ive done a few water changes while it was growing well, so my water hardness/softness is not an issue (I hope). My co2 levels have been the same too.


----------



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

CO2.

That's the issue.


----------



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

plantbrain said:


> CO2.
> 
> That's the issue.


Really? I suppose its too low? I have the co2 indicator and I have to saw its been more of light green to light yellow lately. I think Ill move the timer to 1 hour back because in the morning my co2 isnt enough.


----------



## griffin_pak (Jul 21, 2008)

samee said:


> Really? I suppose its too low? I have the co2 indicator and I have to saw its been more of light green to light yellow lately. I think Ill move the timer to 1 hour back because in the morning my co2 isnt enough.


please do your water changes at night time and not during the day, as co2 levels drop big time at 50% change

you've been told this by a wise man before sam!


----------



## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Samee,
> 
> I understand that you do EI dosing; are you doing your 50% water changes? The reason I ask is I grew P. stellatus and I found that if my Mg / Ca dropped it would show similar deficiency issues. My water here is Seattle is very soft, and it is easy for my plants to use up all of the available Mg / Ca in my tank if I am not conscientious about doing my water changes. Now I add a little Seachem Equilibrium to the tank when I do a water change and try to keep my hardness at about 2.0 dKH and 6.0 dGH.
> 
> ...


I had a similar issue with my broad leaf and normal leaf variant of this plant. 




plantbrain said:


> CO2.
> 
> That's the issue.


You sure? I was getting the exact same stunting out of mine even with the drop checker yellow and the co2 just under the limit for the fish. As soon as I started dosing Calcium and Magnesium weekly the stunting stopped.


----------



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

griffin_pak said:


> please do your water changes at night time and not during the day, as co2 levels drop big time at 50% change
> 
> you've been told this by a wise man before sam!


I do all my water changes during the day, never once had an issue.


----------



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Noahma said:


> I had a similar issue with my broad leaf and normal leaf variant of this plant.
> 
> You sure? I was getting the exact same stunting out of mine even with the drop checker yellow and the co2 just under the limit for the fish. As soon as I started dosing Calcium and Magnesium weekly the stunting stopped.


We assume they where doing correctly to begin with and doing EI dosing, which includes GH booster (Ca and Mg), if you look at the OP's post.

I've grown more of this weed that I can shake a stick at, it's a very easy plant to grow.........if the CO2 is good and you are using EI.

There's a lot more to CO2 than mere Drop checkers, I think those stink personally. Good current, flow, filtration, routine cleaning etc, surface scum(or not), trimming the plants well/before they start to really block flow etc etc.

Folks get hasty with CO2 and assume too much. 
Then they gas their fish or look in the wrong areas for answers.

You should only adjust CO2 very slowly up/down to change it. 
A good ripple on the water's surface, but not enough to break the water's surface is a good idea.

I run about 60ppm of CO2 in this tank:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3VNwfNtNA0

My tap water is very soft and lacks much GH. I dose about 2x a week, 3 teaspoons of GH booster to this tank. You can see the current, you can see the high fish load and it's obvious they are well fed. 

Ammannia gracilius is far more touchy supposedly regarding Ca/Mg and CO2, but looky:










I've grown plenty of P stellata in this same tank and in my 120. The P stellata gets as large as the Ammannia above. It's not a picky plant. 

CO2 and light are where it is at.

Reducing the intensity can really help, or mastering CO2.
If you want to learn how to grow anything and do it well, master CO2, measure it well, adjust it well etc. Light is fairly easy and straight forward and so is dosing ferts.

This leaves other issues like current, filtration, routine care(trimming, cleaning, staying on top of these things is very important over time).
Stunted new growth is virtually always a CO2 issue. 

I've never seen a verified Ca deficiency to date. 
Mg? Yes, but not Ca. Not saying it cannot happen, but it'd be very very rare.

CO2 has far more issues and likelihood. I dosed ample Ca/Mg for a long time (this stayed the same thus independent) and I also got that exact same tip growth and it was CO2. I checked the CO2 real good, yep.

Had to take my own advice. Crow tasted good.:icon_redf 

It could be, but if they dose EI, and dose the GH booster as I suggest......then that can be ruled out easily.

This leaves CO2 by deduction.


----------



## Crispino L Ramos (Mar 29, 2008)

samee said:


> Hey guys, a few weeks ago I bought the aromatica and stellata. Both were growing nicely until suddenly my stellata crumpled up.
> 
> 45 gal, injected co2, EI dosing, 2.9 watts/gal T8s. The only thing I can come up with is that my nutrients might have fallen short. This week I dosed in larger quantities.


The 'crumpled up' look is a signal that the top of the plant is going to send out new branches.


----------



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

Thank you for the detailed responses guys. Tom, my ammannia looks like that as well. Really big, red and sometimes a little pinkish. I have to say it might be my co2 after all then. Ill adjust it slowly and report back in a week or two. The flow in my tank is good. I have the filter flow plus a power head. My co2 goes through the ph and comes out as a mist. My gravel has alot of debris in it. Now sure what its called. Since its so planted, I cant siphon properly. The places that are exposed I stir up and pull out all the crud, whatever it is. but I suspect thats part of the problem.


Crispino, I really hope so, that would be great 


Heres a pic from July of the ammannia


----------



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

Well heres an update.

So it seems Crispino was the closest to being correct, I think. I just got new leaves but its still weird, so Im going to wait a bit before concluding whats happening. The aromatica and stell both have wider leaves now.  Is 2.9 watts per gallon not enough for them? T8s, 6500k. My aromatica are a little bit yellow and very reflective purple from underneath. The leaves lower down are green. Again, its too early to tell, Ill have to wait for the second generation to tell a better story.

Another thing I wanted to mention. Ive been growing Proserpinica Palustris for a few months now but they are not saw tooth like. They become nice reddish but no saw. I guess 2.9 w/g is too low. But then just this week I noticed the new growth is very saw like.

Pics to show the conditions


----------



## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

I give up with this stupid aromatica. 1 more week before I cut it up and make a salad out of it.


All the pics in this thread are during the time i had t8 shop lights, EI dosing and pressurized co2.

Now I have t5ho, Ei dosing + iron!!! + pressurized co2. My aromatica are so frikkin green. The plant load is very little compared to before. Its either Im not dosing enough nutrients or the bulbs on my fixture are garbage. My co2, like Barr and others have said is vital, it in check. Everytime I look at my indicator, its yellow. Today it was dark yello and my CAE was on the top gasping for oxygen (I hooked up a air pump when I saw this at the end of the day, fish is fine now). Im just trying to figure out whats the missing piece. Its been a week since I started dosing Iron, Ive never dosed iron + trace before. So I was hoping the iron would help bring colours.

Edit: GH booster? That increases hardness?


----------

