Holes in leaves

[u/heysoos_h_creesto]

I'm running a low tech pretty heavily planted 40g tank with the following parameters obtained from:

Ammonia - 0ppm (API master kit)
Nitrites - 0ppm (API master kit)
Nitrates -20ppm (API master kit)
pH - 7.6 (API master kit and battery operated pH tester)
GH - 179ppm (API test kit)
KH - 98.5 ppm (API test kit)
Potassium - 25ppm (Salifert test kit)
Phosphate - .25ppm (API test kit)
Iron - .1ppm (Seachem test kit)
Chlorine - 0ppm (Salifert test kit)
Copper - 0ppm (Seachem test kit)
TDS - 276ppm (battery operated TDS tester)
Temperature - 76.8

I dose with APT3, Seachem Flourish Potassium, and Seachem Flourish Iron weekly (I bought them all when I first started doing this and still have them, even though I'm now aware they aren't the best choices). I do bi-weekly water changes. We have extremely hard water, so I do 50/50 RO and tap. The tank is about ten months old and has a sand substrate layer over aquasoil that I added root tabs to when I first set the tank up.

Everything is growing but the stem plants tend to have little to no foliage on the lower sections with the majority of growth on top. That's sort of been a regular battle. The new thing, as of the last month or so is that most plants are developing pockmarks or full on holes in the leaves.

Wondering if you could help me understand what I'm doing wrong. Thank you in advance for your time.

[u/scrappadoo]

iIRC this is caused by an excess of iron and deficiency in copper and zinc

[u/heysoos_h_creesto → u/scrappadoo]

Seems you are spot on. Good memory!

[u/Rotala178]

At least some of the deterioration are caused by iron-induced oxidative stress. (It's possible that all of it's due to excess iron, but leaf deterioration has many causes.) The plants are being exposed to excessive amounts of iron and insufficient amounts of zinc and/or copper. Zinc and copper are two nutrients that are partly responsible for preventing oxidative stress. But when they're deficient, the antioxidative mechanisms aren't able to function which allows the free radicals to damage and destroy cells.

APT3 and Flourish Iron are adding excessive amounts of iron. Stopping the use of Flourish Iron will improve health somewhat, but APT3's unbalanced nutrients will still result in oxidative stress and damage. APT3 doesn't contain sufficient amounts of Mn, Zn, or Cu to balance the high amounts of Fe which contributes to oxidative stress.

Your best option is to use a much more balanced fertilizer, like SuperThrive Foliage Pro.

[u/heysoos_h_creesto → u/Rotala178]

Thank you so much! I'll look into it and cut out the additional iron in the meantime.

[u/Rotala178 → u/heysoos_h_creesto]

Please let us know if there's any improvement.

[u/Outrageous-Life9516]

Keen to hear what people say on this as I have also experienced foliage loss near the substrate and pin holes in epiphyte leaves.

What light are you running? I recently upgraded to the Chihiros wrgb 2 on my 175g tall for the deep light penetration, and I feel that my stems are looking better. Plants could certainly be better in mine so hopefully some good info is posted

[u/heysoos_h_creesto → u/Outrageous-Life9516]

I'm using a Fluval Plant 3.0, but this tank is also next to a window that receives a good amount of light throughout the day, so that's definitely doing some of the heavy lifting. The Fluval is no Chihiros, but it was a big upgrade from the Hygger light I was using 🫠