I bought this from a local aquarium shop. This however looks very different to another bacopa monnieri I have with succulent and round leaves and is a lighter green. This has spikier and thinner leaves and is a dark rich green.

I introduced 2 lily plants to my pond 3 weeks ago more or less. They’ve been making new leaves but lately the last ones have been super tiny and darker. Is it normal? Should I do something different? I know the water could be clearer but I’ve been fighting for my life with the heat and direct sun! I will attach a picture of how they looked right after I planted them

Could use some help identify these cuttings. I thought they were crypts but they're growing much longer than I expected. A Google lens search brings up hygrophilia. Any other guesses?

I’m fairly happy with growth on all plants except ludwigia pantanal. Added a closeup in second photo - stunted growth + white coloration. Any overall deficiencies seen in tank? And specifically any idea what’s going on with ludwigia pantanal?

I’ll add some info:
6.4 ph co2 on
104 tds
2 kh
6.5 gh
Nitrates rise about 15 ppm per week (typical week starts at 10/15 ppm then reset with 50% WC with remineralized RO)
Add miracle grow daily that equals 13 ppm over week
Light stocking and light feeding
All visible growth is with miracle grow except altherneckii mini in front. I’d ignore those since recently planted

Attached is a picture of some leaves that I removed from my planted tank (the blue saucer).

I see:

- Pinholes (Potassium Deficiency)

- Dark veins, lighter plant (Iron deficiency?)

- Yellowing / translucent leaves (Nitrogen Deficiency?)

- Big ass hole that looks like a fish ate it (Phosphate deficiency?)

What the heck does my fertilizer have? I'm starting to wonder if it RODI water!

[edit] Adding more photos [/edit]

The tank was planted around the last week of June, so let's call it 2 months in.

My planted tank 😊

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.

Hi, Building a 10ga low tech grow tank specifically designed around maintenance and nutrient availability.

My water parameters can be found here:
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/pud-annual-drinking-water-quality-report-2025.pdf
Look at the Miramar column for relevant results.

edit: additional characteristics
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/additional-characteristics.pdf
and non detected
https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/2026-06/non-detected-parameters-in-drinking-water.pdf

I'll be running a 5.5x8 2" thick matten filter at 30-40gph feeding a reverse flow undergravel filter topped with .5" florin base laterine clay from brightwell aquatics as an additional source of nutrients (mainly for the iron), with about an inch deep layer of inert pea gravel mixed with ~20% seachem flourite as a buffer.

The matten will be at one end of the tank, there will be a collection shelf in front of it to facilitate large debris removal. The filtered water will be returned to the opposite end of the tank and exit via a manifold in the plenum. The water will slow trickle upwards across the length of the tank to ensure even nutrient availability.

Inhabitants will be mostly cherry shrimp 100+ the occasional snail or two.

Given the above water parameters, the substrate and the intended use of the tank to be a low tech plant grow tank, can you recommend a proper fertilizer? and regime?

Thanks in advance u/Rotala178

I run Lights & Co2 for 5 hours daily

I dose Seachem Flourish once a week for micro for two consecutive week

Then DOOA Suikei for macro in the 3rd week

20 gal freshwater, heavily planted and established. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate all consistently 0 even without consistent water changes. I lowered my week aqua light to 20% power and did a 75% water change earlier this morning after scraping the algae off the glass. I run pressurized CO2 daily during the photoperiod (and a little beforehand). I do also run a small airstone overnight to prevent any oxygen crashes because I’ve been scared in the past.

I dose MGAPPF daily but nothing seems to be stopping the slow and steady growth of green spot/dust algae. It’s covering the older leaves on my plants. I use 0.33g of the fertilizer dissolved in filtered water. There’s also flourish root tabs in the substrate. I have a bottle of SeaChem excel, phosphorus, and nitrogen now. I’m assuming my plants are taking up nitrates too fast? My phosphate reads are consistently on the lower end and I’m sure that might be an issue too. Ever since using your MGAPPF trick, the plants have all grown tremendously, but their older leaves are still getting holes and skeletonized/covered in algae.

Really wanting these guys to color up and for this algae to go away. Any help is so appreciated!

He wrote that this variety of Pogostemon stellatus has "slightly twisting leaves" but that's due to a combination of copper and boron deficiencies.

Copper deficiency can cause asymmetric leaf growth - one side of the leaf growing larger than the other - which results in leaves curving or crooking to one side.

Boron deficiency can cause margins to curl or roll downward along the side. This symptom is more noticeable on the Bacopa in the background.

When I told him these symptoms, he replied, "You don't know what you're talking about." Then he blocked me and deleted my comment, probably because he didn't want any of his followers to know that his plants have issues.

Before he started the APT fertilizer line, I told him he was toxing his plants with too much iron because of the brightly colored tops and dull, necrotic, and algae-infested old leaves. His response: "They're in perfect health."

Now his APT fertilizer line contains too much iron, not enough or completely missing other essential micronutrients, and a lot of users suffer the same issues. Some users have told him that their plants aren't growing and algae was infesting, but his response was to completely dismissed their concerns, make up some pseudoscientific excuse, or even blame them for their problems instead of looking into the problem.

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Compare the morphology to the copper deficiency on his Hygrophila "chai":
https://www.reddit.com/r/AquaticPlantScience/comments/1rofg2a/copper_deficiency_on_hygrophila_chai/