plants have yellow edges and real green veins, what should I use?

[sunmiztres]

I have plants that have yellow edges and brown around that, these are on my old leaves. I then have plants that turn whitish and the veins show through, most of these leaves are old ones also. I read that it could be calcium or magnesium deficiency. I already use flourish, flourish w/ iron, excel, trace, potassium, & phosphorus. what else can I use to stop this with my plants. I didn't see a seachem product with magnesium or calcium. Unless it's in the trace or flourish products. I follow the dosing chart from this site.
Any info you can give would be greatly appreciated.

[Tech Support CH]

It sounds like a magnesium deficiency. I would recommend to test your general hardness (GH). The minimal GH I recommend is 100 ppm. We do have a GH supplement. It is called Equilibrium.

[sunmiztres]

My Gh is 120. Any other ideas?
thanks

[Tech Support CH]

We will have to a bit more investigating here. Let me ask you a few questions.

Which plants are effected?
What is your KH?
pH?
Nitrate?
Phosphate?
Do you add CO2?
What lights do you use wattage and spectrum?
How old are your light bulbs?
What size is your aquarium?
How deep is it from the lights to the top of the substrate?
What substrate do you have?
What fertilizers do you add? How much? And how often?
Do you use carbon in your filter?
Do you use tap water?

The answers to these questions should help us figure out what is occurring in your aquarium.

[sunmiztres]

Which plants are effected? usually the sword plants, and the large leaf plants.
What is your KH? 110
pH? 7.0
Nitrate? 30
Phosphate? don't know, don't have a test kit
Do you add CO2? yes pressurized co2 system
What lights do you use wattage and spectrum? i have 3 watts per gallon and they are 6500K
How old are your light bulbs? about 2 months old
What size is your aquarium? 80 and a 55 gallon
How deep is it from the lights to the top of the substrate? about 18 inches
What substrate do you have? seachem onxy and flourite
What fertilizers do you add? How much? And how often? I add the line of seachem flourish products except nitrogen, my nitrate is always running high. read that you shouldn't add nitrogen if you have high nitrate, is this true? I follow the dosing schedule from this site.
Do you use carbon in your filter? yes
Do you use tap water? yes with conditioner

Thanks for your help

[Tech Support CH]

Sword plants are generally grown emersed before they are sold to the pet industry. The emersed leaves will usually die off when the plant is submerged. If your swords are new this is probably the reason for problems with your older leaves having problems.

Sword plants are heavy root feeders. And as such they will benefit greatly from having a Flourish Tab placed at their base every 3-4 months. This will provide many of the required nutrients right to the roots where they can use it.

I would recommend you have your phosphate tested. Although you are adding it, you may not be adding enough for your plants growth.

Are there any small pin holes in your sword leaves? This is a sign of potassium deficiency and you will want to increase your Potassium dosing. Also yellowing of the edges is also a sign.

The carbon in your filter may pull out some of the trace elements that you are adding. You may want to switch to a media like Purigen which will not impact the trace elements as much.

If none of the above advice works you may want to look at your water source for a possible contaminant that is causing your problems.

[sunmiztres]

Can I use Purigen with seachem prime. It says not to use anything with a slime coat in it or the Purigen can become toxic and I know that Prime has a stress coat in it. Is this true?
Thanks for your replies.

[Tech Support CH]

You can use Purigen with Prime.

The problem that you have heard of occurs during the regeneration process. There is a step after the bleach solution that you will soak the Purigen in a dechlorinator solution. If you use a dechlorinator that has an amine based polymer the amine will combine with the chlorine and form chloramine. Prime does not have an amine based polymer. This is a strong irritant that causes fish to produce a slime coat. Prime uses a mild stimulant to encourage the fish to produce a slime coat. We recommend Prime to be used as the dechlorinator in the regeneration process.

You can use a dechlorinator that has a amine based polymer in your aquarium, just not in the regeneration process.

[sunmiztres]

Thanks so much for the help. I also ordered a Phosphate test.
One more question. Is it true that if you have a high nitrate reading you don't need to use nitrogen supplements?
Thanks again.

[Tech Support CH]

You are welcome. Yes, if you have nitrates than you do not need to add Flourish Nitrogen. The same is true of phosphates and Flourish Phosphorous.