Melting leaves on downoi

[chris_todd]

I planted some of the downoi we got from Viktor into a nano I had bought from Aaron, which has mineralized soil with ADA Amazonia on top. THis morning, as I was adding some Excel (no CO2 yet), I noticed a few of the lower leaves looking melted (just like crypt melt). Anyone know what causes this? Given the substrate, and that the tank is only a week or so old, I can't imagine there are nutrient deficiencies, and it has plenty of light.

I have not yet done a water change, and there are no fish or shrimp in the tank yet, just a few very small snails that apparently came in on the plants.

[eleontie]

Downoi melted every time I tried to plant it ( more than one tank) . I believe water hardness has a very important role for this plant. As I remember it needs softer water.

Eugen

[Judi]

Whenever I've transplanted Downoi from my nano to my 20 high, I've noticed that it goes through an acclimation period during which the lower leaves don't exactly melt, but don't look too happy either. Maybe that's what's going on here?

When I first planted Downoi in my nano, it took a very long time to really take off. It did better with diy co2 than just Excel, and the combination of co2 and Excel really made it go nuts.

[SCMurphy]

Downoi does not need soft water.

[ingg]

Downoi is one of those tempermental plants for me.

Plant it once, melts. Plant it twice, melts. Plant it again, goes insane.... all in the same tank in the space of a coupla monts. It sometimes just gets angry, and I've never understood why!

One good trick I learned from... was either Sean or Ghazanfar... it readily floats and grows. If you are getting smaller stems, float them a while and they thicken up, then plant.

[chris_todd]

Thanks everyone for the info!

Judi, I'm definitely getting melting, rather than just looking ragged. Interestingly, we planted some in Amy's nano, which has EC capped by ColorQuartz, and it hasn't started melting yet that we can see. Nearly identical conditions, otherwise, though her tank is a little more mature (2-3 months old, instead of one week).

Sean and Eugen, it almost doesn't matter whether Downoi requires soft water or not, I refuse to go to the effort of softening or hardening water for my fish or plants. They'll get my tap water and like it, or I'll grow something else, LOL. It's just too much of a pain to customize my water, and at some point I'm guaranteed to screw it up and kill everything.

Dave, interesting tip on the floating first - I may try that.

[dSerk]

it almost doesn't matter whether Downoi requires soft water or not, I refuse to go to the effort of softening or hardening water for my fish or plants. They'll get my tap water and like it, or I'll grow something else, LOL. It's just too much of a pain to customize my water, and at some point I'm guaranteed to screw it up and kill everything.

Every other WC or so I add a gallon of distilled water in addition to my tap water. Adding too much is a bit of a shock to my fish, I think, but a little should keep the water from getting harder over time. There are a couple LFS that sell reverse osmosis water, often cheaper than grocery store distilled water. Anyway, not such a pain in the butt if you wanted to soften your water.

[marydotson]

I got three stems in December and while it hasn't gone nuts, it does look nice. The lowest leaves did die, however, so I ended up removing leaves from the bottom inch or so. Also, I had a little difficulty keeping it planted, so I ended up weighting it. I use CO2 and daily dosing, but I haven't used any softer water than that which is regularly available from FX County...it is a pretty little plant (very nice color).

[chris_todd]

Mary, the melting has stopped, and only the bottom couple of leaves were lost. So that's good. Now, I'm just fighting this stringy hair-like algae...