Milan Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 (edited) Here is what happened to me ... In the last month or so I noticed my plants had stunned and deformed growth, cupped leaves, with very brittle stems. Bottom parts would break even to a touch. I thought it had something to do with some nutrient deficiency, and my tank has been running notoriously low on PO4. From then on, things went rolling ... I kept increasing the dosage of PO4 (at least I thought) but no luck bringing them up. GSA started to develop on Anubias leaves and rocks ... At the same time the KH kept climbing as the time since WC went on. I thought it had something to do with tannins from recently introduced mangrove bog wood so I didn't pay to much intention to it. I never bothered to test GH either, since I've never had an issue with tap water. So I decided to verify my PO4 test against the Standard Solution. Dissolved 10 ml in 5 gallons of water, and it read zero. Then I took a sample of a pure solution, and it read zero again !!! Must be a bad test, I thought ... The revelation came when a friend of mine sent me a sample of his vegetable garden soil to do a jar test on nutrients. Used the same test on PO4, and it skyrocketed .... Holly sh#*$!! Alarm bell went off instantly and drew my attention to the chemicals I was using for my solutions ... Instead of using KH2PO4, it was the bloody MgSO4. These two chemicals in dry form look exactly the same (white crystals). Accidentally, I mixed up the labels on containers. So, instead of adding PO4, I was boosting the Mg levels in my tank, resulting in the symptoms described above. It looks like a Ca deficiency, and it probably is, with Mg being the culprit blocking the intake of Ca. There have been many discussions on Mg/Ca relationship - myth vs. true, but after experiencing it myself, I'm more than convinced it is the fact ... Hope this helps someone ... Edited December 21, 2005 by Milan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Instead of using KH2PO4, it was the bloody MgSO4. These two chemicals in dry form look exactly the same (white crystals). Accidentally, I mixed up the labels on containers. This is the reason why I cleaned up the cabinet under my planted tank. I haven't mixed up the chems... yet... but thought better get what I don't use out of there. Edm tap water has enough Mg, anyway. Glad you got it all figured out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted December 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Edm tap water has enough Mg, anyway. ... Calgary too. I don't even now why do I have this crap, to begin with .. It was probably one of those things you get "just in case ...." . The "case" being a screw up :bang1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milan Posted December 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 (edited) OK, here are some numbers ... Normally, with the tap water I'm getting 7.4 mg/l of Mg, and what I had in my tank was :guns: 23.4 mg/l. Ca=60 mg/l Edited December 22, 2005 by Milan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted December 22, 2005 Report Share Posted December 22, 2005 Woah!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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