Pogostemon helferi - melting

[fischkopp]

I had two plants melting a couple of days ago, today I see another one. Only single plantlets are affected, all surronding ones do fine - at least looks like it to me.

The only thing I have changed is doubling CaSO4 and MgSO4 - total hardness should be an estimated 4° right now.

Has anybody seen that before? Its totally new to me ...

[dan2x38]

Did you check your pH? If it as crashed or very low could be the cause.

[fischkopp]

Havent measured for months but it doesnt hurt to take a look: pH is 5.6 - lower than I thought

[dan2x38]

Havent measured for months but it doesnt hurt to take a look: pH is 5.6 - lower than I thought

In one tank my pH crashed - helferi I got from you did not melt but is broke all apart... I blamed the pH it was below 5.5 - the recommended pH is closer to 7

cheers,
Dan

[charlie]

I had two plants melting a couple of days ago, today I see another one. Only single plantlets are affected, all surronding ones do fine - at least looks like it to me.

The only thing I have changed is doubling CaSO4 and MgSO4 - total hardness should be an estimated 4° right now.

Has anybody seen that before? Its totally new to me ...

Did you ever unearth what caused it to melt??, i`m curious, i once had a fair amount of Helferi floating in a 20 gallon tank ( Jeff 1192 got some from it), a few weeks later i did not beleive my eyes there was none, nada & all the other plants were fine.

BTW  Helferi just thrives in my 75 Gallon that runs @ a PH of 5.5 ( Jeff1192 can attest to it, he saw it a few days ago) 

[Jeff1192]

Did you ever unearth what caused it to melt??, i`m curious, i once had a fair amount of Helferi floating in a 20 gallon tank ( Jeff 1192 got some from it), a few weeks later i did not beleive my eyes there was none, nada & all the other plants were fine.

BTW  Helferi just thrives in my 75 Gallon that runs @ a PH of 5.5 ( Jeff1192 can attest to it, he saw it a few days ago) 

Oh yeah....I was all proud about how well my helferi did prior to my CO2. It probably doubled in 4 or 5 months. Then I went to Charlie's.....I didn't feel so proud anymore....his is out of control!   

Mine is in my 90 at a pH of about 8.1 before CO2 and now it's at a pH of 7.1. So far it's doing very well.

Jeff

[fischkopp]

No, I have no idea what caused it. I had maybe 4-5 plantlets that disappeared within 1-2 days - all branches melted. Surrounding plantlets were/are ok and have filled in the gap by now

Maybe it had to do with that the CO2 was almost empty. Not sure if there could have been other things in the bottle. Honestly, I have no idea, but I doubt it has anything to do with low pH levels.

[fischkopp]

Addon - I did some digging in the www: Possible reason for melting pogostemon are low kH, low macros and sudden changes (especially water hardness). Since I was 'playing' magnesium and calcium sulfate at that time I would say that this caused the partial meltdown.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/3110-pogostemon-helferi-also-known-downoi.html?highlight=POGOSTEMON+melting

[charlie]

Addon - I did some digging in the www: Possible reason for melting pogostemon are low kH, low macros and sudden changes (especially water hardness). Since I was 'playing' magnesium and calcium sulfate at that time I would say that this caused the partial meltdown.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/general-aquarium-plants-discussions/3110-pogostemon-helferi-also-known-downoi.html?highlight=POGOSTEMON+melting

Thanks for the link , of all the possible explainations  in the thread, i would have to guess changes from one tank to another for mine melting.
In my 75 , it does well in low Kh ( almost none) & acidic water(PH 5.5).