"San Diego Joe" wrote in message
...
"Bill Stock" wrote:

I posted this one before, but I'll try again.

My Lillies and Water Hyacinths seem to be deteriorating from the inside
out.
Looks like they're burning up.

PH seems to be about 8, KH 300+, Total Hardness 75 or so. Nitrates and
Nitrites are nil. Plants did very well last year, WH took over the pond.
I
have not added any Potash yet. GF seem OK. Algea is doing well.

Tested all this a couple of more times and checked the local water
supply. A
more resonable set of readings would be PH 7.5+. KH 150+ and GH about
75.
The local water authority claims PH of 7.5, KH of 80+ and GH of 141.
I've
got a limestone waterfall, so that's why the KH is higher. The strips
say
to read them at 25 sevconds, but if I leave them they keep getting
darker
and darker. So is 150 KH the real number?

Any thoughts on my "rotting plants", assuming my chemistry is
reasonable?
The lillies have two flowers now, but have stopped opening during the
day.
Too cool perhaps. I've added a heaping teaspoon of Potash to my 500 Imp
gallons for now.

Any help appreciated.


This is probably a long shot, but are the leaves turning brown from the
outside inward? It may be there is too much salt in the water. If so, you
might try a partial water change.


The lilies are getting long perfectly straight cracks in them from the edge
to the middle. Then seem to be rotting away from the outside tp the inside
as you indicated. Until a couple of weeks ago the pond was getting constant
water changes, before I fixed my leaky waterfall. I'm not sure where any
salt would be coming from, how can I test for salt? Perhaps I was not adding
enough dechlor.

The Water Hyacinths look awful too, pale yellow and seem to be rotting away
from the outside. I did notice that one has a very large hole in it. I
suspect a bird did this. The Iris are completely gone now, eaten/rotted
away. I also noticed that last year's WH are doing much better than the new
WH. The old WH have small air filled bulbs, while the new WH have large
fibrous bulbs. The old WH were kept in the aquarium during the winter with
the GF and had basically NO roots when I put them outside. They've got 4"
roots now.

It might just be a lack of sun, it's been a very poor summer.


San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Goldfish, a RES named Colombo and an Oscar.


Thanks Joe