Dying plants

damian01211 · 10-09-2018 9:49pm #1

Hi guys,

So I own a 80L freshwater tropical tank. I had it for over a year. For the first half a year, I had plenty of plants growing like crazy, really green tank from all the plants ! But then I've decided to cut them and since then more then 3/4 had died.

At the beginning of June, I've decided to rebuild the tank and start with some new plants in it. I won't be able to tell You the name of them but anyway, after 3 months half of them is gone. I'm using Seachem Fluorish for them and still nothin.

Would it be because of the amount of fish I have ? I only own 9 fishes at the moment (used to have more but, a friend of mine forgot to feed them for over 3 weeks when I was gone holidays and voila) or maybe not enough CO2 ?

Any ideas ? I'm supplying pics of fish tank after rebuild and 3 months after.

penev10 · 11-09-2018 2:35pm

It looks like you have some elodea and some java fern for sure. With the Elodea make sure you aren't planting them too deep as the roots will be suffocated. With the java fern just attach it to something, don't plant it in the substrate.

With the decrease in fish stock there might not be enough nitrate in the water. I dont think flourish contains nitrogen. Maybe add more fish or change your fertiliser. For planted roots you could try root tabs also.

damian01211 · 11-09-2018 9:45pm

Yep, flourish doesn't contain nitrogen, so probly that's why it's not helping the plants.
So I'm guessing if I'll get more fish and fill up the tank to around 20/30 of them then it should be all fine ?

Berserker · 18-09-2018 1:55pm

damian01211 wrote: »

So I'm guessing if I'll get more fish and fill up the tank to around 20/30 of them then it should be all fine ?

Nope. You'll end up with an overstocked tank which is going to result in more problems. What fish do you have in the tank at the moment? What are the water params?

Sleepy · 19-09-2018 3:19pm

I don't see a source of CO2?
What are your water params?
How frequently do you do water changes and at what percentage level?
Are you dosing the tank with anything else?
How long are you leaving your lights on for?

damian01211 · 19-09-2018 9:20pm

Berserker wrote: »

Nope. You'll end up with an overstocked tank which is going to result in more problems. What fish do you have in the tank at the moment? What are the water params?

Neons, pleco, danio and black cory. The only parameter I can check is PH which looks to be at 7. I'd love to get more of them but wanna sort out the plants first.

Sleepy wrote: »

I don't see a source of CO2?
What are your water params?
How frequently do you do water changes and at what percentage level?
Are you dosing the tank with anything else?
How long are you leaving your lights on for?

I used to have the DIY CO2 but it didn't help so it's off the tank for the moment, should I get back to it ?
Usually I change 20% of water every 2 weeks, I'm not dosing the tank with anything. The weirdies thing is that the plants next to the filter are fine but the one's away from it die.
I have my light on for 8h, its an fluorescent bulb but I've got the aquasky led from Fluval, just waiting for it.

Berserker · 20-09-2018 9:10am

damian01211 wrote: »

Neons, pleco, danio and black cory. The only parameter I can check is PH which looks to be at 7. I'd love to get more of them but wanna sort out the plants first.

I'd invest in an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit first and see what those levels are like.

Sleepy · 20-09-2018 11:14am

If the plants furthest from your filter are the ones dying, I'd be inclined to think there might be a lack of flow. Check to see if your filter has a setting to increase it.

Berserker's right though, you need to be able to test your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels.

damian01211 · 20-09-2018 11:49pm

I own Fluval U2 at the moment, I have set it to maximum circulation and oxygenation. It's completely submerged as I have the air valve outside the tank connect thru air line to the filter.
I wonder if the APi 5 in 1 test strip kit will do to these the parameters ? I don't really have anything to test the water except the pH. All was good at the beginning so I didn't bought anything.

Also I've just switched from fluorescent bulb to fluval aquasky, will that help too ?

TallGlass · 21-09-2018 12:05am

To me I am more so looking at the light situation here, where the plants have died in the first photo they look to be very shaded.

Java Fern is a pulls it's minerals via the leaves more so that root, fact that it's still alive and starting to brown a little, minerals/macros might be dropping in water.

The other plants that have died are more root based, have you an actual substrate under the stones?

Also, you've a mix of plants there in terms of sturdy look after themselves type plants like the Java to the complex ones that you'd need to zone in on things like pH etc..

Are you running any carbon filter or anything like it?

I seen you said you where running co2 previously, you'll need a supplement as the water won't support that amount of plants without it. You can get it in a bottle or a permeant set up.

damian01211 · 21-09-2018 7:49pm

Is it better now with the Aquasky in the included photo ?
No substrate, just rocks but I used to have it like that at the beginning and it was fine.

Yes there's is carbon in my filter. Can't take it away as it's as cartridge.
So its time to get the DIY CO2 up and running again ?

damian01211 · 11-10-2018 5:54pm

Finally, manage to get myself the test kit to test water. So it goes like that:

Ph: 7,5
Ammonia: <0,05
Nitrates: 0,1
Nitrites: 120
KH:6*dKH

By looking at the KH/pH chart, looks like I have too low CO2. Am I right?

Berserker · 11-10-2018 7:15pm

damian01211 wrote: »

Finally, manage to get myself the test kit to test water. So it goes like that:

Ph: 7,5
Ammonia: <0,05
Nitrates: 0,1
Nitrites: 120
KH:6*dKH

By looking at the KH/pH chart, looks like I have too low CO2. Am I right?

Your ammonia and nitrites should be 0. I'd look to sort that out first. Nitrates are too high also.

damian01211 · 11-10-2018 11:34pm

Sorry, I messed up really badly, It was Nitrates that was 120 and Nitrites was 0,1.

But I've presume its still too much, in the test kit it was said to do regular water change to get rid of nitrites and nitrates also I can use some chemicals for that. With ammonia I should drop the ph to 6.5

Should I go with the ph 6.5 and chemicals to get rid of nitrates and nitrites or start doing water changes every week instead of 2 weeks to lower everything down.

penev10 · 12-10-2018 9:22am

Do 2 water changes this week and do it once every week after, keep checking the parameters after each change.

Nitrogen isn't your issue regarding the plants if your nitrates are 120. In a planted tank look to get this to about 20. Once the plants start growing again they'll munch up a lot of the nitrates.

If nitrogen and fertiliser aren't the issue maybe it's light. Should be on between 8-10 hours a day. Put it on a timer that way you can keep it consistent. You don't need a co2 injection system for java fern or elodea, most common plants don't require it.

It's frustrating when things are going wrong and you can't get a handle on it. Keep fixing one thing at a time and it'll come together though.

Berserker · 12-10-2018 10:30am

damian01211 wrote: »

But I've presume its still too much, in the test kit it was said to do regular water change to get rid of nitrites and nitrates also I can use some chemicals for that. With ammonia I should drop the ph to 6.5

Water changes get rid of nitrates. No nitrites should be present in your water, if your aquarium has completed the nitrogen cycle. In agreement with the previous poster, I would focus on getting those water parameters correct by changing the water and keeping tabs on the parameters. How are the fish looking? Is the ammonia and nitrites having any ill-effect on them? Any redness around the gills etc?

damian01211 · 12-10-2018 2:54pm

penev10 wrote: »

Do 2 water changes this week and do it once every week after, keep checking the parameters after each change.

If nitrogen and fertiliser aren't the issue maybe it's light. Should be on between 8-10 hours a day. Put it on a timer that way you can keep it consistent. You don't need a co2 injection system for java fern or elodea, most common plants don't require it.

I've presume its still gonna be 20% water change. Should I wait a day with test or do it after water change? I'm putting stress zyme+ on each change.

Also I have a Fluval Aquasky set to be on 8 hour a day, I change it to 9. I have both blue and red led's at full brightness and obviously a white too.

Berserker wrote: »

Water changes get rid of nitrates. No nitrites should be present in your water, if your aquarium has completed the nitrogen cycle. In agreement with the previous poster, I would focus on getting those water parameters correct by changing the water and keeping tabs on the parameters. How are the fish looking? Is the ammonia and nitrites having any ill-effect on them? Any redness around the gills etc?

Fish is looking totally fine, swimming with no problem, quite active thru out the day. No redness around the gills. I've reduce the amount of food they get each day too.

penev10 · 12-10-2018 3:04pm

I'd do a 50%water change with nitrates at 120, bring it down to 60, then another 50% 3 days later and you should circa 30-40 which is acceptable imo.

After that just keep testing and you'll know how much to do at what intervals. Trial and error really.

Dying plants

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