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plants have started going brown help please!

rehman73

Member
Joined
27 May 2012
Messages
62
Hi guys i just wanted to know if it is normal for plants to melt and go brown.My tank has been setup for 3 days now and iv started to notice the symptoms there is no algea at the moment.Is it normal for plants to do this? My tank is a 6g edge,ada substrate and powersand with all the nutrients i am also dosing ei, my co2 and flow is good as i have upgraded the filter impeller with the aqua clear 50 impeller rated for 200gph plenty of movement in plants my lights are on 5 and half hours.c02 comes on 2 hours before and turns off 1 hour before lights out,drop checker is yellow at lights on and for some reason it stays yellow.i have changed the bromo blue water 3 times but drop checker stays yellow is there something im doing wrong?
 
Are you using 4dKH solution in your drop checker?

When you add the bromo blue to the water in the drop checker, but before you put it in the tank, what colour is it?
 
Initial thought. Although I'm not expert is its purely just the plant acclimatising to new tank. I read that most plant growers grow aquatic plants immersed this means the plants develop leaves that benifit this type of growing. Then once your Lfs and yourself submerge them these leaves die out and the plants grow new thinner leaves suitable for being in a submerged environment. As for drop checker always being yellow stop all co2 for 24-48 hours see if the colour changes. That way you will know if it is too much co2 or incorrect set up of drop checker as the tank is so new 48 hours of no co2 shouldn't encourage any algae growth
 
I wouldn't necessarily stop all co2 for 24 hours just pull the drop checker out to see if it turns blue from the 02 on the air.
As whitey says a picture will help massively in what could be wrong. Too high a co2 wouldn't cause plants harm anyway, quite the opposite if your dosing enough nutrients.


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As I said not an expert. Removing drop checker much easier than shutting down co2! XD #slaps face. I will remember that if I get a similar problem
 
Whitey89 said:
If its yellow your co2 level is possibly too high for fauna. Depends whats melting, some plants do when they are subject to a new environment.

A photo would be a crucial bit of info.
Hi Whitey89 i dont have any fauna in there at the moment so i dont think that is a problem for now,iv got a crap camera i wont be able to get a close enough shot .thanks
 
jamesb said:
Initial thought. Although I'm not expert is its purely just the plant acclimatising to new tank. I read that most plant growers grow aquatic plants immersed this means the plants develop leaves that benifit this type of growing. Then once your Lfs and yourself submerge them these leaves die out and the plants grow new thinner leaves suitable for being in a submerged environment. As for drop checker always being yellow stop all co2 for 24-48 hours see if the colour changes. That way you will know if it is too much co2 or incorrect set up of drop checker as the tank is so new 48 hours of no co2 shouldn't encourage any algae growth
Thanks James that is exactly what i have found on the net so that could be it,my hc i doing fine at the moment its just the elocharis browning.I think the drop checker is staying yellow due to no gas exchange when lights out,in the morning i find loads of bubbles at the surface against the glass(like fizz).am i suppose to add anything else into the drop checker with the bromo blue solution?
 
san-ho-zay said:
Are you using 4dKH solution in your drop checker?

When you add the bromo blue to the water in the drop checker, but before you put it in the tank, what colour is it?
Hi richard do i need to add something with the bromo blue?? at the moment i just put the bromo blue solution in.
 
Yes, you typically add 2-3 drops of the bromo blue to standard 4dKH water in the drop checker bulb:

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/ae-desi ... -3979.html

The bromo blue on its own won't work properly. The colour we aim for, i.e. lime green, is the colour that a 4dKH water produces with around 30ppm CO2. Presumably small amounts of CO2 are pushing your bromo blue into the yellow because it contains no KH.

I've always used the water plus the bromo blue, but you can get the 4dKH with the pH reagent mixed in these days.
 
Richard iv got the aqua essential 4dkh bromo blue and the instructions are to add 2.5ml of the solution to the drop checker and then put it into the tank
 
If you've got the drop checker solution, i.e. the 4dKH with the bromo blue mixed in, that's the correct stuff. You don't need to add anything to it.

When you said you'd only added bromo blue, I thought you meant you'd added the pH reagent neat.

As discussed above, if you remove it from the tank and leave it a few hours, it should turn blue.
 
iv just been on the phone to aqua essentials and what Richard had told is that due to it being a new setup and im using ada substrate which drops the ph of the water this is what the drop checker is telling me my ph is low also he asked how much co2 im using and i said its very high as i cant count the bubbles he told me to drop my bubble rate to 1bps and it should improve over time.
 
Hi Rehman.
The dc will most likely be remaining yellow due to the almost closed top edge design, with gas off being reduced due to smaller water/air contact area. This will be something to watch when you add livestock. You may need to reduce c02 injection and or add an airstone or agitate the water surface more when you put fish/shrimp in. As already said the easiest way of ensuring the solution to be good is to remove the dc overnight and see if it returns to a blue colour... if it does it is working as it should and your tank has high levels of c02, but isnt degassing.
Plants may well be browning due to transition and should produce new health submersed leaves soon.
We will need expert clarification for this but i wouldnt like to run a yellow dc night and day in the early stages as plants need 02 when not photosynthesising. When the plants are healthy and growing (photosynthesising), they will naturally oxygenate the water during the photoperiod so levels of c02 can be high and 02 levels will also be good. However initially the plants need time to adapt and begin strong growth and wont be oxygenating the water. At this moment in time with the plants still in transition and browning and with the dc remaining yellow permanently this shows poor gas exchange and a possible lack of oxygen content in the water which may/may not be part of the plant problem....thit is speculation and would need more research to validate.
Its painful starting up, you need to be patient with the plants but on the other hand dont want to do nothing incase its something that needs adjusting and is only making things worse :crazy:
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
just reading through your post
my hc i doing fine at the moment its just the elocharis browning.[quote/]did you trim elocharis down to about 1 cm before planting this encourages new submersed growth faster also i have an edge which ive dabbled with diy co2 in bubbles just sit under the glass untill they disolve because the hob keeps pushing them back under the water do you run co2 24/7
 
tim said:
do you run co2 24/7
good question...that could explain constant yellow dc!
 
tim said:
just reading through your post
my hc i doing fine at the moment its just the elocharis browning.[quote/]did you trim elocharis down to about 1 cm before planting this encourages new submersed growth faster also i have an edge which ive dabbled with diy co2 in bubbles just sit under the glass untill they disolve because the hob keeps pushing them back under the water do you run co2 24/7
hi Tim i cut the eleocharis down before i planted,no i dont run co2 24/7.the issue with the drop checker has been sorted it self just like Richard at aqua essential said.thanks
 
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