• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Plants melting on Day 3 of 220 Gallon Planted tank setup

Martin D

Seedling
Joined
1 Aug 2014
Messages
8
Location
Toronto Canada
Hello everyone.

I am here cause I have an issue and hoping someone can shed a light on it. Just recently set up a 220 gallon tank (72" L x 30" H x 24" D) for a friend. It has been a week since the setup and I am losing a lot of plants due to a major meltdown. I have been dosing EI since the following day of the tank setup regularly as advised and recommended for a tank my size. Both macro and micro nutrients has been dosed regularly for 5 days. When the tank was filled after the aquascape was done, it was filled with only cold water and all 3 lights turned. CO2 was pumped into the tank the next following day and has been set to turn on an hour before the light comes on. A photoperiod of 6 hours per day is used daily. A 50% water change was made on Day 5 and dosing of ferts commences as usual. I am dosing NPK & CSM+B for the past 6 days and today is day 7.



My drop checker solution was added into drop checker and tank water was used to measure the levels. I have never changed the solution in the drop checker since then and the PH has remained from solid green when the lights go on and turns to lime green by the end of the day.



From Day 3 I have been noticing some issues with the plants in the tank. My Java moss that has been used on top of the driftwood has turned brown. Anubias nana, java ferns, java ferns lace is melting and leaves turning yellow, green, has holes on it. Some plants that has been planted has been melting too like my Staurogyne Repens. Riccia Fluitans tied to rocks showed some signs of melting but now is slowly improving. Below is the list of plants that was planted into the tank:-




1. Java Fern- Glued them down to the driftwood with crazy glue. ( Melting, turning black to brown on some leaves)



2. Java Fern Lace – Glued them down to the driftwood with crazy glue. ( Completely turned to mush and was brown/black)



3. Anubias Nana – Glued them down to the driftwood with crazy glue. ( Leaves showing signs of deficiency e.g. yellow coloration, dropping off, light green )



4. Bacopa Caroliana - Planted into the substrate. ( Looks healthy)



5. Hemianthus micranthemoides – Planted into the substrate. (Some stems have turned brown and has melted)



6. HC Cuba – Planted into the substrate. ( Looks normal but not great either)



7. Baby Tears Giant –Planted into the substrate. ( Looks normal but not great either)



8. Taiwan Moss – Glued them down to the driftwood with crazy glue. (A little brown)



9. Glossostigma Elatinoides – Planted into the substrate. ( Some leaves melted but I can notice some growth)



10. Staurogyne repens – Planted into the substrate. ( Some has melted, some shows signs of growth)



11. Riccia Fluitans - Tied to rock slabs and scattered throughout the tank. ( Melted in the begining but slowing showing signs of growth on the rocks)



12. Java Moss - Attached to the top of the driftwood. (Turned brown on Day 3. Had to remove some portions and moved it into a low light tank. Some leaves are turning green slowly)



13. Pennywort - Planted into the substrate. ( The healthiest of all the plants. Nice bright green and looks awesome)



These are my specs for the tank:-




Hardscape: Driftwoods bought from Big Al's LFS



Rocks: Yamaya rocks and some random rocks found from rock quarries that has been aquascaped into the tank.



Substrate: NETLEA Brown Soil (5L) – 26 bags Mid Size Grain (Think of this as the Chinese version of the ADA Aquasoil and it has worked amazing for me in the past in my previous aquascapes. It has water buffering capabilities and maintains the PH at a steady PH of 6.6. )



Decoration White Sand (12KG)- 8 bags



Substrate Base Additives:NETLEA BASE FERTILIZER 500ML - 4 units



Bacteria : Biozym - 2 bottles. ( Sprinkled at the bottom of the tank )



Lighting for high light high tech setup: 666 watts of lighting in total – 3 metal halide lighting unit with compact fluorescent. Each lighting unit has (150 Watts x 36 watts x 36 watts). These are suspended over a metal bar off the tank.



Filtration System: 2 Big Canister Filters with a 1350 GPH turnover rate together.



Co2 Setup – 10lb Co2 setup with solenoid valve, check valve, 4 in 1 diffuser with check valve. ( The CO2 is placed under the inflow of one of the filters and the outflow is placed beside the inflow and pointed down for CO2 distribution. A glass drop checker with a 4DKH solution is placed opposite of the tank to measure PH levels.




This is my dosing schedule:-



Day 1



  • Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) : 2 tsp

  • Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2 PO4) : ¼ tsp x 3

  • Magnesium Sulphate: (MgSO4) : 5 ½ tsp

Day 2



  • CSM+B Trace : ¼ tsp x 3

Day 3



  • Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) : 2 tsp

  • Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2 PO4) : ¼ tsp x 3

  • Magnesium Sulphate: (MgSO4) : 5 ½ tsp

Day 4



  • CSM+B Trace : ¼ tsp x 3

Day 5



  • Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) : 2 tsp

  • Monopotassium Phosphate (KH2 PO4) : ¼ tsp x 3

  • Magnesium Sulphate: (MgSO4) : 5 ½ tsp

Day 6 & 7: REST




So since the meltdown, I have reduced the lights turning on only the middle metal halide lighting unit with compact fluorescent and only the compact fluorescents turned on for the other 2 lights. The same photo period of 6 hours is being applied and it is Day 7 today.



I have acquired the plants from various sources and have no idea is they have been grown emmersed or submersed. There are no livestock in the tank as of yet until I figure out what is causing the melting of the plants.



If someone can shed some light I would be very grateful as I have gone through various forums and have not found a satisfactory answer from other fellow aquascapers hence wanting to post it here. I have been aquascaping for years and have had some great results but kinda stumped now seeing how I am unable to figure this situation out.


I have attached 2 videos of the tank setup below.






Thanks!


Martin.
 
It's not unusual to get melt in a newly set up tank, it can sometimes take a while for plants to adapt to your unique aquarium conditions, and from emergent (usually how plants are grown in the nursery) to immersed growth. I've been astounded at how long it took my latest offering http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/tulgey-wood-time-for-a-trim.31130/page-5#post-360248 to settle down - the melt was massive and like you I'd never really experienced it on such a scale before.

Ideally, your drop checker needs to be lime green from lights on till lights off. My gas comes on 3 hrs before lights on to ensure this, but it varies, 2 hrs is enough for most.

I can't really comment on your lighting since the scale of your tank is way beyond my experience but your system is probably out of kilter because your CO2 is on the low side and so is your flow...most of us use filters and/or powerheads that give at least 10x capacity turnover, some even more.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply guys. So I just also found out that the drop checker unit that I am using might not be accurate to measure the correct CO2 in the tank. It's from China and as per it's instructions is to put in 5 drops of the solution and then mix it with the tank water and then place it in the tank. After reading numerous posts here about how plants tend to melt the most due to not having enough CO2 and way too much light, I am starting to think despite my drop checker is showing lime green, it might not be accurate. I am going to prep a DIY 4DKH solution later today and test it out.
 
So lighting is too high eh? Shall I just use 2 Metal halide Units (150 watts x 36 watts x 36 watts = each light unit) as opposed to 3 of them? I only used 3 only cause I wanted to make sure that the lights covered 6 feet area of the tank but looks like this might be an overkill as stated by you guys here cause for the life of me I can't figure out what was going on. But looks like a combination of where the plants were purchased from, not accurate CO2 reading/distribution, too much lighting.
 
I don't think it's a good idea to have an uneven light coverage for obvious reasons...if the FCs can be controlled separately from the MH lights maybe there is a way to maintain even coverage whilst lowering the combined wattage, at least to start with - that is until the tank settles in. Other than that concentrate on getting the CO2 right along with flow and distribution.
 
Second what everyone has said, I'd guess with a tank that size you'll need several hours of co2 before lights, my 60g comes on nearly 4 hours before.
Also you can't use tank water in a drop checker, it needs to be be 4dkh water to get accurate readings.
Best of luck.
 
Thank you everyone for the insight. The lighting levels was the first thing that I reduced and sorry that I forgot to include that I do have a powerhead installed for extra flow into the tank on opposite sides of the tank. Just realized that CO2 could be the culprit cause my tank is almost empty now and the diffusion method of the CO2 right now is through a diffuser placed underneath the intake filter but I reckon that it might not be sufficient to disperse CO2 effectively into the tank.

I have just ordered an external CO2 reactor to do the job properly and have made my own 4DKH solution to monitor the PH on the drop checker.
 
Back
Top