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Dying plants

Zara28

Seedling
Joined
22 May 2017
Messages
4
Location
Gloucester
Hi,

My plants seem to be dying and I'm not sure what I need to do to save them...

I've given up trying to grow Vallis - they created lots of runners but these dont grow and end up melting away
And my other plants (planted just over a month ago) are now turning brown or white

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My tank setup (been running for 6 months):
fluval roma 240 tank with a 306 external filter and what ever the lights that came with it were (2 x T8?)
The lights are on 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the evening (this has only recently been increased from 4 hours daily as thought the plants were turning brown due to lack of light)
substrate: 2 - 3 inches of sand

I fertilize with root tabs every month, 3 ml daily of easycarbo liquid carbon (slowly increasing to 4ml), and a weekly dose of the easycarbo fertilizer
And I do a weekly water change of 10% and try to avoid over cleaning the sand

Water details:
PH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
KH - 5 drops
GH - 14 drops

Tap water parameters:
PH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 30 - 40

Anyone got any ideas what is going on and how I go about solving it?
 
The lighting in that Roma tank is a very low level as I had one myself a few years ago so I would now worry about over doing the lighting.

How much of the "easy-life profito plant fertilizer" do you dose?
 
i follow the recommended dose for the fertilizer which i cant remember what it is exactly atm - something like 10ml per 10l?
I've had a lot of green algae but this is start to disappear with the increase in liquid carbon, and had a Brown algae outbreak recently which looks like it is starting to go (assuming it was because of the low level of light).

Will set the lighting to come on for 8 hours when I get back today and see how it gets on.
 
I always ran my Roma at 8 hours as those T8 bulbs are not very powerful. I think up the lightening and keep an eye out for any algae, as determining what type appears is a good indicator of what is deficient in the tank.
 
Ok; the increased light has helped some of my plants but not all, but as long as some are growing then I'm happy!
Can anyone tell me what this plant is (the one pictured in the foreground) as I now need to trim it as its now so tall its hitting my tank lights!
Also - the normal algae has gone and has been replaced by this dark green / black algae. Any idea how I go about getting rid of it as its now covering most of my plants and my rocks are now black! :(

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Hi,

I had same experience with Pogostemon helferi when I switch from Tropica universal + Ferropol + Kalium-Pothassium to Profito.
In two weeks, a beautiful Helferi bush was almost melted. I restart old formula and looks it is recovery well. This show me, once again,
that unifersal fertilizers work only for basic needs of the plants; rest of requirements need to be covered separate and specific. It is like
in feeding animals : there are specific requirements, from species to species and from age to age, that need to be covered with
supplements on top of the basic feed.
 
Hi all,
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The white leaf tips on the new growth, with greener veins, are caused by a shortage of available iron (Fe++(+)). It is a classical case of <"lime induced chlorosis">.

The reason it is a deficiency or iron (or manganese (Mn)), rather than magnesium (Mg), nitrogen (N) or potassium (K) is because it is effecting the young leaves, so is a deficiency of a non-mobile element, magnesium etc are mobile, and the plant can export them to the younger leaves.

Deficiency of a non-mobile element, like iron (Fe), it will effect the growing point, and you won't get any greening of the older leaves when you add the deficient element, but new leaves, produced after the iron etc. addition, will be greener.

This is a an ericaceous shrub (Pieris), but you can see the similarities to your <"Hygrophila"> plant in the first picture.


Assuming you have hard water? You need to add iron in form that remains available, which means a chelator like Fe EDDHA or FeDTPA. If your water is near neutral? Fe EDTA would work.

Looking at <"this thread"> it looks like <"TNC Iron"> is an "off the shelf" option for harder water.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks Darrel, I will certainly look into this once I can control the black algae which is now covering the plants.
Seems like a constant battle with my tank.
 
Hi all,
Seems like a constant battle with my tank.
You need to get some healthy plant growth, and then a lot of the other problems will just go away.

Plant nutrient availability is like a car assembly line, it can go as quickly as the slowest process. If you don't any of one of the essential plant nutrients then it doesn't matter how much you have of the others, no plant growth will happen until you've added the missing ingredient.

cheers Darrel
 
What is the substrate?

Any idea which Vallisneria sp. you had? - some species are quite tolerant (weeds!) while others strongly prefer CO2 & higher light etc

I'd choose a single light period of 5-6 hours rather than 2 x 3hours, with low intensity lighting, recommendation is usually minimum 4h blocks to allow plants time to respond.
In low light tanks, ambient lighting can supplement to good effect

At this point it may be easier to "reset" the tank (depending on funds) - plants likely have little stored energy to produce healthy (algae resistant) leaves, especially in a closed system with LOTS of algae just waiting to colonize the next leaf ;)


As Darrel mentions, without decent nutrition to support the new growth, it's very difficult for existing plants to "get ahead"

Large frequent water changes & physical removal of algae will help to lower plant "infection" rate but you still need to supply conditions which allow plants to produce new healthy leafs (rather than nutrition deficient leafs)
 
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