Neo_Keeper
Seedling
Hello!
This is my first post here, so a little info about myself. I'm a long time african cichlid keeper, and short time neocaridina planted tank keeper.
I have a 40 litre low tech desk tank with amazon frog bit, subwassertang, marimo moss balls, java fern and hornwort....busy eh?
The light is a 15W fluval plant nano 3.0. The lights run from 8am until 8pm with a 'siesta' between 2 and 4 pm. The lights run at 50% for cool and warm white, 30% for the red and 10% for the blue. The light levels are halved for the 'siesta'.
I am dosing the EI method potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate and magnesium sulphate and the chelated micro nutrients, except using 25% of the suggested dose. My API nitrate test kit (I know these can't be relied on) reads at around 10ppm pretty much every time I measure.
The tank parameters are:
Temp - 22-23 Deg. C
pH - 7.6 - 7.8
GH - 7-8
KH - 3-4
TDS - ~200ppm
OK, i'm sure there are some things there that will stand out as very bad to the more experienced of you.
The main type of algae (although not bad at all currently) is akin to a green string, and it mainly accumulates in the roots of the amazon frog bit.
The amazon frog bit when I got it had thick padded dark green leaves with black striations and the leaves were not that big - they felt like a very mature plant. These leaves died back and were replaced with bigger green leaves with no padding (like cellulose) underneath and no dark striations, but all seemed well otherwise. Now some of the leaves are yellowing, shrivelling at the edges, developing holes and dying. Some of the newer frogbit have stunted leaf growth and just shrivel away. I've let the roots of the frogbit grow longer than I would like, in the hope that it would help them absorb what they need (although if it's not there, then they can't).
The marimo moss balls are green and not doing a lot (as you would expect)
The java ferns are not doing well. The ones which look very green are not growing and the others have had the tips of the leaves turn brown/black and then the leaf starts to decay.
The susswasertang is not doing a lot, although some of the leaves have developed a few holes and look like they might be shrivelling back a bit.
The hornwort (which was a more recent edition) is growing at a phenomenal pace. When the hornwort started to take off is when the amazon frogbit started to suffer.
My personal feeling is that I am lacking in either potassium or iron, but I am a complete novice at this! I have potassium sulphate and chelated iron, so can add these if advisable.
Could you guys please give me some tips to get my tank on track? I think maybe I need to move away from anything to do with EI, being a shrimp tank (which also contains malaysian trumpet snails) I am best to do a 10% water change per week, or risk the health of the shrimp. Therefore, I am a bit concerned about nutrient build up, as i've read people have had problems in high tech tanks with EI nutrient build up when doing a 50% change.
I should state that the health of the shrimp is more important to me than the health of the plants, but it would be nice to have both, right?
I've attached 2 pics. How the tank was (about 3 weeks ago) and how it is now (the one with more hornwort).
This is my first post here, so a little info about myself. I'm a long time african cichlid keeper, and short time neocaridina planted tank keeper.
I have a 40 litre low tech desk tank with amazon frog bit, subwassertang, marimo moss balls, java fern and hornwort....busy eh?
The light is a 15W fluval plant nano 3.0. The lights run from 8am until 8pm with a 'siesta' between 2 and 4 pm. The lights run at 50% for cool and warm white, 30% for the red and 10% for the blue. The light levels are halved for the 'siesta'.
I am dosing the EI method potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate and magnesium sulphate and the chelated micro nutrients, except using 25% of the suggested dose. My API nitrate test kit (I know these can't be relied on) reads at around 10ppm pretty much every time I measure.
The tank parameters are:
Temp - 22-23 Deg. C
pH - 7.6 - 7.8
GH - 7-8
KH - 3-4
TDS - ~200ppm
OK, i'm sure there are some things there that will stand out as very bad to the more experienced of you.
The main type of algae (although not bad at all currently) is akin to a green string, and it mainly accumulates in the roots of the amazon frog bit.
The amazon frog bit when I got it had thick padded dark green leaves with black striations and the leaves were not that big - they felt like a very mature plant. These leaves died back and were replaced with bigger green leaves with no padding (like cellulose) underneath and no dark striations, but all seemed well otherwise. Now some of the leaves are yellowing, shrivelling at the edges, developing holes and dying. Some of the newer frogbit have stunted leaf growth and just shrivel away. I've let the roots of the frogbit grow longer than I would like, in the hope that it would help them absorb what they need (although if it's not there, then they can't).
The marimo moss balls are green and not doing a lot (as you would expect)
The java ferns are not doing well. The ones which look very green are not growing and the others have had the tips of the leaves turn brown/black and then the leaf starts to decay.
The susswasertang is not doing a lot, although some of the leaves have developed a few holes and look like they might be shrivelling back a bit.
The hornwort (which was a more recent edition) is growing at a phenomenal pace. When the hornwort started to take off is when the amazon frogbit started to suffer.
My personal feeling is that I am lacking in either potassium or iron, but I am a complete novice at this! I have potassium sulphate and chelated iron, so can add these if advisable.
Could you guys please give me some tips to get my tank on track? I think maybe I need to move away from anything to do with EI, being a shrimp tank (which also contains malaysian trumpet snails) I am best to do a 10% water change per week, or risk the health of the shrimp. Therefore, I am a bit concerned about nutrient build up, as i've read people have had problems in high tech tanks with EI nutrient build up when doing a 50% change.
I should state that the health of the shrimp is more important to me than the health of the plants, but it would be nice to have both, right?
I've attached 2 pics. How the tank was (about 3 weeks ago) and how it is now (the one with more hornwort).