The Great Rumbini
Seedling
Apologies if this is not the correct forum section to ask advice or if this topic has been covered to death in other threads but I am new to this forum and a novice with aquariums in general.
I have a planted 20 gallon aquarium with fish and shrimp. The aquarium substrate I used was Carib Sea Eco Complete Planted Black Aquarium. The aquarium has been established for about 6-7 months. The water I use has a high pH: 8.2.
Following planting, the plants in the aquarium started off ok but haven't exactly thrived. Certain plant types such as crypts and Anubias are doing ok, whereas swords have very quite wan, yellowish leaves and do not grow much. Yet others such as Hygrophila, Ludwigia and Lobelia show slow growth, rapidly lose lower leaves and do not develop roots.
At first I thought the plant health issue might be to do with the high pH and that in hard water areas carbon is sequestered away and not readily available for aquatic plants. However, after using a KH test kit I found that the KH is actually very low (< 50 ppm), making this scenario unlikely.
Right now I am stumped as what is going wrong. Does anyone have any advice as to what could be causing the ill health in my plants and what steps I could take to improve it? I would prefer low maintenance options if possible but will take any advice I can get.
Thanks!
I have a planted 20 gallon aquarium with fish and shrimp. The aquarium substrate I used was Carib Sea Eco Complete Planted Black Aquarium. The aquarium has been established for about 6-7 months. The water I use has a high pH: 8.2.
Following planting, the plants in the aquarium started off ok but haven't exactly thrived. Certain plant types such as crypts and Anubias are doing ok, whereas swords have very quite wan, yellowish leaves and do not grow much. Yet others such as Hygrophila, Ludwigia and Lobelia show slow growth, rapidly lose lower leaves and do not develop roots.
At first I thought the plant health issue might be to do with the high pH and that in hard water areas carbon is sequestered away and not readily available for aquatic plants. However, after using a KH test kit I found that the KH is actually very low (< 50 ppm), making this scenario unlikely.
Right now I am stumped as what is going wrong. Does anyone have any advice as to what could be causing the ill health in my plants and what steps I could take to improve it? I would prefer low maintenance options if possible but will take any advice I can get.
Thanks!