Limno. Sess and Hydrocotyle Tripartita issues

[CalRed]

Hello all,
I've been running a 90l setup for around a month but around 10 days ago i started running into some issues with plant condition.
The LS went brown on the lower leaves and the HC also showed a similar discolouration.

Im running a biomaster thermo 250 with co2 injection. I dose with TNC complete and have recently upped it to 10ml a day to try and combat what i thought was a nutrient deficiency due to the presence of some algae in certain areas. The light is a superfish led 90 (32 watt 269 par) and is running for 6 hours a day currently. I perform water changes 30-40% bi-weekly.

If there are any glaring issues that anyone notices with the setup that could be contributing to the algae and plant issues please highlight them. If anyone could also help diagnose the plant problems and suggest any steps i should take next it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Hufsa]

Thats a pretty new tank, many tanks go through the diatom period, where you get some sort of brown algae.
Usually this passes on its own with time and normal care. Can you provide us with some good photos of your plants and especially any problem areas?

 

[CalRed]

Thats a pretty new tank, many tanks go through the diatom period, where you get some sort of brown algae.
Usually this passes on its own with time and normal care. Can you provide us with some good photos of your plants and especially any problem areas?

Hi Hufsa thank you for your reply. I've attached a photo of the browning i'm relating to. I'm just wondering if those plants are dead and need removing to prevent any further spikes in algae growth?

 

[Hufsa]

If you try rubbing one of the brown leaves of the tripartita, are they mushy and soft throughout or is the brown like a coating on the outside?
Mushy bits can be removed, but I would keep the growth that just has a coating of diatoms. You can try to rub off a bit manually to help things along.
If I were you id just keep on going for a while and let your system settle.
Your plants need some time to adapt to their new surroundings, and theres a ton of little microbes and things like that that need to colonise your tank for it to become a mature and stable aquarium. The new growth on the plants look lovely so I think youre going in the right direction.
You want to focus on growing plants well, the algae decreasing and the stability increasing will follow naturally as you do that.

Eventually your tank should be mature enough to add a small complement of clean up crew, many use amanos or cherry shrimp (of any color) as this first step. As to when it is safe to add them I would like some of the other peeps here to advise

Edit: Changing 50% water every week wouldnt hurt, and is generally recommended for high tech planted tanks. This is to keep things stable and prevent build up of various kinds. I believe some even change water daily for the startup period. Fresh water is rarely a bad thing

 

[CalRed]

I'll have a closer look this evening during maintenance. The stem plants had a big trim after i noticed the discolouration which is why some nice new growth is visible.

As soon as my ammonia and nitrates were acceptable i introduced my nerite and remaining 3 otos from a makeshift tank i had to setup during my house move so there is a small clean up crew at the moment in there. Im looking to add some amano shrimp and corys to help turn the sand over in the foreground in the near future.

Once the TNC complete runs out i'm planning to begin EI dosing to give the plants the best chance. The TNC was perfect for the low tech I had but I don't think it'll be adequate for what I'd like to achieve with this tank, especially at the dosage the bottle recommends.

Thanks again for your advice Hufsa, i'll see how I get on.

 

[Mark Nicholls]

Limno is notorious for attracting and trapping debris and algae due to its fine leaf structure. Apart from constantly planting new shoots, it's something that has to be lived with. This is one of the reasons why Limno isn't seen too often in display scapes.