onetwothree
Member
Hi all,
When I first set up my tank, I got some really strong growth and the plants were all very green and vibrant. I realise these were new plants at the time, so are likely to be very green when purchased, but they grew fast and thick and seemed healthy for roughly the first 6 weeks, tank went from a few baby plants, to being 3/4 full of plant growth. There was the odd dying leaf here or there, but otherwise it looked great.
Low-tech setup. I been using the using the Fluval Aquasky (I believe the 1.0 version - https://fluvalaquatics.com/uk/aquasky/) set at 85%red, 100%green, 85% blue and 100% white. The tank was filled to 125 liters and I have been using Easy-Life Profito (1.4ml per day) (easylife.eu/products/freshwater/plant-food/profito), everything is planted in Tropica Aqua Soil (https://tropica.com/en/plant-care/aquarium-soil/aquarium-soil/). After around 1 month of this, I started using liquid co2 at around 2ml per day (https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/microbe-lift-bio-carbon). More recently I am running the tank at 100 litres (reduced by 25 litres) due to it being rimless and wanting less pressure on the glass, but have kept my dosages the same. Up until this point, I had been doing around a 10% water change each day.
Within the last month/6 weeks, I started to notice a lot of brown hair algae, so I pulled my blue lights to just 25% (instead of 85%) and the hours back to around 6 hours (was originally at 9) and this solved the problem. I've now put my blue back to 50% and increased hours slightly to aroud 6 hours 45 ish. However, alongside the algae I've noticed some small holes in the leaves and some browning/yellowing and dying material getting worse. More recently, the plants are starting to look pretty poor as this progressively getting worse. The only changes I can think of that occurred at the start of this decline are; introducing liquid co2, reducing water volume by 25litres and reducing the frequency of water changes to around 40-50% per week, as opposed to 10% daily.
Currently the only thing that seems healthy is my Amazon sword (at least I think that's what it is), which is at the back and in one of the more shaded areas. It's leaves are now touching the surface and its nice and green with little damage. Everything else seems to still be growing, but is slowly browning/yellowing and growing small holes etc while simultaneously dying!
Is this a problem that could have been there since the beginning and is only now materialising, or has a change created this issue? This is my first tank, so I have zero experience in attempting to rescue plants.
Any advice on the potential error and advice on a change in practise or product would be a great help.
Pics attached of damage.
When I first set up my tank, I got some really strong growth and the plants were all very green and vibrant. I realise these were new plants at the time, so are likely to be very green when purchased, but they grew fast and thick and seemed healthy for roughly the first 6 weeks, tank went from a few baby plants, to being 3/4 full of plant growth. There was the odd dying leaf here or there, but otherwise it looked great.
Low-tech setup. I been using the using the Fluval Aquasky (I believe the 1.0 version - https://fluvalaquatics.com/uk/aquasky/) set at 85%red, 100%green, 85% blue and 100% white. The tank was filled to 125 liters and I have been using Easy-Life Profito (1.4ml per day) (easylife.eu/products/freshwater/plant-food/profito), everything is planted in Tropica Aqua Soil (https://tropica.com/en/plant-care/aquarium-soil/aquarium-soil/). After around 1 month of this, I started using liquid co2 at around 2ml per day (https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/microbe-lift-bio-carbon). More recently I am running the tank at 100 litres (reduced by 25 litres) due to it being rimless and wanting less pressure on the glass, but have kept my dosages the same. Up until this point, I had been doing around a 10% water change each day.
Within the last month/6 weeks, I started to notice a lot of brown hair algae, so I pulled my blue lights to just 25% (instead of 85%) and the hours back to around 6 hours (was originally at 9) and this solved the problem. I've now put my blue back to 50% and increased hours slightly to aroud 6 hours 45 ish. However, alongside the algae I've noticed some small holes in the leaves and some browning/yellowing and dying material getting worse. More recently, the plants are starting to look pretty poor as this progressively getting worse. The only changes I can think of that occurred at the start of this decline are; introducing liquid co2, reducing water volume by 25litres and reducing the frequency of water changes to around 40-50% per week, as opposed to 10% daily.
Currently the only thing that seems healthy is my Amazon sword (at least I think that's what it is), which is at the back and in one of the more shaded areas. It's leaves are now touching the surface and its nice and green with little damage. Everything else seems to still be growing, but is slowly browning/yellowing and growing small holes etc while simultaneously dying!
Is this a problem that could have been there since the beginning and is only now materialising, or has a change created this issue? This is my first tank, so I have zero experience in attempting to rescue plants.
Any advice on the potential error and advice on a change in practise or product would be a great help.
Pics attached of damage.
