Aquarium Plants looking poorly

I've noticed my aquarium plants have started looking sickly. I recently added a bubble wand to my tank a few weeks ago. I read in another post that the bubbles on top of the water use up the CO2 in the water that the plants need. Could that be what's wrong with the plants now? :-[

 

I'm assuming they are live plants, if so do you know what type of plants they are, are you moving them around a lot, what wattage do you have, and yes the bubble wand could be affecting your plants slightly but most likely not so much that it is killing them unless you have a really small tank and your bubble wand is way to powerful, you can try taking it out.

Austin

 

Things that oxygenate the water are not recommended in planted tanks because they cause the CO2 to "gas out". But I'm not sure that would be harming your plants that much...

 

Yes I agree, of couse I know if I put my bubble wall in my 10 gallon with a powerfull air pump then it would probably affect it though since it's so powerful, of couse then the fish would have problems swimming too ;D.

 

I think the plants I have are called Creeping Jenny's. I've transplanted a few of them into the 5 gal. tank that I bought for my beta, and those look fine, but the smaller ones left in the 10 gal. tank seem to be fading in color.

 

Whats your wpg and ph

 

The last PH reading done on the 19th, was 7.6
I don't know what you mean by "wpg"

 

watts per gallon, what watt bulb do you have, in both tanks?

 

Ohhhh, 15 watts for each tank.
Also, a few weeks ago I changed the check valve for the bubble wand. The one I changed out didn't let much air flow thru the wand. The one I replaced it with worked like there wasn't a check valve on it at all. It put out much more air. Could that be what's wrong with the plants? Should I change the check valve back to the low flow one? They were doing so much better with the low flow valve.

 

Why don't you just try it without it for awhile, are the lights incidescent.

Did a google, the creeping jenny I came up with is not aquatic so if it's really a creeping jenny and the type I kep coming up with, it's not aquatic and it will die, so do a google search on it and see if it matches your plant

 

Yes on the lights. And yea I will try the low flow for awhile and see if the plants inprove. Thanks for all your help, here, and in the Beginners forum.

I did do a google research on aquarium plants awhile back and the Creeping Jenny was the closest I could find that looked like mine. I know it's an aquarium plant cause I bought it out of the aquarium at the fish store.

 

lfs somtimes lie about plants they sell you so be careful when yo get them :-\

 

Incidescents are not good for growing plants and that is why your plants are dying and along with they are most likely not fully aquatic, your best bet is to get a screw in compact fluescent and read about low light plants on plantgeek and the plant section then ask questions. Good luck

p.s. don't get anymore plants until you get a fluescent light.  Not all plants sold at fish stores are aquarium plants, one fish store by me sells a peace lily as an aquarium plant and my grandma has one in her house and it's three feet tall with flowers, don't be fooled by a fish store.

 

Here's a picture with the plant in it.

I may be wrong about the iridescent, I just pulled the box out that the bulb came in, it's a GE Aqua Rays Fresh & Salt water light. It says it supports plant growth in freshwater aquariums. Great for freshwater aquariums with or without live plants.

 

Your fish are beautiful. ;D
I have a marine light and a 30 watt normal light in my tank (my tank is tropical not marine) and the box says the marine light (which is blue) helps to support the plants growth. I can have any combination of the two lights at any given time - I usally during the day have both on, then in the evening I just use the blue and at night they both go off. The plants that I have bought are going beserk in the tank so something must be going right for them - and condiering I know a couple of mine are not fully aqautic, I guess those ones will die eventually, but they are sending out roots and shoots for now

Don't know if that helps any?

 

Thank You!
Do you know where I can buy one of those blue lights? I haven't seen any before.

 

My lfs has them with all the spares - you know the section where the filter bits and bobs are. I asked the guy for the marine lamp and checked it was the same wattage and bobs your uncle, blue light to go. Anywhere that sells marine fish/tanks and accessories should have them, just make sure that it IS the same wattage as the lamp you are replaving and that's all you have to do

 

Do they have them in the florescent bulb? That's what my tank hood uses.

 

If you can hang on one second I can get a pic - The lights are tube lights that fit into my hood too so I would assume they are the same, just bare with me and I will take a pic of my spare bulb.

The tube are white - even on the blue lamps, so make sure you read the box to make sure it is a blue one I am not even sure if it is blue lamp that makes my plants grow, I guess it could be, and it sure does make the tank look really pretty

 

Yes, it's the same kind of bulb I have, but at the Wal-Mart I buy mine at I didn't see any blue lights. In the lighting section of the store they had florescent bulbs named, Sunshine, Bed and Bath, Aquarium, ect. In the pet section they only have the standard bulbs. I'll look again in the lighting section now that I know what I'm looking for. We don't have a regular pet store in my town, (it's a very small town, just got the Super Wal-Mart about a year ago). The closest town with a pet store is about 50 miles away.

 

You could order one off the web, google aquarium lighting and see what pops up

 

I'll do that, thanks for your help.

 

I think the plants I have are called Creeping Jenny's.  I've transplanted a few of them into the 5 gal. tank that I bought for my beta, and those look fine, but the smaller ones left in the 10 gal. tank seem to be fading in color.

True Creeping Jenny are not a true aquarium plant....They are plants that can survive in water, which is probably your problem....I have a bed of Creeping Jenny in my front yard.........Is it Golden Pond Penny that you have? This is also known as "Golden Creeping Jenny".....They require medium high lighting and cooler water to really flourish.

 

Here is a picture of my plant. Can you tell me what it is?

Here's a better picture of my plant. Can anyone identify it for me?

 

Yeah, that's Golden Pond Penny....Also known as Creeping Jenny....Medium-High lighting required according to plant geek.

 

What about Bacopa Monnieri? Someone from another site said that's what is was. Now I'm confused.

 

Take a look at it on

What did the little care tag say when you got it?

 

It didn't have a care tag on it. It was in one of the aquariums at Wal-Mart. The store employee that was working in that department didn't even know that they sold the plants inside the aquarium until I showed her the price plaque on the tank. Duhhh

I checked out theplant geek site, and the picture they have doesn't quite look like mine. The leaves on mine are more round than oval. I think it may be a Bacopa Monnieri.

It looks kinda like this:

 

I have to admit I am truely rubbish at plants, at least the aqautic variety
I am a keen gardener though so I do tend to recognise the non-aqautic plants they try to flog at the lfs
I try to keep the lighting good and so far I have not lost any plants - I do though have a peace lily in my tank - which is not aquatic and it is growing like mad in there - I think it must have been an bit of pond weed in a previous life

 

Well....mine used to have all these little tentacles branching out everywhere. Now they're either gone or turned dark green. I don't know if it's algae or too much transplanting in the aquarium. Sometimes when I'm changing the water and vacuuming the gravel, they would get uprooted and I'd have to re-plant them. I try to stay away from them now when I change the water and clean the gravel.

I'm now noticing a dark green buildup on the leaves of my live plants. Is this algae? Should I try and clean it off? And if so, how? Sorry for all the questions. :-[

 

Someone told me you can rub it off with your fingers. Also Otos will eat algae off plants. If it is algae you need to get it off cause it will interfere with photosynthesis.