I Might Give Up On Keeping Plants Because Nothing Seems To Help..

Guys, this is the rotala after only a few days. Honestly I just wanna kill all the plants -_-

Keep in mind that a bit of damage or melt is normal after the plant gets moved to a new tank

 

Take a full tank shot and video. I'm more interested in seeing your water flow because one of your photos show a lot of brown that looks like roots rotting or detritus trapped in it. If that plant attached to a driftwood, take it out and rinse it in tank water to get the detritus off.

What are you keeping that you need 2 canisters? What do you run in them in terms of chemical filtration. How often do you clean the sponges in them?

Can't really tell what's a few plants? I think you should cut back on dosing liquid fertilizers especially if you're having trouble keeping them. I've grown Amazon swords in inert gravel w/ root tabs in T8 NO lighting in a 55G standards, I don't think lighting is an issue and maybe too much lighting. Can your light intensity be lowered?

 

Take a full tank shot and video. I'm more interested in seeing your water flow because one of your photos show a lot of brown that looks like roots rotting or detritus trapped in it. If that plant attached to a driftwood, take it out and rinse it in tank water to get the detritus off.

What are you keeping that you need 2 canisters? What do you run in them in terms of chemical filtration. How often do you clean the sponges in them?

Can't really tell what's a few plants? I think you should cut back on dosing liquid fertilizers especially if you're having trouble keeping them. I've grown Amazon swords in inert gravel w/ root tabs in T8 NO lighting in a 55G standards, I don't think lighting is an issue and maybe too much lighting. Can your light intensity be lowered?

I'm so sorry, I meant 1 canister and 1 HOB. I was asleep when I posted this... I wanted to edit my original post but I'm not able to...

As you can see in the pics

- Canister on the left: Regular output tube (not spray bar). water flows across the tank from left to right

- HOB on the right: water flows from back to front

In terms of media, I only have 2 layers of sponges and Seachem Matrix on top. No other media except purigen very recently.

 

mach6

 

Guys, this is the rotala after only a few days. Honestly I just wanna kill all the plants -_-

It's growing! Look at the little shoot growing from the top. Concentrate on that growth. Like nikm128 says, I often get die back and have to let stems regrow in my tank.

 

It's growing! Look at the little shoot growing from the top. Concentrate on that growth. Like nikm128 says, I often get die back and have to let stems regrow in my tank.

This. Also notice the shape of the new leaves are different from the old ones. You probably keep giving up on plants that are fine because of melt.

Most cheap aquarium plants are grown emersed. They have full access to lighting and co2. When you put them into the tank, they have to live differently and must adjust. The old leaves shed off, and more optimum for growing under water ones take their place.

One thing to always remember is you aren't buying a plant, you are buying roots. If you have healthy roots, a plant can be saved. With stem plants, this means as long as the stem isn't mushy, don't give up on it. I have a semI rare plant that arrived practically frozen. I cut off all the leaves but 1 so I would know where the roots were if the plant died. A week later I had the tiniest pink leave coming up from the soil so I chopped off the last old leaf. That plant now has 5 leaves, and appears to be happy. It basically went from 0 to 5 leaves just because the roots managed to somehow survive.

 

Wraithen angelcraze Thank you guys, point taken and I'll keep everyone updated

 

Wraithen How long do you usually leave Phosguard in your tank again? I know it depends on the amount of silicate but there's no way I'd know when the tank is silicate-free...

 

Wraithen How long do you usually leave Phosguard in your tank again? I know it depends on the amount of silicate but there's no way I'd know when the tank is silicate-free...

I do 2 days after a water change. Keep in mind I also have my slave army of 13 or 14 Otos, and probably around 20 amanos in my 180. It doesn't remove ALL of my silicates, but my slaves bridge the gap, and with my long periods between water changes, it works well for me.

 

I do 2 days after a water change. Keep in mind I also have my slave army of 13 or 14 Otos, and probably around 20 amanos in my 180. It doesn't remove ALL of my silicates, but my slaves bridge the gap, and with my long periods between water changes, it works well for me.

Thanks I'll do the same. Do you have water sprite in your tank? If so, did they look like mine when they were infested by diatoms? I can easily wipe the stuff off, but it always reveals the leaves pale/yellow already.

 

Wraithen

Phosguard after 24 hours (I added some new ones for color difference)

 

Wraithen

Phosguard after 24 hours (I added some new ones for color difference)

Yeesh. That's pretty quick. Although mine did similarly. It isn't exhausted yet!

I don't have water Sprite. My diatoms covered everything but I was most annoyed by the stuff on the glass. My stock cleaned the plants pretty well. The leaves didn't suffer much.

 

How much ml do you dose for the liquid ferts? How often do you vacuum and clean under the driftwood, you'd be surprised what can get trapped in there. Next time change your tank, dip your java fern that's attached to it. It looks like detritus is stuck by the roots?

Do you feed your tank heavily? I had a similar issue that you had but that was because I had tried using DIY osmocote. I siphoned out all the substrate.

 

Wraithen Update: it seems like the issue is still there.

- Most of the plants grow well. New leaves are healthy, but as soon as they are a week old, they start collecting brown stuff and curl down a bit.

- Wisteria can't even grow properly.

- I'm not sure those brown stuff are diatoms any more because I've used over the recommended dose of Phosguard but they're still there.

 

Just looking through this thread. You’ve gotten great info from some of the best. Not much to offer but...I’ve found the eco complete to be not that good. My 90 is almost 2 yrs old and just this year the plants started growing good. Almost like it took this long to build up nutrients. Sorry can’t explain. You’ve been given advice on lighting. Mine is shut off the beamworks and try the finnex 24/7 on 24/7 mode. Works in all my tanks. Your tank is 12” deep and 20”high the 48” finnex is more than enough. I’ve found the beamworks just to bright. For the wisteria try floating some of it. Mine all died off and I left whatever was alive floating and those pieces are all thriving.
Also I have hornwort and anacharis I can send to you. Just pay the shipping .

 

Wraithen Update: it seems like the issue is still there.

- Most of the plants grow well. New leaves are healthy, but as soon as they are a week old, they start collecting brown stuff and curl down a bit.

- Wisteria can't even grow properly.

- I'm not sure those brown stuff are diatoms any more because I've used over the recommended dose of Phosguard but they're still there.

If that is wisteria (hygrophila difformis) you may want to back down lighting intensity a bit. I didnt get mine that spindly even with 4 fluval 3.0s on a 180 gallon. That indicates a very high par value. That could be your problem. There is a limit still on the amount of light you can use during a given amount of time, even with co2.

The fact that the brown is on the plants and you didnt complain about it on the glass tells me it may not be diatoms, but whatever it is is capitalizing on a weakness on the plants. It doesn't look bad though. I had to keep adjusting my circulation pump and now have bba all over the edges of my pinnatifida. I think the edges of leaves have a harder time combatting the algae for whatever reason so this is where it will take residence.

On the other hand, it is not unheard of to have a bacteria similar to cyanobacteria only brown, and in freshwater. I doubt this is what you have, but it is possible.

I think that algae is just taking advantage of older growth since it isn't growing anymore and the super high lighting you have going on. More fertilizers may also help if your plants are running out of nutrients, but I doubt it. I think you're just pushing too much light atm.

 

If that is wisteria (hygrophila difformis) you may want to back down lighting intensity a bit. I didnt get mine that spindly even with 4 fluval 3.0s on a 180 gallon. That indicates a very high par value. That could be your problem. There is a limit still on the amount of light you can use during a given amount of time, even with co2.

The fact that the brown is on the plants and you didnt complain about it on the glass tells me it may not be diatoms, but whatever it is is capitalizing on a weakness on the plants. It doesn't look bad though. I had to keep adjusting my circulation pump and now have bba all over the edges of my pinnatifida. I think the edges of leaves have a harder time combatting the algae for whatever reason so this is where it will take residence.

On the other hand, it is not unheard of to have a bacteria similar to cyanobacteria only brown, and in freshwater. I doubt this is what you have, but it is possible.

I think that algae is just taking advantage of older growth since it isn't growing anymore and the super high lighting you have going on. More fertilizers may also help if your plants are running out of nutrients, but I doubt it. I think you're just pushing too much light atm.

Those in the pic are the Sprite. The infested leaves actually look much worse (for some reason the picture made it more vibrant). The grass (micro sword?) also affected too but since there's not many of them in the tank I didn't mention it. I'm only using the finnex at the moment and it's only on for 6 hours, not even on Max mode.

 

Not meaning to contradict at all, but my wisteria (if it was wisteria) grew fine like that too. The same plant grew thick and strong in my mom's tank when I gave it to her. The biggest difference was pH (or hardness). I had soft water, my mom's water was ridiculous hard.

Edit: Maybe mine was water sprite too.

I'll just say I've had brown stuff choke out my plant leaves. A good example is my java fern trident. If I'm too slow at removing the brown guck, leaves are always turning yellow underneath. I'm still trying to work on ridding the tank of this stuff.

On the topic of diatoms vs cyano, I'm in the same boat. I got this thick brown stuff and now it has turned blueish green and still brown, but NO odor. It wipes off easily, even rolls up in a squishy ball to remove or dissipates into dust. I have noticed a bit of BBA trying to take hold, but it also removes easily. So I really don't know. I actually just made a thread about it.

 

Update: not improved much overall. This is frustrating.

Rotala Green barely grow. Leaves are incredibly small, curled and covered by diatoms.




Water sprite are still the same. Old leaves die, covered by diatoms

 

What have you tried so far?

Have you tried some different stem plants? Wisteria is supposed to be good with harder water, but rotala might prefer softer water. Have you tried anacharis?

How are the rooting plants doing?

 

What have you tried so far?

I've been using RO water, dosing Thrive weekly, reducing light intensity and adding Phosguard. Nothing seems to help. Plants still die and diatoms still present. Water sprite is the only one that grows normally, but they die at the same time too.

 

Have you been remineralizing the RO water? If not, you'll want to add Equilibrium to add minerals the plants need back in.

Have you thought about getting a nerite snail or pest snails to eat up those diatoms? Sometimes we need a little help from our cleaner crew friends. I don't usually suggest them right away because manual maintenance is very important, but when nothing seems to work......