New Plants Are Dying/rotting Away

New 100gal tank currently going through a fishless cycling. About a week in.
I'm using black diamond sandblasting media as substrate
Satellite + Pro LED light (60w) 9 hour cycles
Cascade 1000 filter
Temp is at 76 degrees

Plants I have are Anubias, java fern on driftwood, Bocopa monnieri, Cryptocoryne cordata blassii, and Ludwigia Red. The Anubia is the only plant that's doing good. Java fern is holding up but has some browning on the edges. As of right now all I have a root tabs. I ordered some all in one liquid fertilizer that should be coming in the next few days. The Ludwigia plants are losing leaves daily. One Ludwigia plant completely rotted away. The rest of the Ludwigias look really bad. The Bocopa monnierI plants are also turning brown and mushy but not as bad as Ludwigia.

Is it the lack of light? Or do these need liquid fertilizer? From my research, all of those plants should do good in low light setup. I'm also wondering if it's the substrate I'm using. The black diamond stuff does feel pretty heavy. But again, everywhere I read, people are for the most part able to successfully grow plants in this substrate.

 

Sometimes plants go through an acclimation period when moving to a new tank. You should start seeing new growth on the plants soon, if that's the case.

The sand is fine. I have BDBS in some of my tanks, and I have no issues growing plant with root tabs.

Are you dosing ammonia during your fishless cycle?

 

I started with fish food 2 days ago. I'll be testing for ammonia tomorrow.

 

What's the length of your light, and what's the length of your tank?

If you just got your plants, I would guess they need to acclimate to your tank.

I would use pure ammonia. You can control how much ammonia is released, and you won't be wasting fish food. Pure ammonia is much cheaper.

 

The tank is 60" long and the light is 48".

So during acclimation process it's normal to lose a couple of plants? The one plant I pulled out today was completely rotted away.

 

I'm having a similar issue in my 10 gallon with my new plants (very similar plants to yours, same problems) I'll let you know if I find anything out

 

I wouldn't throw the plants away. Often they'll grow back from the roots or the parts of the stem that are left.

It is very normal for crypts to melt. Leave the roots and plant be. Only remove the really rotten individual leaves.

 

Yeah I’ve had a lot of dieback on my plants I put in the 300gal but if you look close they are coming back.

Be patient

 

I wouldn't throw the plants away. Often they'll grow back from the roots or the parts of the stem that are left.

It is very normal for crypts to melt. Leave the roots and plant be. Only remove the really rotten individual leaves.

Yea I only removed the one plant that rotted away. When I touched the stem it was basically mush and disintegrated between my fingers. I hope the rest perk up. Should I add the liquid fertilizer when I receive it in a day or two?

 

I would!

 

Agree I would add

 

I have an Amazon Sword plant in my betta tank. Several of the outer leaves turned brown a few weeks after I bought it. But new leaves shot up in the center. When the brown leaves got really nasty, I took it out, trimmed it, and replanted it. It's growing beautifully now.

 

UPDATE: So I actually got the all-in-one liquid fertilizer the day I made this thread and dosed with it once. I am now seeing new growth on the Bocopa monnierI and Cryptocoryne cordata blassii. However, the Ludwigia plants are all dying. No new growth and most of the leaves have dropped. Everything is dark brown and mushy/rotten looking. Most of the Ludwigia plants have collapsed as the stems have completely rotted away. The Ludwigia plants had very little roots when I got them. I think the root tabs weren't really working in the beginning. I might have dosed with the liquid fertilizer too late. I'm not pulling them yet, even though they look like if I touched them they would just fall apart. If they do die off, I'll have to try getting Ludwigia from another source and try more mature plants with more established roots this time around.

 

I am also having trouble with new Ludwigia plants. None of them look good. Had to throw away a few stems. Hoping they will take hold soon

 

The root tabs just wouldn't not work, so I'm inclined to think it's something else. How tall is the tank? What species of Ludwigia? Some need more lighting than others.

 

The tank is 18" tall. The species of Ludwigia is Ludwigia palustris.

 

Is it directly under the light, or is it on the sides, where the light isn't reaching as well?

 

Well it was sort of under the light. The Satellite + Pro is 48" and the plants weren't directly under it but close. But I think with less than 1wpg might be a problem for these plants. I'm thinking of adding some t5's bumping it up to at least 1wpg.

 

I would reduce the light period actually,too much light is hard on plants without co2.
you could try liquid carbon if you don't want to inject gas.

 

I don't think your issue is too much light or lack of CO2 (unless you have a lot of bubblers in the tank?).

WPG isn't a good rule, particularly for LEDs which have lower wattage than fluorescents. PAR is better.

 

ludwigia did not do well for me in my low light set up ( 7 watts of LED for 12 gallons, lights on for less than 5 hours). In fact, all "dainty" plants have died back leaving me with crypts, swords, hygrophila, pennywort and bacopa. Even the bacopa is not doing great but the hygro is doing so well I don't miss it.
In another tank my crypts are growing v well in deepest shade. They are in aquarium soil though, which may be why.
I would caution against upping the light while your plants are struggling because of algae. Dying plants release sugars and ammonia, plus more light = algae. Algae is really discouraging but I did beat it in four tanks. The one getting the most light had algae of epic proportions. It was pearling so much it looked like Christmas lights.
I would find the balance with the plants you have now, which probably means reducing the light period, 9 hours is a lot imo for a new tank, and dosing ferts, then see if you want to up the light and try again with ludwigia. Increased light will allow you to grow more varieties, esp reds, but the balance is harder to find and you may need to start injecting CO2. That has never appealed to me but I think at some point in the curve it must be necessary or no-one would bother with it!
It can take a few weeks for plants to settle into a new tank. My swords especially seemed to take a long time to adapt to being submerged. I'm sure your plants will bounce back. Apart from the ludwigia.

 

UPDATE: So I actually got the all-in-one liquid fertilizer the day I made this thread and dosed with it once. I am now seeing new growth on the Bocopa monnierI and Cryptocoryne cordata blassii. However, the Ludwigia plants are all dying. No new growth and most of the leaves have dropped. Everything is dark brown and mushy/rotten looking. Most of the Ludwigia plants have collapsed as the stems have completely rotted away. The Ludwigia plants had very little roots when I got them. I think the root tabs weren't really working in the beginning. I might have dosed with the liquid fertilizer too late. I'm not pulling them yet, even though they look like if I touched them they would just fall apart. If they do die off, I'll have to try getting Ludwigia from another source and try more mature plants with more established roots this time around.

Wow I'm having a very similar issue, except my bacopa are mush my plan is to cut away the rotted parts of my ludwiga and just stick em back in

 

My Ludwiga look 100% better now, they used to reach the surface before the trim. They already have roots growing from the area I trimmed.

 

I just bought these plants about 5 days ago & some of them are dying While others seem to be doing well can you tell me what's going on with them & what I can do to save them?

Also my pest snails seem to have died or disappeared out of the tank I can't find them there was 6 of them and I haven't seen any in 2 days my ammonia levels have been bouncing between 0.25 and 1ppm no nitrates or nitrites yet no other livestock in the Aquarium.

I use seachem products including flourish root tabs they have me dosing the tank every 48 hours with Prime to keep the ammonia level more stable (I called & asked what to do) my pH is also been bouncing between 6.8 - 7.8.

This tank has pretty much refuse to cycle so far it's been about 6 weeks I was hoping the plants would help but so far no luck it's had an entire 500ml bottle of stability added at this point to it as well as a bottle tetra safestart.

I'm more concerned about saving the plants at this point but any tips on what I can do to help cycle the aquarium would be helpful as well.

 

I don't see anything terribly wrong with your plants. the banana looks fine and the crypts are experiencng a melt back. cryptocoryne is very sensitive to different water chemistry and sometimes they melt back. Sometimes just a few leaves, others a entire plant.

 

If they are emmersed plants (which about 75% places out there are) then crypts or ot, they can and will sometimes melt...but then, recooperate. Adding TSS was a good idea. I just used that 3 weeks ago in my livebearers tank. It worked well in conjunction with the TSS. Keep monitoring your water. Keep up the the Prime regimen. And mostly, be patient. You're doing everything 100% correctly. : )

 

All the plants were submerged when I bought them but I have no idea whether or not they were grown that way.

So should I just let the plants be or should I remove the leaves that really look like poop?

Thanks for all the help

 

I think the plants look fine. I'd leave them and let the melting bits make ammonia to feed your cycle. There are no fish in the tank right? You don't need to be dosing prime if you don't have any fish to protect.

 

Let them be. The C.wendtiI is adapting (water / lighting) and will be allright.
I always state it will even grow in motoroil (don't try). Survived years of fishkeeping (and frogs)

 

Your plants are experiencing melting. It happens when it gets into a new tank. New environment it will adjust to it. Give it time.

I would cut the melting leafs away so that way it can focus its energy to growing new leafs.

 

Let 'em be for now, but if the leaves start to fall off, get 'em out (of course lol)

 

MissRuthless the only thing in there are the plants & the pest snails which as I said I haven't seen you in a few days but half are tiny. I actually want to keep them alive & healthy.

The representative at Seachem said that keeping me ammonia low will also help the plants, I don't know how true that is but I am just following their directions.

 

Hmmm, dunno. Perhaps be wary of any Seacheam's ideas and advice. Because when plants are newly introduced, they have their own apprehensive battle to fight: Shock, shock from being emmersed, water ph, light, their own biological cycles to imperatively adjust to etc. And they may not be at their 100% integrity and strength just yet. Because when plants are deprived out of a specific nutrient, they go into yo-yo mode. Meaning when a ceratain nutrient is NOT present, they have the high potential to alter their internal chemistry to seek out other nutrients to compensate. And when the deprived nutrient returns, they shift over to that absent nutrient, back and forth back and forth especially. Then the consequence being, they will not grow correctly...or if all. And when starting out a new tank, it would defeat the purpose of even owning dead plants as BB fodder to feed the ammonia, in turn, then to the BB.

Ehh well......if they're already melting some, then let 'em be. The dead leaves will help the BB. AS will the live plants as well. I think I stated that correclty in my babbling in my last post... lol

 

I suppose extremely high ammonia may melt the plants some, but I've never had that issue. Before I had a test kit I drove the ammonia in one of my communities up to 8ppm and somehow the plants survived. Keep in mind that most plants prefer to eat ammonia rather than nitrate - it is this reason that allows one to use live plants in lieu of a filter in a properly set-up tank (see Walstad method). Changing the water periodically will help keep the ammonia on the lower side if you're worried about it, but I don't think adding prime or not makes a lick of difference to the plants so I'd stop wasting it if I were you. I'm sure if I'm wrong on that someone will correct me, but prime only bonds ammonia into ammonium temporarily, it doesn't make it go away, and I don't think the plants care what form it's in.

As for the snails... they're about the hardest thing to kill that could possibly take up residence in your tank. I recently had a BAD nitrate spike in my snail-infested tank (over 160ppm, I was super depressed and stopped taking care of the tank for awhile because I'm a bad fish mom) and literally every living creature in there died, except the hoard of snails. Even the snails I put there on purpose (nerite, mystery and assassin) died, but the pest snails survived and even kept multiplying while the tank was insanely toxic. So again, periodic water changes will help keep the ammonia down if you're worried about them, but prime is kinda expensive and I wouldn't dose it daily if you don't have fish to protect.

Edit: are you really a bird mom? What kind of birds? I have four conures and an old cranky cockatiel

 

My plants have gotten so much worse & the snails are still MIA even the Anubis seems to be turning slightly yellow and I now have yellow and brown spots on my I don't know what plant is **** but it's the biggest and prettiest plant in there or at least it was.

Both Moss balls are browning as well.

I added another root tab but I don't know what else to do. Nitrate & Nitrate level are 0 ammonia level is 0.25 PPM

 

just try something for a week and a half. Stop dosing with nutrients and put carbon back into your aquarium. Your nutrient levels could be too high causing poor plant growth.

 

I will give it a try

 

Most of the plants have seem to turn the corner and are doing well however the tall one in this picture still is looking like poop but the two little plantlets it's growing seem to be looking nice and are putting out the beginnings of roots.

My Moss balls still is discolored but I haven't seen any other worrying symptoms.

 

Hello everyone, I recently got my first two plants (besides two moss balls I’ve had for a while) for my 4 gallon betta tank, and they don’t seem to be doing so well. I’m not sure of the names of those plants so I’ll attach a photo of them here. I’ve been using EasyLife Profito in the first week and added Liquid Carbon in this week as well. But they seem to be dying off and I’m not sure what else to add. The light on my aquarium is on for about 10 hours a day. I was told they were beginner plants and easy to maintain but I’m struggling a little. Any advice would be really helpful!
*First two pictures are when I just added them to my already set up aquarium. And others are now, a week and a half later.

 

Some plants cannot be buried directly into the substrate,they need to be rooted on a piece of wood or suspended out of the gravel some how, it looks like 1 is a type of sword those can be put in the substrate. The other looks like java fern which needs to be on wood.
What are the water parameters?