Not sure what I'm doing wrong

Hi! So I got some guppy grass and anacharis with some fish (Endler's Livebearers). Since I want planted tanks, I was very excited about these plants because they're my first and I thought they would pretty much thrive on their own. That doesn't seem to be the case however. I put them in a 20 long with the Endlers, temp ~75F, pH ~8.1, fluval c4 filter with sponge pre-filter, no substrate, just floating, not sure what type of lighting... it's fluorescent. The guppy grass is dying or is dead already. The anacharis seems to be doing well... or least not dead yet. I haven't done anything except add them to the tank with the fish and red ramshorn snail(s) that hitched a ride. I've just been feeding the fish and leaving the light on from around 9am to 10pm/11pm-ish.



What am I doing wrong? And, what can I do to help any living portion of guppy grass? If it's green, it's still alive, right? There are a few green spots among all the dead/dying parts. I'm hoping to acquire more plants, but I'd like to learn from this experience while I'm at it so the new plants can thrive.

EDIT: the bulb says BIOPLANT FL20SBR/18. it came with the setup when I bought it from a guy off Craigslist.

 

Plants need bioavailable Carbon in order to thrive. You can do this either by injecting it in gaseous form or using a liquid additive. I started adding Seachem Flourish Excel about a week ago and I've noticed the difference in my plants already, much more lush and green.

 

I wasn't sure of the answer but I'm sure Dria is right. Makes sense considering the more light you have the faster the growth and carbon use, hence the need for carbon injection over 2 watts per gallon (as a general rule) in a properly stocked tank.

 

that does make sense... I think. I was under the impression that easy plants like guppy grass and anacharis pretty much thrived on their own with no assistance. I really want planted aquariums, but they're so confusing to me. def gonna pick up some seachem flourish excel tho.

can anyone tell me what my light bulb is doing as far as wpg? I have no idea what the stuff printed on the bulb means.

 

If I'm right then it's a 20w bulb so .6 wpg. That places it in the low-light category by default but I think those rules are out the window. There was a chart...let me find it.




That will give you a more accurate idea.

 

Low light plants can do just fine without anything and your guppy grass likely would survive no matter what. In fact, the browning might be a natural progression of the plant. I don't know about guppy grass in particular, but a plant I have called watersprite does this, parts turn brown and fall off from the main stalks constantly. I have to prune them about every other day, but there is tons of new growth coming up from the root. Maybe someone else can tell you if guppy grass is like that, however it didn't sound like you were getting any new growth so I offered my best guess.

The problem is if you have too much light and not enough nutrients you can encourage algae growth in your tank instead of plant growth. Once the algae starts forming on the plant leaves then the plants can't even get light and it's sort of a self-perpetuating problem. The carbon helps the plants out-compete the algae. I didn't think I had to add any carbon either because I was using newbie plants and they were doing great, but I started getting algae about a week ago. Since then I found out that what I thought was great was really nothing compared to what the plants could do.

 

If I'm right then it's a 20w bulb so .6 wpg. That places it in the low-light category by default but I think those rules are out the window. There was a chart...let me find it.

View attachment 88035

That will give you a more accurate idea.

thanks for the chart! not sure where my bulb fits into that tho. :-/ I've seen this chart before but can't figure out what PC means. if it's a 20W bulb in a 20gal Long, how is that .6wpg?

dria: good info! sounds like the first step for me is to understand what my bulb is doing to my tank, which is slowly coming together. I haven't seen any algae growth; the red ramshorn snail has been very busy tho.

 

Ooooh, I was going by your aquarium info that says 29 gallons. You have 1 wpg then. PC = Power Compact and as far as I know they're on the way out as far as what's current. I'm also not sure where your bulb fits into that chart. Again, here's hoping a more experienced member can come by to help. :x

Edit: Yeah...completely missed the tank size in the first post. To be fair I did just unload a 2,000 piece truck last night. I'm going to bed now lol.

 

Ooooh, I was going by your aquarium info that says 29 gallons. You have 1 wpg then. PC = Power Compact and as far as I know they're on the way out as far as what's current. I'm also not sure where your bulb fits into that chart. Again, here's hoping a more experienced member can come by to help. :x

Edit: Yeah...completely missed the tank size in the first post. To be fair I did just unload a 2,000 piece truck last night. I'm going to bed now lol.

lol, thanks for pointing me in the right direction at least!

 

just realized I got a bottle of excel with the 29gal tank I bought off craigslist. as long as it isn't expired, I'll start using it today. will it affect my endlers (fry through adults)? do I just follow the directions on the bottle? I added tetra safestart one week ago today, and today i'm showing 0/0/~5 ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. it seems to be cycled; prolly also helped that the biomax things sat in a cycled tank for a few weeks before setting up this tank. anyway, excel won't hurt the cycle, will it?

EDIT: nevermind. it's a bottle of flourish iron. I'll have to pick up a bottle of excel later this week when I get paid. would still like answers to the questions above tho! thanks!

 

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but I wouldn't start using it just yet. Let the TSS work for another week before you add anything different. It definitely won't hurt your fish, but I'm unsure if it has anything that might mess with your fledgeling bacteria. My gut says no, but better to be safe.

The advice I've read is start out with a half dose of Excel for you tank size and work your way up to the full dose. For low-light plants like yours, I imagine you can dose every other day instead of every day if you want to.

 

I'm not sure CO2 is the problem in this case, if your bulb is a T8 and you do indeed have low light, You generally would not need to dose CO2 for a low light tank. I would start with a fertilizer like flurish comprehensive, and maybe cut the time the light is on back a bit, 13hrs is a bit much.

 

how do I know if my bulb is a T8? is that the standard? I'll try cutting back the amount of light time, is 10 hrs good? and seachem flourish instead of excel?

 

most kits come with T8 bulbs, it should say somewher on the bulb or fixture what size bulb it is., you may or may not need the ferts, I would start with a smaller dose a nd see if it helps.