Not Very Successful With Live Plants. Need Some Guidance.

[drabina]

My son has 10 gallon tank with few live plants. He has two anubias nanas, one anubias, moss ball, banana plant, hornwort, and one other plant that has leaves on a stalk (not sure what it is but was told it is low/med light plant). Unfortunately, only the anubias are growing fine. That and a moss ball which is hard to kill. We had never any luck with java fern (turns brown within a few weeks). The hornwort was very nice and we had 5 stalks, now we are down to 2 and the plant looks poor. Banana plant lost all leaves but one. We have 10W LED light that's on from 8am till 9:30pm. We feed the plants with fertilizer every week after a water change. Substrate is gravel but all the plants we have are non-rooting plants.

Any tips without going to high tech option? Should we get better light? Different fertilizer? We used Thrive before but it was raising nitrate levels too high so we switched to Flourish few weeks ago.

 

[kallililly1973]

the lights are on way too long maybe its actually doing more bad than good. do noon to 8-830 add the thrive like u have been doing 1 time a week day after water change or flourish rather. maybe get a small bottle of excel and add it every other day and get a few more easy to grow plants. Bacopa, water wisteria, anarchis (sp) they will all shoot off roots where u can propogate and replant and they will take off as long as your parameters and boiload and lighting and flow are all at a good ratio

 

[Addie42]

can you post a pic?
sounds like lights are on a bit long

where are you getting your plants? all the same place?

something you should know is that a lot of live plants are grown out of water. People think they're failing when their plants die right away but they're actually just getting accustomed to your tank and being underwater in general

 

[kallililly1973]

also be sure the Anubias and java fern are not planted in the substrate they need to be tied to driftwood deco or rocks. the big root ( the rhizome ) needs to feed from the water column. Others will chime in with more and better info but that is the basic jist of it when starting out with live plants. Always expect a couple losses but don't give up do some research and before you know it you'll be setting up another tank cause u will run out of room from the plants filling in so well

 

[Feohw]

I use easycarbo and profito to dose my tank. I believe it's recommended to have 2-5 watts per gallon for a planted tank. I'm not great at offering advice for plants as they just seem to love me. But the watts per gallon thing is something I read (not sure how right it is though) I have my lights on from 10:30 to 11

 

[drabina]

Thanks for the replies. I will try Excel and yes, all my anubias and java ferns were tied not planted. Most of the plants are from different sources (local Petco, Jacob's Aquarium - though will never buy from him again - end rant, LFS).

I am just not sure about lights. I had them on for about 7.5 to 8 hours but with the small 10W light, I thought it wasn't enough. That's why, they are now setup to run longer. I can reduce the light to a couple of hours in the morning and then few more during the afternoon. Other than that, would getting a better light (stronger) be better?

 

[Thunder_o_b]

Thanks for the replies. I will try Excel and yes, all my anubias and java ferns were tied not planted. Most of the plants are from different sources (local Petco, Jacob's Aquarium - though will never buy from him again - end rant, LFS).

I am just not sure about lights. I had them on for about 7.5 to 8 hours but with the small 10W light, I thought it wasn't enough. That's why, they are now setup to run longer. I can reduce the light to a couple of hours in the morning and then few more during the afternoon. Other than that, would getting a better light (stronger) be better?

Do not use Excel with a moss ball. It contains an algaecide that will kill it. Moss balls are actually algae balls.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

Excel worthless save your money. Just don't use so much thrive next time.

 

[Jack B Nimble]

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