Plants turning to goo!

[nonot8946]

I am setting up my first tank and have added plants while fishless cycling.

Some of the plants seem fine, others are doing very badly. Both the spiral val and the anacharis seem to be melting/turning to goo. The spiral val started to look like it was getting transparent spots in its leaves, then the leaves just kinda turned to mush and left thin blobs of goo. The anacharis is turning brown and the tips are doing the same thing, turning to goo.

The hornwort and the green hygrophilia seem to be doing very well though.

Also, I just set up the tank with sand. I added a sword and know that I will have to add substrate fertilizer for it. Do you think any of the other plants would need the substrate fertilizer?

My complete list of plants:
java fern
green hygrophilia
moneywort
amazon sword
anacharis
spiral val
banana plant
hornwort

Tank specs:
75 gal
160 Watts of shop lights @6500K, 10 hours per day
ph 8.2
temp 82F
ammonia: 3ppm
nitrate/nitite 0

I just set up a diy CO2 system tonight, but I will have to do something to get a better seal of the tubing into the bottle caps.

 

[Yenko]

Well, your ammonia is WAY too high. I'd do a 75% water change if you have fish in there right away and reduce feeding.

I'm not sure about the spiral val meltdown, but lots of slow-growing plants, like Anarchais or Cryptocorynes will melt when they are introduced to new conditions.

 

[nonot8946]

I am fishless cycling, which is why my ammonia is so high.

Do you think the anacharis will recover from its gooified state, or should I just toss it?

 

[guppygirl]

As I've said in other posts, Anacharis is a pond plant that needs coldwater tempatures to thrive. So I would just toss it.

 

[Nisha]

Many plants go through an adjustment period after being placed in different conditions. Try to prune the dead leaves and hopefully you'll have fresh, healthier leaves growing in soon.

If you're following the conventional method of cycling and adding ammonia, it may be impacting the plants. Planted tanks go through a slightly different cycling process than non-planted tanks. Check out this link: Cycling a Planted Tank.

HTH
~Nisha