Brown Leaf, Old leaf, Bubbles

[StarOrbs]

Okay so I added CO2 I guess its been a couple days now. My plants seem to be producing quite a bit of bubbles and even one of my water sprites is pearling. Which I'm assumming is a good thing. now onto my question is it alright if some leaves on the bottom of my hyrgophilias are turning brown and transparent. But new leaves are forming so I guess thats good. You think everything is going alright?

Also how long does it take for vals to start getting greener mine seem to be kind of brown and transparent on the tops. Any suggestions or ideas?

My plants have only been in the tank less than 5 days.

 

[George Farmer]

Sounds good to me.

Your bottom Hygrophila leaves may be shaded too much by the upper leaves, have you planted your stems individually or in groups? I like to plant each stem at least 3cm apart - this allows light to reach most of the plants.

Vallis is well known for not starting well in new set-ups - not sure why but I've heard of a few cases. Give it a while to settle in.

Good luck - got any photos?

 

[StarOrbs]

I'll post some new ones in a few days. I may need to move my hygros around then because I just left them with the anchor on. Will it be alright to move them now, even affter 5-6 days? My CO2 has caused my PH to drop from 7.0 to 6.0 and there was a bubble like every 2 seconds so I reduced it to about 3.5 seconds hopefully that will raise it.

 

[George Farmer]

Your plants should do better if moved as suggested. Hopefully you will see some new root growth when you remove them - especially as they've been planted for a good few days. I try not to use anchors (lead weights) as they can damage the stems - the roots alone should provide adequate anchorage. Try to insert each stem at least 2 to 3 inches into the substrate then pull up the stem so a little so the roots then point downward.

pH drops are inevitable when adding CO2. What is your KH? Without knowing this you won't be able to know your CO2 level. See this link

http/www.floridadriftwood.com/page.asp?id=16

 

[StarOrbs]

I just ordered a master kit that includes everything I need to test. I know the water is soft though, I won't know for sure until I get the kit in a few days. I'll think I'll move them now while the lights are off for the midday break.

On a side note I can see why I got green water my Nitrates are around 40-80 PPM. For some reason my ammonia goes down from around 4PPM to 1 PPM in 23 hours and my nitrite has been 0 for a couple days now.

 

[George Farmer]

For some reason my ammonia goes down from around 4PPM to 1 PPM in 23 hours and my nitrite has been 0 for a couple days now.

Plants use up ammonia and nitrites as a source of nitrogen in preference to nitrate (Walstad, 1999). This is particularly true as your pH is low and the toxic ammonia (NH3) is converted to less toxic ammnonium (NH4).

I look forward to seeing the progress.

 

[StarOrbs]

I just finished seperating the plants and tried to spread out everything more. Won't know for sure what it looks like because I kicked up a lot od debris. I also vaccumed out some dead leaves and other misc waste.

 

[George Farmer]

You have a lot of debris in a cycling tank?

 

[George Farmer]

I've just remembered seeing your tank in Member pics forum and posting there a few days ago - sorry (my memory is shot to bits, a combination of sleep deprivation and long working hours).

It looked great then so I've high hopes for good progress.

 

[StarOrbs]

I certainly hope everything works out alright. The amazon swords are looking great. On some plants there is some dust from the flourite that I kicked up and landed on the plants it's not going to hurt anything will it? It's happened earlier in the week when I first put them in and didn't seem to cause any problems.