Help every plant is dieing

[Sky042]

ok so I have a 46G bo front tank.
water is as follows
PH 7.2
nitrite 0
ammo 0
Nitrate 40-60ppm
3 30W All-Glass brand stock tubes.

Every type of plant I've put in the tank seems to die.
Even anachris which I've previously had sucess with in other tanks.

First question. Could my UG filter be to blame?

I just bought 40 lbs of Tahitian moon sand to change out substrate and get rid of the UG filter with.

Could anything else be the problem that I can't even seem to grow basic plants.
So far I've killed
Amazon Swords
Hornwort
Anachris
and Java Fern.

 

[red-devil0602]

i think ugf tend to suck all the nutrients out of the substrate causing a deficency for the plants try using some plant feed in future

 

[jimbooo]

yep UGF is a big no-no for planted tanks. also your Nitrate is a bit high, try to keep it below 20ppm otherwise it'll damage the plants as well (not to mention the fish!!)

 

[Sky042]

yep UGF is a big no-no for planted tanks. also your Nitrate is a bit high, try to keep it below 20ppm otherwise it'll damage the plants as well (not to mention the fish!!)

I do the best I can to keep it low.
But my tap water comes out at 40PPM so it's not very easy to keep them low without plantlife to consume them.

 

[jimbooo]

I do the best I can to keep it low.
But my tap water comes out at 40PPM so it's not very easy to keep them low without plantlife to consume them.

yikes, what a pain.

okay you need to either go fully planted and add CO2 (diy or hagen option is fine, no need to spend £100's ) which will take care of the nitrate or buy a nitrate remover for your filter.

with the addition of CO2 (seeing as you have almost 2WPG) the plants will be able to usalise more of the nutrients in the water.

depending on your budget you'll benefit from upgrading the tubes as well to the right spectrum for plants. (see GF225's pinned article for options)

hope that helps

 

[Sky042]

I do the best I can to keep it low.
But my tap water comes out at 40PPM so it's not very easy to keep them low without plantlife to consume them.

yikes, what a pain.

okay you need to either go fully planted and add CO2 (diy or hagen option is fine, no need to spend £100's ) which will take care of the nitrate or buy a nitrate remover for your filter.

with the addition of CO2 (seeing as you have almost 2WPG) the plants will be able to usalise more of the nutrients in the water.

depending on your budget you'll benefit from upgrading the tubes as well to the right spectrum for plants. (see GF225's pinned article for options)

hope that helps

Well I've got the funds.

For starters I've ordered 40lbs of Tahitian moon sand to convert the substrate and remove the UGF.

Once that is done I want to look into changing the spectrum of the lighting.

my 125 has 6700k lights on it and I like the look better IMO the All-Glass tubes which are something like 8800K have too much purple in the light.

I was debating between buying 3 tubes or just buying one new fixture I'm undecided yet.

Once I get the substrate fixed I'll consider adding some CO2 and some plants and we'll see where I get.

I'd really love it if I could get some amazon swords growing in that tank.
Also some hortwart(though I'm not sure if my lighting will support it)