Help!

[jailawes]

Hey.
Why are my plants dying. Just cleaning my tank and the plants have gone brown and falling apart. I'm new to live plants and this is my 1st time using them. Its a new tank and i'm using play sand instead of gravel. The plants have been planted directly into the sand, is that ok? or should i have used some kind of soil underneath the sand? or is it because i didnt cut the roots after i brought them? i've just lost about 5 plants out of 10 in one tank. any help would be good.

Thanks

 

[Jen]

Can you give us just a bit more information about the tank?

How much light do you have on the tank?
Do you add any fertalizers to the water?
What kind of plants are they?

 

[jailawes]

hey. I'm using a 15W in a Juwel Rekord 60, which has an inbuilt light. I'm using a liquid solution called 'Leaf Zone' which i put in once a week. And i don't know what plants they are, i brought them off of ebay and all i know is that they are 'tropical' plants. The sand is about an inch deep to if that makes any difference

 

[Jen]

Is it possible for you to get a picture of the tank? know what plants they are will really help in figuring out what the problem. Different plants go brown for different reasons.

 

[George Farmer]

Your plants will most likely be suffering from a lack of light.

15W in 60L is low-light for most plants. For a better chance of success you can fit a reflector and replace the suppied tube with a full-spectrum model. See the pinned lighting article for more info.

Until your plants start showing growth signs then avoid using fertilisers. They will encourage algae otherwise.

As Jen suggest, photos of the plants will help us identify them, we can then provide more detailed advice.

 

[jailawes]

hey. Here is a picture i took a few days ago. that red plant at front has lost a lot of leafs now. and there was some more plants, but they've died since that photo.

p.s. the water level is higher now to

 

[Jen]

Red plants need lots of light to stay healthy. They are quite hard to keep in low tech tanks.

The plants on the far left look like a species of valliseneria. They feed through their roots, and benefit more from root tabs than liquid stuff. I can't tell what the other stuff is, but I can tell you that all these plants will do better if you 'un-bunch' them and plant each stem seperately. This way, the light will get to all parts of the plants, and they will grow a bit better.

Any chance you can get a closer pic of the plant in the middle?

 

[jailawes]

sori. thats one of the plants that has died. thanks for your help though. think i'm going to have to start again. if i put soil under the sand does it have to be a special kind or will regular (garden) soil work?

 

[George Farmer]

All those plants need more light that you have I would suggest. The fine green stem plant looks like Cabomba or similar, the twisted reedy plant is Twisted Vallis and the red plant looks like a Alternanthera species – all requiring a fair bit of light.

Secondly you’ll have a better chance of success if you unwrap the bunches of plants from the sponges/lead weights and plant the individual stems an inch or so apart. This allows light to reach more of the plant.

You will also benefit from having a slightly deeper substrate, 2 inches should be ok for most stem plants, more for Amazon Swords or Crypts. Adding nutrients to the sand will also help most plants, this can be achieved using root-tabs or similar or mixing the sand with laterite or similar.

Looks like Jen's ninja'd me!

 

[Jen]

I would stay away from garden soil. It could have some nasty chemicals that might kill your plants and fish. There are several substrates that you can use for planted tanks. I use a mix of sand an laterite, with more sand on top. Then there is flourite, with has the consistantcy of pea gravel, but is nutrient enriched. Those are the only 2 that I know about, there are plenty out there though. Someone in the UK should be able to tell you what is around in your area.

Looks like Jen's ninja'd me!

Score! I am fast like a .... something fast! Oh! A cheetah! I'm fast like a cheetah.
lol.
Im insane today

 

[jailawes]

Thanks you two. both been a great help!

 

[Jen]

How many plants do you hope to have in there? If you want lots of plants, you will need to look into upgrading your lights, possibly modifying your hood to fit a few more bulbs in there.

 

[jailawes]

well thats my breeding tank when its fully ready, so enough to allow the fry to take cover etc. how many would you suggest?

 

[Jen]

Its not really a number question as a how full question. In planted terms, we go by how much of the substrate is covered by plants. My tank is about 80-90% covered. If you are just looking for some fry hiding spots, you don't need too many plants. Maybe some grass of some sort, that val will be good. Maybe look into some java fern or java moss to tie on that wood. That would look great. There are lots of plant that are great for fry, but it depends on how far into it you want to go.

 

[jailawes]

ok, i'm going to have a look into the live plants situation 2mora. hopefully i'll be able to save some of the ones i've already got! Thanks again,