New Plants look good then Die

[radio jim]

Hello everyone, I am just new to this forum.

I was wondering if you could help me? I have a 36 UK gallon 4 ft tank which houses 4 algae eaters 6 zebra danio's 4 white cloud mountain minnows and a plec. The tank is nicely decorated with slate and pebbles and some nice plants, the problem is that my plants look great for about a week then they start to go brown and tatty. I am running an Arcadia over tank luminaire whith 2 freshwater bulbs and one plant bulb which works out at 114 wats, just over 3 watts per gallon. I am adding leaf zone from Aquarium pharmaceuticals inc once a week and also have a Nutrafin co2 unit running. And still my plants arent growning well. Could anyone please give me some advice on what i can do to get a decent planted tank.

Thanks, James

 

[lucky62]

Hello everyone, I am just new to this forum.

I was wondering if you could help me? I have a 36 UK gallon 4 ft tank which houses 4 algae eaters 6 zebra danio's 4 white cloud mountain minnows and a plec. The tank is nicely decorated with slate and pebbles and some nice plants, the problem is that my plants look great for about a week then they start to go brown and tatty. I am running an Arcadia over tank luminaire whith 2 freshwater bulbs and one plant bulb which works out at 114 wats, just over 3 watts per gallon. I am adding leaf zone from Aquarium pharmaceuticals inc once a week and also have a Nutrafin co2 unit running. And still my plants arent growning well. Could anyone please give me some advice on what i can do to get a decent planted tank.

Thanks, James 

Hi James ,

What types of plants are you trying to grow ?

What are your water params ?
to the forums .

 

[radio jim]

Hi, Im not too sure what plants they are but i will find out for you. Here are the water conditions.

Amonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 7.8
GH 1

I was wondering if i am over filtering my tank? I have an eheim 2234 and a eheim 2008 and an algarde foam air filter?

Thanks again, James

 

[Silly me]

how old is the setup??

IME I found new tanks have cycle for the plants aswell, but this is normaly a month or two after the water is cycled. Brown algae will take over then green algae will start growing on the side of the glass. in this time at hard for some plant to compete with algae and turn brown and look like its dieng..

 

[Link]

James, the Eheim 2008 on it's own should be sufficiant, especially with the fish that you have. They are not messy and the tank is no where near over stocked. I'd take out the sponge filter and just leave in one Eheim of your choice. It sounds like the tank is far to over filtered. Also the Plec won't be doing you any favours either.
Also I'd consider swapping one of the freshwater bulbs for an Interpet Triton. With that, slower filtration and good fertilizer the plants should take hold.
Some plants though can be really hard to keep. You just need to find what you can grow and don't bother with what you can't

 

[konrad05]

You can try adding root fertilizer tabs, it'll be better for your plants and it won't cause a big algae problem.