Plant Dying

[Rodders]

Hello,
 
I have a  Ludwigia sp 'mini super red' I bought as a tissue culture. I tied it onto a real wood bonsai tree and off it grew. It was growing really well, it was lush and green and now its gone a bit 'dead' brown and floppy.
It says its requires medium light and easy to grow and responds well to CO2, so I feel I've covered all of that.
I've seem photos of it grown on a tree is the same way, so don't think that's the problem and it grew really well for a few weeks.
 
I have some grass clumps I've put in the soil and they appear to be shooting and spreading nicely. These were also tissue cultures from the same shop.
 
Its in a 60ltr tank, CO2 injection and I add two doses of plant food a week. Its a TNC complete food http/www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/tnc-complete-250ml-228-p.asp
 
Photo below
 
 
 
 

 

[StevenF]

I have no experience with the plant you purchased.  But as to the TMC complete fertilizer, it is not complete.  I compared it to Seachem Flourish Comprehensive I use and this Wikipedia web sitehttps/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition.
 
Based on the web link you provided, it is missing Calcium, cobalt, sodium, sulfur, and chlorine.  Sodium and Cobalt are listed as beneficial to some plants but not all. sulfur is typically supplied in the form of magnesium sulfate or Copper sulfate but the TMC website doesn't list it.  Chlorine is also essential and it is often supplied with another  nutrient such as Calcium chloride, or potassium chloride.  Again the TMC website doesn't list it.  Sulfate and chlorine may in fact be there but we don't know for sure.  Your tank may have initially had everything  your plants need but after several weeks the tank may be now depleted in some nutrients.
 
I have looked at the ingredient labels on a lot of fertilizer over the last couple of years and most that claim to be complete are not. Seachem Flourish Complete is What I am using now and it works well.  I use RO water in my aquarium so I have had issues with incomplete fertilizers, and other nutrient problems associate with very soft water.  Tap water may or may not have the nutrients you need.
 
You can add a very mall amount of sodium chloride (table salt) to the aquarium to resolve the chlorine, and sodium deficiency, if it is exists. And it would add some iodine which animals need.  For calcium I you add a decorative shell to the aquarium.  Sea shells or clam or snail shells are calcium / magnesium carbonate.  As to the cobalt I don't have a source for Cobalt sulfate which is often used in fertilizers.  However you could purchase Seachem Trace or Seachem Flourish Comprehensive and mix some of that with the TNC your have.
 
The grass can extract minerals from the rock using it's roots.  The plants attached to the Bonsai tree can only get nutrients in the water column or wood of the tree.  Also the  grass may have slightly different nutrient needs than the other plant.  That might explain why one it doing well when the other is struggling.  
 
While you work on resolving the mineral issues double check your drop checker setup and make sure it is set up correctly and is the correct color.  I have seen at least one post where it was found to be the wrong color   Also test your water harness, GH and KH.   These might show other issues.  GH and KH should be close to your tap water reading but if they don't match you might be over fertilizing (probably unlikely) or not cycling enough water weekly.

 

[Rodders]

Wow, top information 

  I'll get on the case with nutrients and look at the Seachem product.
 
I'm in a hard water area and I don't use RO water.
 
Popping to the beach this weekend, so could pick up a shell, actually, the kids probably had some lying around the house, I could drop one of those in?
 
How much salt are we talking about adding, a few grains?
 
Going to read the sticky post on the drop checker, i assume its right, but wont hurt to check.

 

[StevenF]

 
 
Yes my tank is 125 ltrs, 80 x 50 x 35cm. ~30 gal.  Am I right in thinking that its roughly 1in of fish for every gallon of water?

Yes just wash and serialize them to eliminate any residual tissue and salt.  The shells will slowly resolve over time and will probably eventually need to be replaced.  However for my RO aquarium it looks like one Nerite shell will last about 3 years.  For hard water it might go a decade. So very few shells are nneded.   Calcium and magnesium carbonate are only slightly soluble in water and as a result will not have a significant effect on GH or KH.   However if you have hard water you likely have some calcium in the tap water. But with a shell in the tank a safe minimum levels will be maintained preventing any shortage of calcium and magnesium for the plants.   

 

[StevenF]

Sorry that quote was from another forum I replied to.  It should have been your question on using shells from the beach.  
 
As to how much salt to use I don't know.  A few grains is probably not enough   It would probably be best to start small and work up if you see a effect.

 

[Rodders]

Ill clean a shell and pop one in.
Plant looks beyond salvation today, new food arrives tomorrow, so hopefully that might just bring it back.

 

[Kendalltbt]

Are the plants natural? Thay are so natural which makes your aquaria more attractive.