Plant Id Please :)

[Steph2790]

Well I've had these 3 plants in my tank for a good few months now and they don't appear to be doing as well as I thought they would.

When I bought them I asked specifically for ones that were easy to keep and got reccomened these:







I keep my lights on between 7-8 hours and add easy life easy carbo and profito daily so can't see where I'm going wrong unless I was given plants that are quite demanding to keep with my current set up so would be interesting to know what I've got thanks

 

[KirkyArcher]

1st one is a Crypto (looks like an Undulata or perhaps a Cryptocoryne Wendtii variation)
2nd is a Pogostemon (helferi)
3rd looks like Staurogyne reopens

 

[Steph2790]

Thanks! will take a look and see if there's any more info I can find about caring for these plants

 

[KirkyArcher]

probably the introduction of "root tabs" fertiliser would be of great help also!

 

[greenmumma141]

They look nice and healthy and green in the pics, are they just not growing as fast as you would like?

 

[Steph2790]

I did think the pics made them look better than they actually are, the first ones covered in black spots and I have no idea why, second ones old leaves seem to go a light brown colour as soon as new ones grow which then in turn go light brown after a week or so then it's the same with the last one new leaves grow which are nice and green and then soon after turning brown. I've tried root tabs and they sent my water ever so bubbly due to the waterfall effect of the fluval edge filter I have

 

[greenmumma141]

I've read of people having trouble with root tabs before if they're not putting them deep enough. I haven't used them before though so I couldn't say for sure.  How is your water testing? A spike can cause some melting.
 
The last two plants might be a little more tricky, but crypts are pretty easy-peasy.  If your water is testing alright, I would suggest trying a different root tab.  From the pics, it looks like you've got gravel which makes keeping plants much harder IMO. If that doesn't seem to do the job, you could always post in the lights and ferts section. There's some planted geniuses on here lol and they've certainly helped me a long the way

 

[Steph2790]

Water stats are ammonia 0ppm nitrite 0pp and nitrate between 20-30 ppm

Yeah i have black gravel in my tank but wondered about changing to a different finer substrate e.g sand but I quite like the black in my tank at the moment, ide also thought a finer substrate might be better for my small plec

Are there any brands that make black side or finer smooth black gravel that's also better for plant growth?

 

[greenmumma141]

Not sure where you're located, but there's an Eco Complete substrate that now comes in a "fine".  Some people like to use the regular eco complete then cap it with sand.  I've used petco's black sand and really like it