Plant Keeping...impossible!

[LolaLouie]

My tank is a community tank but I like having a background full of plants.. the problem is everything keeps dying on me! A few of my plant have just rotted from the roots up. My bogwood plants have black dots all over them which I don't know what they (see pic) are the rest have brown spots.



This is what my plants are:

1x Vallisneria gigantea
2x Moss balls
1x Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri)
1x A plant that looks like Vallisneria gigantea but with thinker leaves
1x Bog wood plants (3 species growing on bog wood, 1= small round green leaves, 2= Kind of moss like long threads 3= Java Fern)

I feed weekly with plant food and have removed my carbon.

My tank is a 50 gallon (200 litre).

Ammonia= 0
Nitrite= 0
Nitrate= was 10-20 but my test kit is faulty so haven't been able to test for a week

Any advice on how to keep my plants alive without damaging my fish (in my sig.)? Or are there better hardier plants that I could buy?

Thanks

Gemma

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Hi,

Plants can sometimes be a nuisance if you just throw them in willy nilly and hope that they'll grow (god I sound old "willy nilly" what am i on about lol) If you don't mind me asking, what lighting do you have?? eg. bulbs/wattage/light temp range
Also what ferts are you using?

If we have an idea what what lights & ferts you're using then we'll have a better chance of figuring out your problem

Good luck

 

[SuperColey1]

The plant you have put a picture of is a Java Fern and it looks in good health to me. the 'black dots' are spores where it grows it's young from!!!

Once it does grow some young you may want to remove these leaves leaving only healthy 'un spored' leaves so that the young do not deprive the 'mother' of nutrition.

As per the other poster details of your substrate, lighting wattage, lighting type (T5/T8), reflectors? etc would be great. water parameters have virtually zero input to the plants growing or not contrary to 'guides' that you can read.

Andy

 

[LolaLouie]

My light are 2x 25w tubes 1 is pink.

I use nutrafin plant gro once a week.

My tank is pretty tall it's like 55 cm so I don't know whether that makes a difference.

Thanks

Substrate is gravel.

 

[TribeOfShroom]

The deeper the water, the less light actually penetrates to the bottom (apart from the blue end of the spectrum). Although I could be wrong lol)

2 x 25W = 50W total

Now if your tank is 50US gals, then you have 1 WPG.

Do you have any reflectors? and are the bulbs of any particular brand & model?? This will helps us understand the type of light being generated.

For example: I run 2x 36W Aqua glo's which have a light temp of 1800k or possibly 18,000k .. I'm at work so I can't quite remember lol.

 

[LolaLouie]

Ok I have searched on the internet and can't find any info so I will write everything it says on the light.

Anubias 25W model A101N. The tank is an Amazon Classic and I think it's an own make from a shop near me called World of Water. Nothing comes up when I look because I guess the lights are an own brand.

Do I need to get new lights then?

 

[TribeOfShroom]

Not necessarily. Some plants will grow happily at 1WPG, others have higher light requirements. I think that java ferns are more than happy with 1WPG so you'll be ok there. But I'd do some research on your other plants light requirements.

If you do want to go down the route of higher WPG then I would suggest that you get in contact with the more successful planted tank keepers of this forum. As higher light parameters require a schedule of ferts and possibly CO2, but again I might be wrong.

But do some research as it can't hurt having some more knowledge under your belt We're always learning and those you say they have nothing else to learn, aren't looking hard enough

 

[Azaezl]

Anubias 25W model A101N. The tank is an Amazon Classic and I think it's an own make from a shop near me called World of Water. Nothing comes up when I look because I guess the lights are an own brand.

Just had a quick look for you as I can usually find obscure things(years of practice), only thing I could find was this;

http/www.liubo.cn/en/Lighting.htm

but I'm guessing it's the same company that makes the light / tank you have, you probably just have a discontinued line or something.

 

[SuperColey1]

If its the same light as in the link then it should be OK. What colour is the tube when it is off. White, Pink or Blue.

As per Tribe of Shroom's comments. You are in the low light region which coupled with reflectors is a 'nice' bracket to be in as it means slow growth BUT les pruning, no real need for fertilisation (in a fish stocked tank) and no real need for CO2.

Light is the catalyst for plants growing. The more light you have, the faster they grow (not necessarily better) and therefore the more nutrient they need to grow as fast as they are being driven therefore fertilisers and CO2 are needed to be upped the more light you have.

Same as a car the faster you drive it, the more petrol, oil and water it uses.

Andy

 

[lljdma06]

Which plant specifically is having problems? Is it the Vallis or the Amazon? Another question for you. What is your substrate? Vallis and Amazons are heavy root feeders and need nutrients from the bottom up. You may have also acquired unhealthy specimens, or they may have been incorrectly planted. Rotting from the roots up is suspect to me and implies a lack of circulation or damage of some type.

 

[LolaLouie]

My substrate is gravel.
When I turn the light off both tubes are white.

Although the vallis and the amazon don't exactly look in the best condition the real problem i'm having is with the plant that i can't identify which i no is no use on a forum like this. I would take a picture but the 2 bad ones have rotted away to nothing. On 1 of them the wool around the roots came off, does this make a difference??

Thanks for all the advice btw!

 

[TribeOfShroom]

I think you're suppose to remove the wool around the roots of new plants when planting them. I always do so the roots can spread. I'm not if this will help you, but I found when I had quite coarse gravel that nothing grew or grew healthly. So what I did was, I mix 10kg of fine gravel with the coarse and I found that the plants grew a lot healthier.

As lljdma06 said, Vallis and Amazons are heavy root feeders and as you probably already know, even though your substrate should be fine enough for roots to take a good hold, it needs to be loose enough to allow a flow (otherwise it will stagnate).

If you current have coarse gravel, try mixing it with some finer gravel and see if that helps.

Also (I know it's naughty) but I never gravel vac where my plants are. Because they feed of it (I don't use ferts.. well not yet anyway lol) and because of this I now have alot of Vallis trying to take over my tank. I'm not suggesting you do this, but it may help (depending on tank size, stock etc.)