Plant Problems Within 9 Days Of Planting

[hakova]

Hi all,

I just wanted to start this new topic although I have a couple more active at the moment, mainly because this may be a different issue than we were discussing in those. I have planted my 10 gallon tank last Friday night, about 9 days ago with 4 pots of HC, 10 roots of sagitaria subulata, 3 java ferns and one anubias barteri v nana. The problem is with the HC and sagitaria subulata. Some bunches of HC started to rot partially as seen on the pictures below. It is hard to get rid of only the rotten part of a bunch, because all of the bunch comes off when you root them. Therefore, I waited to see how it would progress. Eventually, those bunches that started to show the earliest signs completely went bad, and new ones started to show similar signs. Before I could get the completely rotten bunches out, I had a bacterial bloom today, probably secondary to the rotting plant situation.

I have a yeast-based 1-liter CO2 system, that barely lasts a week, probably because of the room temperature being around 25-27 degrees Celcius. The tank water temperature is similarly 81-82 degrees F. The drop checker displays a dark green to green color. I have no fish in the tank at the moment and was fishless cycling, which wasn't really necessary I learned after being almost finished with cycling. Now, the tank is officially cycled and I was supposed to add some fish today but couldn't because of the bacterial bloom and concomitant NH3 levels of 0.25-0.5 ppm. As of an hour ago, NH3 levels are back to zero, along with nitrites, but the water is still cloudy with biofilm all around. I had a total of 48 watts of light until today. Right now I have only one fluorescent tube of 24w with 650 nm peak, designed for FW plant growth, that goes on for 6 hours a day with the CO2 (2+4 hours with 2 hours of siesta in between).

I did not start adding fertilizer yet. I plan to do it by EI method and the stock solutions are ready for it to be started on Sunday.

I am almost in panic mode right now. I don't want to watch all my plants die. If there is anything very obvious you notice in the pictures below, such as a mineral or nutrition deficiency; or if you think something I am doing wrong is killing these plants please advise. I know my CO2 was not perfectly stable all along, an issue which I tried to address indirectly by lowering the light intensity. Two of the pictures below show HC; the area encircled with red color indicates the "bad" portion of a bunch. The area encircled with yellow color indicates the white floaters of bacterial bloom trapped in the branches of the plant. The last picture shows sagitaria subulata, some leaves of which don't look healthy. I don't think this appearance of the sagitaria leaves happened in a week though.

Thanks in advance for contributions.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I have a yeast-based 1-liter CO2 system, that barely lasts a week, probably because of the room temperature being around 25-27 degrees Celcius. The tank water temperature is similarly 81-82 degrees F. The drop checker displays a dark green to green color.

I have always had CO2 problems with a drop checker that colour. I appreciate that you don`t have a great deal of light now, but with plants disintegrating like yours, suspect CO2 levels. In your case, the siesta period may well help CO2 levels to increase back to normal for your plants.

As of an hour ago, NH3 levels are back to zero, along with nitrites, but the water is still cloudy with biofilm all around. I had a total of 48 watts of light until today. Right now I have only one fluorescent tube of 24w with 650 nm peak, designed for FW plant growth, that goes on for 6 hours a day with the CO2 (2+4 hours with 2 hours of siesta in between).

The brown algae you have is testament to the presence of ammonia at levels that will trigger diatoms. You have a film because your plants are very unhealthy and releasing all manner of lipids etc. in to the water. A lot of people blame fish food for oily films, but it is their unhealthy plants in a lot of cases.

If ammonia is getting processed by a fully cycled filter, then there is something seriously wrong with it not being able to process ammonia from the rotting plants in your tank.

I did not start adding fertilizer yet. I plan to do it by EI method and the stock solutions are ready for it to be started on Sunday.

Personally, I never understand why people don`t dose full EI from day one in an EI tank. How come the plants haven`t needed ferts for nine days?

Admittedly, your plants don`t appear to be growing, so this may not be making things worse at the moment, but don`t neglect their dosing once the CO2 is put right. Adding CO2 increases the importance of getting the other dosing factors right.

I am almost in panic mode right now. I don't want to watch all my plants die. If there is anything very obvious you notice in the pictures below, such as a mineral or nutrition deficiency; Thanks in advance for contributions.

Planted tanks are nothing to do with the fishless cycle, and all to do with getting the parameters right for the plants from the word go. In your case, reducing the light at this stage was a good move until you get your CO2 levels right for the light you are using.

In the future, I would recommend at least two DIY bottles (I know nothing about DIY to be honest) to get the CO2 stable and non limiting and dose your plants with EI. I know some people hold back or dose half for a while, but there is little point watching your plants die, not dose for nine days, then ask if it is a deficiency. Plants will tell you a lot more than drop checkers or test kits, so watch them and be proactive in what you do. Reducing light may well be the biggest step to solving your problems and shows that are putting some thought in to the process.

Dave.

 

[hakova]

Thanks Dave for your detailed answers, as you always do. It has been two days now since I started adding the fertilizers; I will add NPK three days a week and CSM+B two days a week in between. The ammonia levels dropped back to zero, nitrites never moved up from zero but I haven't checked the nitrates since the WC, perhaps that is something I should do tonight.

I am hoping to see a decrease in the rate of plants disintegrating sooner than later. I bought the second yeast bottle as an emergency measure and will start it tonight in addition to the first one I had. I am leaning more towards the pressurized CO2 despite its cost and the small size of my tank.

The brown algae seen on my sagitaria came with the plants when I received them from my online order. I guess I will aim to have healthier new leaves in my tank from this point on, pruning the infested ones in time.

I bought 5 ghost shrimp (Paleomonetes sp.) and 5 harlequin rasboras yesterday and added them to the tank. Wish me luck with those. too.

 

[hakova]

About the surface agitation, the only source in my tank for that is the filter output, which is partially submerged but inevitably agitates the water at the surface. As long as my drop checker indicates CO2 levels ~30 ppm, this should be OK, right?