Plants Aren't Doing Great - Advice Appreciated... Pics Added!

[Ryan_W]

Hi all,

This is my first post in this section, so be gentle!

I've currently got two tanks, both with around 6 - 10 plants in each. Unfortunately I'm one of those 'I'll buy it if it looks nice' hobbyists, so I can't give you a list of which types I have.

Basically, a few plants seem to be doing great, growing well (mostly the larger plants), but a lot of the smaller plants, especially the grasses are dieing off, slowly.

Both tanks have around 12 hours of light a day, I use the Ferropol twice a week. They're planted in sand and have regular water changes. I use Seachem Prime as my dechlorinator, and dose Seachem Stability once a week.

Fish are fed once a day and pay no attention to the plants (don't nibble them). I've got a couple of snails in the tanks (came with the plants) but I haven't seen them eating the plants either.

So, what can you plant gurus suggest? What am I not doing/doing wrong?

I look forward to your input,

Ryan

 

[ian]

I've currently got two tanks, both with around 6 - 10 plants in each. Unfortunately I'm one of those 'I'll buy it if it looks nice' hobbyists, so I can't give you a list of which types I have.

can you post a pic and we'll ID then for you, you may have some non aquatic plants.

Also, can you tell us what lighting you have in your tank.

 

[Ryan_W]

Ok, got some pics for you lot to have a look at...

Tank 1:

Full Tank Shot

LH Side

RH Side

Tank 2:

Full Tank Shot

LH Side

Middle Shot

RH Side

So what have I got and why are they doing so badly? All were bought from my LFS so should all be aquatic?...

The lighting unit in Tank 1 comprise of 2x 15W 'daylight' bulbs, and the lighting unit in Tank 2 is the standard Juwel Rekord 800 setup (2x 18W T8 tubes).

I look forward to what you think may be the issue(s) here.

Cheers,

Ryan

 

[SuperColey1]

Is it just the 'grasses' that are the problem? The plants in the pictures look fine.

That little plant in front of the rocks looks like HC in emersed form to me. If so you may struggle to keep that going but it looks OK at the minute. Nice amount too.

Can you detail stocking in both tanks and substrate details. Plain gravel/Sand/ Anything underneath etc.

Lighting is too long really for a planted tank. 8-10 hours is the standard.

Your second tank is fine lighting wise 36W over a 120/125Ltr is low light.

Can you tell us the tank volume for the first tank.

Not that you need fertiliser (IMO) but you are basically dosing just trace without any NPK and from the pictures looks like the stocking is quite low and therefore no real natural source of NPK.

AC

 

[Ryan_W]

Thanks for that detailed reply...

Here's the details you asked for:

Tank 1:

64L / 14 Imp. Gal
1.5" sand all over, 1" gravel added at back
6 Platies, 6 Albino Cories, 10 Platy Fry

Tank 2:

110L / 24 Imp. Gal
2" sand all over, 0.5" gravel added in rear corners
6 Emperor Tetras, 6 Leopard Cories, 6 Cherry Shrimp


There's a few (4-6) snails in both tanks which came with the plants, could these be a problem?

So if I up my stock numbers (fish), the plants could come along a bit better? It is mainly the smaller plants that are struggling. Strange thing is, I added 3 fine grasses into Tank 2, one is thriving, one is doing ok, and the other is really struggling?! Any ideas?...

Thanks a lot,

Ryan

 

[SuperColey1]

Not exactly. What I was doing was weighing up the fact that the fert has no N&P and then seeing if the fishload+appropriate food and/or substrate would be bridging the gap.

Tank 1 stocking looks like it should be OK

Tank2 2 is a little short. NPK addition or increase 1 of your groups in there. i.e. 12 Tetras or 10 Corys. TBH and others look at this situation differently I can't see any point in adding anything if you don't need to. That includes root tabs. Why add it if its ain't needed. Given the choice of more fish oor add nutrient I know which I would go for If after more fish then it needs nutrient then so be it but I'll go for the lifestock I can watch first.

The snails are only a problem if you don't like them. They will be eating detritus and algae in the main and not touching the actual plants.

The trouble with many of the smaller plants is that they are referred to as 'highlight' plants. They are in fact 'high CO2 plants' in that people have for years correlated the highlight they have instead of the improved CO2 they had with the highlight.

What this means is with much better flow they can get a higher level of CO2 down to the substrate level. Now this is not going to be the ppms that you get in the uper regions of the tank but closer to 8ppm or so. this is enough for them.

If it were possible to keep the substrate level at 8ppm whilst injecting only 8ppm then no-one would be injecting 30ppm to the upper section. however the nature of the beast is that gas rises and therefore the lower down you are in the tank the less CO2 you get. This is turned on its head of course when you go full walstad style with 'rotting' soil substrate as this produces its own CO2.

I would steer clear of the smaller plants in a non CO2 tank. Maybe try java moss tied to slate or something similar.

AC