Plants Dieing

[luke4868]

Hi

A week ago I put some live plants in my tank all looked good etc but now a week on and they are all slightly brown and have tiny holes appearing in them, The tank has ammonia in as it is mid cycle (fishlses) at the moment

Any ideas? thanks

 

[Neon Squid]

I've only had my tank setup since December but also have the same problem.

Even cold water plants I've put in there have dulled in colour and eventually died off over a few weeks. What fish are you keeping? I've got quite a few Endlers and they constantly pick and peck at the plants all day breaking bits off which over time I think is contributing to them breaking down. Also I have quite a lot of snails in my tank, I know there's many ways these can be removed but I've decided to soon invest in some assassin snails which are meant to eat your plant eating snails

Also it may be your light, I until recently only had an LED spot light, don't think this was helping the plant life much so I recently got a really strong halogen spot.

 

[luke4868]

I've only had my tank setup since December but also have the same problem.

Even cold water plants I've put in there have dulled in colour and eventually died off over a few weeks. What fish are you keeping? I've got quite a few Endlers and they constantly pick and peck at the plants all day breaking bits off which over time I think is contributing to them breaking down. Also I have quite a lot of snails in my tank, I know there's many ways these can be removed but I've decided to soon invest in some assassin snails which are meant to eat your plant eating snails

Also it may be your light, I until recently only had an LED spot light, don't think this was helping the plant life much so I recently got a really strong halogen spot.

Hey Neon

Theres no fish in it at the moment, im using Halogen lights, came stock with my Fluval Edge tank

 

[ian]

tiny holes sound like a nitrate deficiency. You're obviously doing a fishless cycle with plants, this is another problem with using plants at this stage of a cycle. Normally the plants would be using the nitrates from fish waste, at the moment they don't have any.

Another thing with newly planted set-ups is that plants need time to settle, a lot of them are grown out of water, so when they enter the aquarium, they start to suffer a bit, unless you're dosing massive amounts of C02. They do eventually adapt with the right care.

 

[luke4868]

tiny holes sound like a nitrate deficiency. You're obviously doing a fishless cycle with plants, this is another problem with using plants at this stage of a cycle. Normally the plants would be using the nitrates from fish waste, at the moment they don't have any.

Another thing with newly planted set-ups is that plants need time to settle, a lot of them are grown out of water, so when they enter the aquarium, they start to suffer a bit, unless you're dosing massive amounts of C02. They do eventually adapt with the right care.

Thanks ianho, also on some of the more 'stringy' plants the leaves have like...cracks in them...same issue? anything I can supplement for the time being?

 

[Tizer]

What plants are they? are you using Co2?

The amount of plants you can put in an aquarium without CO2 is rather limited.

Many will go light green / yellow as the nutrients run out, then develop holes and basically die. This in turn will cause algae on the tank glass.

 

[ian]

again, heres another problem often encountered. I would suggest Tropica Plant Nutrition +, this contain nitrate and phosphate, it also contains Ammonium, which is the bound harmless form of ammonia. This will register on your test kit as ammonia, giving you false negatives. This is why planted tank keepers use the silent cycle, this kind of cycle isn't really for planted newbs though.

IMO/IME i would remove the plants and replant when the cycle has finished.

PS you can use most aquarium plants without C02 as long as the light is low enough. The more light increases the amount of nutrients needed by the plants. A fluval edge has relatively low light.

 

[luke4868]

again, heres another problem often encountered. I would suggest Tropica Plant Nutrition +, this contain nitrate and phosphate, it also contains Ammonium, which is the bound harmless form of ammonia. This will register on your test kit as ammonia, giving you false negatives. This is why planted tank keepers use the silent cycle, this kind of cycle isn't really for planted newbs though.

IMO/IME i would remove the plants and replant when the cycle has finished.

PS you can use most aquarium plants without C02 as long as the light is low enough. The more light increases the amount of nutrients needed by the plants. A fluval edge has relatively low light.

Ok thanks for the info, think i'll just take them out

 

[luke4868]

One thing that might also be worth mentioning is the Ammonia was prcoessing with 24 hours each time, and now it hasnt moved at all in last 3 days or so

 

[Rynofasho]

Just sounds like chlorosis from lack of macronutrients.

 

[Warehouse]

One thing that might also be worth mentioning is the Ammonia was prcoessing with 24 hours each time, and now it hasnt moved at all in last 3 days or so

Check out Gazanimals fishless log, he had the same issue but a huge water change seems to have kicked it into life again.

 

[Whitey_144]

One thing that might also be worth mentioning is the Ammonia was prcoessing with 24 hours each time, and now it hasnt moved at all in last 3 days or so

Check out Gazanimals fishless log, he had the same issue but a huge water change seems to have kicked it into life again.

water change kicked mine in too