Poorly Plants....

[BigIan]

I`m on day 12 of my cycle and over the past few days my plants have become v poorly...

my amzon sword that was thriving a week ago is now coverd in brown patches and other plants arent looking to good...

I`m thinking it could be down to some pesky snails.. but how do i get rid of them?

 

[mantis147]

Its similar to what i had, Im not 100% certain but i would say lack of co2 (carbon dioxide) in the water. Mine thrived when i first put them in but it was like them absorbed it all from the tank & then started browning because of lack of nutrients.

gf225 or jimbooo will know!!

 

[BigIan]

and how would you recomend i solve this without going down the road of getting a CO2 bottle???

as its my first tank and i`m wanting to keep it simple for now also i`ve3 had an out break of alge over the past few days....

 

[mantis147]

I bought a nutrafin unit they are only £20, its like a diy co2. have a look at this link
http/www.swelluk.com/aquarium/co2-and-pl...-system-83.html

 

[BigIan]

hmm i`ll bear that in mind, but as i said I REALLY want to keep it simple for now untill i get used to the whole fish keeping thing...

as i`m not going for a heavily planted tank i`m hopint that once the cycle is over with and i get fish in there maybe it`ll clear up untill then i`ll just have to sit and hope...

is there any chance it could be snails?

 

[Themuleous]

I doubt it's the snails, most just 'graze' on the leaf surface and dont harm the plants.

If you're wanting to keep this tank simple, I guess you dont have fancy lighs, substrate, or dose ferts, etc? In which case the sword probably wont thrive in your tank. I would give java moss, java fern and anubias a try (not red varieties thou) as they'll cope better in low-teck tanks. Have you read the pinned plant thread, it'll give you some ideas as to which species would probably grow better in your tank.

Guess this isn't really want you were hoping for, I have swords in my 'fish' tank and they never do very well so have to replace them every few months to brighten the place up a bit.

Sam

PS I may be totally wrong on the sword front, thats just me talking from my experience, poss other people have had better luck with them and can offer some advice.

 

[BigIan]

On my lights one is pink one is white...

A friend of mine told me it was a t5 light, I always thought t5`s were a kind of volvo...

I`m planning on doseing with a liquid fert and a pelet type fert in the substrate for the plants with roots below ground....

I was just worried that this would feed the alge thats growing in my tank

 

[Themuleous]

On my lights one is pink one is white...

A friend of mine told me it was a t5 light, I always thought t5`s were a kind of volvo...

I`m planning on doseing with a liquid fert and a pelet type fert in the substrate for the plants with roots below ground....

I was just worried that this would feed the alge thats growing in my tank

Volvo? Sorry you've lost me there The easiest way to tell if they are T8 or T5 is to measure the diameter of the tube, T8's are 1inch wide with T5's 5/8 of an inch.

Re the ferts, that sounds like a good idea, the plants will need something to help them grow. Not used root tab/pellet ferts but hear they can work well. I does Leaf Zone once a week as instructed on the bottle to my low tech tanks and that doesn't seem to cause algae to much. I think the key is to do regular water changes and maintenance, and clean any algae off the glass and plants (without being to rough) as you see it. I don’t tend to get any algae that can’t be manually removed. Just my thoughts though, every tank is different.

Hope this helps a bit more

Sam

Sam

 

[BigIan]

i can`t do a water change just yet though as i`m in the middle of cycling....
hmm will dose it up with ferts this weekend and see if that helps...

 

[Themuleous]

i can`t do a water change just yet though as i`m in the middle of cycling....

Why not? In many cases you have to do a water change mid-cycle to stop the NH3 and NO2 getting to high and hurting the fish. Its wont stop the filter cyclining as per normal.

S

 

[BigIan]

I`m doing a fishless cycle and thought that if i added new watter now it would upset things...
as in taking some of the bacteria out of the water aswell as the nitrates and nitrites

 

[George Farmer]

Your swords are "poorly" because there is probably both insufficient light and ideal nutrients in the water. Swords prefer to take their "food" from the roots; do you have a nutrient-rich substrate?

Any excess ammonia levels will harm the plants too. Do you know your pH? If is well over 7 then the ammonia/ammonium balance will be mostly ammonia and consequently damage the sword's sensitive leaves.

 

[BigIan]

Ph is about 6.2 too 6.4

there shouldnt be a problem with light
i have one 38w white lamp and what i`m led to believe is a 38w t5 lamp aswell

they only started showing theese signs very shortly after the amonia drop, and as the nitrItes are spiking...

 

[qwikimpss]

How large is your tank? Your lighting sounds pretty good but you'd need to know US gallonage to know the WPG you have.

 

[BigIan]

roughly 75 us gallons. how does one work out the required wattage?