Struggling with "easy" plants - ferts? lighting?

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nobo

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Hi

Iā€™m really struggling with some plants, so any pointers much appreciated.

Plants that have worked: frogbit (floating surface plant); anubias bateri; marimo moss balls; anacharis (elodea densa) all doing very well.

Plants that havenā€™t survived at all (despite in some cases having been replaced several times):
- None left of any of the following: Vallisnera spiralis (have planted at least 40-50 stems); water wisteria (Hygrophila difformis) and water sprite (Ceratopteris aka indian fern)
- Java moss (a few remnants), java fern (2 leaves left), 53B (a few stands left). The photo shows the tank before most of the plants disappeared. I subsequently added some more (e.g. 53B), but that has also largely gone. My guess may be the light is too low and/or too short, but I thought some or all of these plants ought to be ok in relatively low light conditions. The frog bit was only introduced maybe 6 months in (after this photo was taken), so the light would have been stronger before that.

The tank is now c. 1 year old, but plants have been an issue throughout.

2 photos shows the tank within maybe a few weeks of the introduction of plants (initially vallis, ferns, etc), then the 53B about a month or two ago. I've also included a current photo (with only a tiny bit of the 53B left).

I've just ordered some Easy Life Profito, as I'm guessing it's the lack of macro nutrients that's a big part of the problem. I've also since learned that Flourish is best dosed daily or every other day, as it doesn't last long in the tank in a way that can be taken up by the plants.

NB. I gather it's not possible simply to swapped out the T5s (or T8s) in the Juwel unit for LEDs - you have to buy a whole new lighting unit for c. Ā£140. I rather avoid that if possible. So I guess I'm either looking at replacing bulbs annually (though that also adds up), or finding another way to replace the tubes with another (cheaper?) light. Timing duties are via a smart plug, so no programming needed.


Ferts: Dosing about once a week with c. 2.5ml Seachem Flourish. Some root tabs.
Substrate: Tropica Aquarium Soil (3kg) and c. 2kg Fluval Stratum volcanic soil for planted or shrimp aquarium (c. 2 kg), capped with c. 12kg of fine white sand. Some of the soil has come up on top of the sand.
Tank/lighting: Juwel Rio 125 litre (33g), with ā€œpimpedā€ biogravel filter. Low tech, relatively low light (given floating plants). Lights (T5s I think) are on for 6.5 hours a day. I bought the tank second hand, so I suspect the fluorescent tubes are fairly old (certainly >1 year). The tank is fairly well stocked.

Water: London tap, so pretty hard (DH13), pH c. 7.5. Changing c. 50% every week or so.
I have another 19L/5 gallon shrimp tank (blood mary/RCS and bamboo/wood shrimp) and am having the same issues there (Fluval Stratum substrate).
 

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Lack of light. Try running the lights for 12 hours a day and see how it goes. If you get lots of algae reduce the lighting time by an hour a day and see how it goes. You can have light on for 16 hours a day but the fish and plants need 8 hours of darkness.
 
6.5 hours of low lighting a day is about what you'd want to do for a newly planted tank, ramping up about 30 minutes per week until you get to 8 - 10 hours a day. Make adjustments based on algae and plant growth. So go with more lighting first for sure.

In addition, this link might be helpful. It shows various nutrient deficiencies based on the appearance of the leaves. You might want to check this against how your leaves are looking before the plants die off in case there are nutrient issues on top of the lighting.

 
Agree could be due to insufficient light. And I agree with your statement that daily dosing is better than weekly. What temperature is the tank at?
 

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