To Plant Or Not To Plant

[leecara]

I have an 89 litre tank, 7 fish at the momet 2 x filters, the shop told me that 2 x live plants are a good thing to help with the nitrate and to give the fish something to feed on while I not feed them too much due to the cycling process.

So do I keep these 2 x pants, 1 of them is doing fine and the fish seem to like it, the other seems to be dying and should be tall and skinny but I have had to chop it as the leaves have gone brown....

So should it stay, or should it go.


only been in their about 5 days

Many Thanks

 

[leecara]

sorry for the delay in getting back, it's been a bit hectic over christmas, i will try to put on a picture but it will be tomorrow now, so watch this space.

 

[jimbooo]

a good rule of thumb (not 100% accurate but 90%)

aquatic plants will not hold their structure out of the water, if you hold the base the top will droop all over your hand and forearm.

non aquatic plants will stay upright.

bear in mind that aquatic plants use their boyancy (sp?) to support themselves rather than a thick strong stem which is the backbone of most land plants.

that said plants have differing lighting requirements. if they are both aquatic then the failing plant could require high light which i doubt you have if your just starting out. a normal off the shelf tank will never have enough light to support high light plants. hence it would start to die off as you have seen.

when we have a picture we can pinpoint the problem pretty easily.
over to you...

 

[leecara]

HI,I have been trying to put the picture on here, but it is too large, I don't know how to re-size it

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[leecara]

Hi, hope this works, this is the plant that I have in my tank - I have another but that one seems ok ( iwill get another pic of that one later), as I said it did have tall spiral stems attached but they have fallen off, the dwarf honey gouramis seem to like it, but I have had to chop all the tops off as they were all very brown. Id this plant going to damage my tanks as it seems to be dying.

I am hoping that it is ok.

By the way the plant is the green one in the front.

 

[leecara]

Is there any one one who can ID this pant and tell me how much light it needs, and also if the leaves are slighlty brown which some are should i be removing them? as i heard this can damage the water stats.

 

[Daz CPFC]

The plant is:

Vallisneria spiralis

More infomration can be foudn here:

http/www.aquahobby.com/garden/e_spiralis.php

Also it would be a good idea to remove any dead leaves.

 

[leecara]

Thank you, for the link, but it doesn't say how many hours of light it needs, i leave my on for about 8 hours a day, no more than that, do you think this will do, do the dead leaves put anything nasty in the tank that I should test for.

I didn't want plants originally as i heard they were hard work, but my LFS said they were a good idea and now i have 2. (different ones)

If I am going to keep them i would like to care for them properly

 

[ICEEGRL]

usually 5 on, 2 off, and 5 on to help prevent algae.
Plants are good. I started with just a few. I am now working on planting the whole thing. They do take some effort, but it is well worth it.
Good luck!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

whats your ph? vallis tends to do much better in a higher ph that could be the problem

 

[leecara]

PH is 7.6

I have taken off dead leaves this morning, i was wondering, could they damage the tank if they are brown and dying, I have put in some new tetras 2 days ago and their gills look slightly red, but my readings are ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 10, I have 2 x power cuts 1 last night for 4 hours and the other the night before (the day i bought thhe fish home) for 4 1/2 hours, i kept the fish warm, but am worried in case anything from the zeo carb could have leaked into the tank that I can't pick up on.