Why are my floating plants melting

[Avel1896]

I've just read it back and Tropica© says spécialiszed has been designed for fishless aquarium or for aquariums that contain very few fish.
I wonder if it would be conceivable to use it as long as there are no fish in tank ?

 

[Byron]

I've just read it back and Tropica© says spécialiszed has been designed for fishless aquarium or for aquariums that contain very few fish.
I wonder if it would be conceivable to use it as long as there are no fish in tank ?

Guess I need to more fully explain this. Nitrogen is a macro-nutrient, but the vast majority of aquarium plants take it up as ammonia/ammonium. They do not take up nitrate unless the ammonium is exhausted and only if the other nutrients are available and the light is sufficient to drive photosynthesis. The ammonium preference of aquatic plants is substantial. For example, when Elodea nuttallii was placed in a mixture of equal parts ammonium and nitrates, the plant removed 75% of the ammonium within 16 hours while leaving the nitrates virtually untouched. Only when the ammonium was gone, did the plant begin to take up nitrates. Likewise, when the giant duckweed Spirodela oligorrhiza was grown in nutrient media containing a mixture of ammonium and nitrate, it took up ammonium rapidly, whereas it virtually ignored the nitrates. Because the plants for this particular study were grown under sterile conditions, the ammonium removal could not have been due to nitrification. Also, the investigator showed that plants grew rapidly during the study suggesting that N uptake was due to the plant’s actual use of this major nutrient. [Cited from Walstad who provides graphs from the study.]

Nitrate uptake does not occur until plants are forced to use it, that is, when all ammonium is gone. Even then, there is a delay, because the setup for nitrate uptake must be generated first. Thus, Water Lettuce required 24 hours to attain its maximum rate of nitrate uptake. All plants use the N from ammonium—not nitrates—to produce their amino acids and proteins. If a plant takes up nitrate, it must convert the nitrate to ammonium in an energy-requiring process called ‘nitrate reduction.’ Plants must expend essentially the same amount of energy (83 Kcal/mol) that the nitrifying bacteria gained in order to convert nitrates back to ammonium.

When it comes to plant fertilizers in an aquarium, no one is going to suggest we add ammonia (assuming fish are present), but adding nitrate in the fertilizer clearly is not beneficial but quite the opposite. It is true that in a tank like my QT for new fish which can sit empty of fish for months, the plants are not exactly "thriving," because of the lack of ammonia/ammonium (nitrogen). But they survive, and when fish are added I have always observed a noticeable improvement in the plants in that QT.

But the above indicates that nitrate (nitrogen) is still not needed even with few fish. The fact that we should strive for as low nitrates as possible (my tanks have for over ten years been in the 0 to 5 ppm range for nitrate) for the health of the fish is reason enough not to be adding nitrate. The level of nitrate in preparations like Flourish Comprehensive is very, very low. As I mentioned, I have never detected nitrates above the 0-5 ppm range, and believe me, my tanks have been well stocked with fish.

 

[Avel1896]

Guess I need to more fully explain this. Nitrogen is a macro-nutrient, but the vast majority of aquarium plants take it up as ammonia/ammonium..................

Thanks a mil for sharing your knowledges
I just put your post as a bookmark. Every one here and there should do the same.

 

[StevenF]

A lot of floating plants have trouble under high humidity or with water constantly dripping on their leaves. Water lilies and lotus struggle, water lettuce and & hyacinth will rot in aquariums with a coverglass, and salvinnia regularly rots under covers.

when I was using flourish comprehensive I could not keep floating plants alive. At one point even duckweed died. I even had problems keeping the plants in the substrate alive.

Now that now make my my own fertilizer all my plants are dong well including Lavinia under a hood with water splashing on it. And during a water change sometimes the slavinia gets tangled in the plants and stays submerged For days. IT NEVER DIES and even the submerged Slavinia still grows..

If plants are strong and healthy they are difficult to kill. but if they are week from persistent nutrient deficiencies a little extra humidity or moisture will kill them.

Could you recommend a product that is better than flourish? Or can i usr another product by seachem such as trace or advanced in addition?

in my 5 gallon with 5 tetras I tried aqueous, flourish comprehensive, macros with flourish trace, and macros with CSM+B. All failed in my aquarium. Over several years trying to get it to work at any light levels I experienced nitrogen, GH, Phosphate, iron, copper deficiencies and i strongly suspect I had a zinc defiecy..

I then found RotalaButterfly.com, a aquarium fertilizer calculator with many commercial fertilizers programed in. This allowed me to compare what I was using at the time Flourish comprehensive with many other fertilizer. I was surprised to find that most were very similar with no significant differences between them Most had no calcium or magnesium or those that did did not have enough. Almost all also had insufficient zinc and copper levels. based on what I was seeing I basically gave up on commercial fertilizers and made my own. Although making your own fertilizer is not simple my first flawed batch performed vastly better than anycomerial fertilizer I have tried.

Since all drinking water in Kuwait is distilled or RO water. and very few aquarium supply stores available to him There are very few things I can recommend.

he does however needs a Gh booster. his tap water GH series from 2 to 8 degrees GH. You want a stable GH for your fish.

remember the macOS are nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phopshate, sulfur and chloride. Since your tapster is chlorinated you don't have to worry about chloride. if you can find a GH booster at a store check the ingredients if it has calcium, magnesium, sulfur, you don't have to worry about those nutrients. many GH boosters also have potassium. Then at the fish stores look for seachem flourish nitrogen, and flourish phosphate. with these you can cover the nitrogen and phosphate needs of plants. 5ppm nitrate and 0.5ppm Phosphate with the GH booster and the chloride in your tap water would cover all your plants macro needs.These can be used with flourish comprehensive. and will work with your tapor RO water.

I also add a sea shell in the aquarium in a high water flow area to help maintain a stable PH of 7.

If you cannot find these products look for the ingredients: Calcium sulfate (CaSO4) magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) potassium nitrate ((KNO3) Monpotassium phosphate (KH2PO4). Then use these with milligram scale and Rotalabutterfly to make a GH booster you want 3 parts calcium to one part magnesium. And use this and a GH test kit to maintain a stable GH. The use the scale and Rotalabutterfly measure the amount of potassium nitrate you need to maintain a 5ppm level in your aquarium. And do the same for phosphate but target 0.5ppm. These can all be added dry to the water or you could make a water mix fornitrateand phosphate. Rotala butterfly can also help you make a water solution. You cannot make a water GH solution. The GH booster must be added dry.

The micros is the hardest part. This micro recipe that I use works best with RO water with a very low KH level. It might not work with your tap water. You need to locate the following ingredients.

• Fe DTPA
• Manganese sulfate (MnSO4)
• Boric acid
• Zinc sulfate (ZNSO4)
• Copper sulfate (CuSO4)
• nickel sulfate (niSO4)
• sodium molybdate (Na2MoO3)
• distilled Vinegar
• RO water

In a 100 Mililiter bottle mix:

1. 100mililiter RO water
2. 2mililiters distilled vinegar
3. 1.89grams of Fe DTPA
4. 292 miligrams MNSO4
5. 1.95 miligrams H3BO3
6. 167 miligrams ZnSO4
7. 74 miligrams CuSO4
8. 42 miligrams of Ni SO4
9. It will take about 1 hour for everything to dissolve into an amber liquid.

In a second 100mililiter bottle mix:

1. 100 milliliters water
2. 24 miligrams NaMoO3)

Note Mo must be dosed seperately from the other micros.

1 milliliter of of each bottle applied to the 5 gallon tank result in a dose of

• 0.1ppm Fe
• 0.05ppm Mn
• 0.018ppm B
• 0.02ppm Zn
• 0.01ppm Cu
• 0.005 Ni
• 0.005 Mo

The best place to find these ingredients on the internet. I used amazon.com and loud wolf.com but I have no idea what is available in Kuwait.

 

[Panadalover93]

when I was using flourish comprehensive I could not keep floating plants alive. At one point even duckweed died. I even had problems keeping the plants in the substrate alive.

Now that now make my my own fertilizer all my plants are dong well including Lavinia under a hood with water splashing on it. And during a water change sometimes the slavinia gets tangled in the plants and stays submerged For days. IT NEVER DIES and even the submerged Slavinia still grows..

If plants are strong and healthy they are difficult to kill. but if they are week from persistent nutrient deficiencies a little extra humidity or moisture will kill them.

in my 5 gallon with 5 tetras I tried aqueous, flourish comprehensive, macros with flourish trace, and macros with CSM+B. All failed in my aquarium. Over several years trying to get it to work at any light levels I experienced nitrogen, GH, Phosphate, iron, copper deficiencies and i strongly suspect I had a zinc defiecy..

I then found RotalaButterfly.com, a aquarium fertilizer calculator with many commercial fertilizers programed in. This allowed me to compare what I was using at the time Flourish comprehensive with many other fertilizer. I was surprised to find that most were very similar with no significant differences between them Most had no calcium or magnesium or those that did did not have enough. Almost all also had insufficient zinc and copper levels. based on what I was seeing I basically gave up on commercial fertilizers and made my own. Although making your own fertilizer is not simple my first flawed batch performed vastly better than anycomerial fertilizer I have tried.

Since all drinking water in Kuwait is distilled or RO water. and very few aquarium supply stores available to him There are very few things I can recommend.

he does however needs a Gh booster. his tap water GH series from 2 to 8 degrees GH. You want a stable GH for your fish.

remember the macOS are nitrogen, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phopshate, sulfur and chloride. Since your tapster is chlorinated you don't have to worry about chloride. if you can find a GH booster at a store check the ingredients if it has calcium, magnesium, sulfur, you don't have to worry about those nutrients. many GH boosters also have potassium. Then at the fish stores look for seachem flourish nitrogen, and flourish phosphate. with these you can cover the nitrogen and phosphate needs of plants. 5ppm nitrate and 0.5ppm Phosphate with the GH booster and the chloride in your tap water would cover all your plants macro needs.These can be used with flourish comprehensive. and will work with your tapor RO water.

I also add a sea shell in the aquarium in a high water flow area to help maintain a stable PH of 7.

If you cannot find these products look for the ingredients: Calcium sulfate (CaSO4) magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) potassium nitrate ((KNO3) Monpotassium phosphate (KH2PO4). Then use these with milligram scale and Rotalabutterfly to make a GH booster you want 3 parts calcium to one part magnesium. And use this and a GH test kit to maintain a stable GH. The use the scale and Rotalabutterfly measure the amount of potassium nitrate you need to maintain a 5ppm level in your aquarium. And do the same for phosphate but target 0.5ppm. These can all be added dry to the water or you could make a water mix fornitrateand phosphate. Rotala butterfly can also help you make a water solution. You cannot make a water GH solution. The GH booster must be added dry.

The micros is the hardest part. This micro recipe that I use works best with RO water with a very low KH level. It might not work with your tap water. You need to locate the following ingredients.

• Fe DTPA
• Manganese sulfate (MnSO4)
• Boric acid
• Zinc sulfate (ZNSO4)
• Copper sulfate (CuSO4)
• nickel sulfate (niSO4)
• sodium molybdate (Na2MoO3)
• distilled Vinegar
• RO water

In a 100 Mililiter bottle mix:

1. 100mililiter RO water
2. 2mililiters distilled vinegar
3. 1.89grams of Fe DTPA
4. 292 miligrams MNSO4
5. 1.95 miligrams H3BO3
6. 167 miligrams ZnSO4
7. 74 miligrams CuSO4
8. 42 miligrams of Ni SO4
9. It will take about 1 hour for everything to dissolve into an amber liquid.

In a second 100mililiter bottle mix:

1. 100 milliliters water
2. 24 miligrams NaMoO3)

Note Mo must be dosed seperately from the other micros.

1 milliliter of of each bottle applied to the 5 gallon tank result in a dose of

• 0.1ppm Fe
• 0.05ppm Mn
• 0.018ppm B
• 0.02ppm Zn
• 0.01ppm Cu
• 0.005 Ni
• 0.005 Mo

The best place to find these ingredients on the internet. I used amazon.com and loud wolf.com but I have no idea what is available in Kuwait.

Thank you so much for this!! I appreciate it .


ps im a girl .

Anyway thank you

 

[Avel1896]

@StevenF
DIY fert is also a way to fertilize, whatever you choose PPS classic, PPS pro, or Tom Barr's Ei, but be carefull when dealing with N and P.

 

[Herbibore]

I suspect the non-frogbit plant is duckmeat.