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23 Posts
Hi everyone!
I’m here today because I just can’t pin down why my freshwater tank fails to flourish. All my plants turn brown or melt away and eventually die no matter what I do.
I have a 55 gallon and here are the test results at the moment of posting.
Water: Tap w/ Prime
NO1: 50mg/l
NO2: 0
cl2: 0
ph 7.1 (regulated with alkaline buffer)
kh 9.5°(drops) 40ppm(strips) (highest I’ve seen it so far)
gh 4°(drops) 25ppm(strips)
co2 22.6 ppm(coming up to ~30ppm)
Nutrients: Easy Green AIO and root tabs
Substrate: Imagitarium black aquarium sand
Plants: root, floaters, free standing.
Filtration: aquaeon canister with filtered overhead return
Lighting: 4 x 22” full spectrum led panels
So I set my tank up over a year ago.. sand, driftwood, a few plants, and fish. Waited my cycle then added more fish and plants. Plants died, most fish died, wasn’t a good run.
Bought a better test kit, but still everything passed except ph. Ph from the tap is 7.5, but after a week in the tank you would find it in the 5s. Something in the tank is bringing the ph down to lethal levels.
Months passed and motivation fell off. Nothing like losing everything over and over. A few fish were hearty enough to make it, but no plants survived. Even the snails shells were eat away from the acid and eventually cracked and chipped killing the snails, or at least allowing them to be eaten.
One day I just said enough is enough, I’m tired of looking at a pathetic tank. I’m either gonna figure this out or shut it down.
I started using alkaline buffer to make the ph rise from the falling 5s to 7+ and keep it there. When it falls below 6.5 again(as it will after about a week) I add the alkaline buffer again to bring it back up.
I assumed this would help as the ph was the only thing out of spec on the test strips. I ordered some plants and bought more fish, and although my fish survival rate improved (only lost 1 fish since), I can’t say my plants were doing very good. Browning and melting down to nothing in a week to ten days.
Decided to start checking other possible parameters for problems and bought another test kit. The kh and ph told me I was severely deficient with my co2 levels.
According to the internet you don’t even need co2, and that driftwood adds co2, so do fish, waste, water movement, excess food, etc.. all the things I have plenty of, yet somehow I have very low co2 per the test. Again I feel confident I’ve found my issue.
Installed a co2 reactor, dialed it in to 25-30 ppm for 8 hours a day, and waited. My co2 checker finally started turn green, and I’ve held it there every since.
Much to my satisfaction, my plants stopped dying.. or at least dying quickly. Now what took a week to completely die and disappear, I’m getting a solid 3 weeks before any browning at all.. but it is all still browning, and definitely not growing. I have root plants, floating plants, and plants that sink but don’t really float. All plants are still browning no matter where they get their nutrients from.
Next I started fertilizing them more. I was using Flourish, but switched to Easy Green after it didn’t seem to make any difference. Then added root tabs for the plants that pull from the substrate.
Unfortunately though, even after co2, root tabs, Easy Green AIO, and all my other attempts, I just can’t seem to get these plants to thrive, or even grow at all.
I’m finally tagging out for help, I don’t know what I’m doing that’s so wrong, I’m doing so much more than most people I’ve ever known with a freshwater tank.
Can anyone here help put me on the right track, I’m desperate to be over run with greens and reds and not just from the livestock.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully save me from this plant purgatory!
-shane
![1026348]()
I’m here today because I just can’t pin down why my freshwater tank fails to flourish. All my plants turn brown or melt away and eventually die no matter what I do.
I have a 55 gallon and here are the test results at the moment of posting.
Water: Tap w/ Prime
NO1: 50mg/l
NO2: 0
cl2: 0
ph 7.1 (regulated with alkaline buffer)
kh 9.5°(drops) 40ppm(strips) (highest I’ve seen it so far)
gh 4°(drops) 25ppm(strips)
co2 22.6 ppm(coming up to ~30ppm)
Nutrients: Easy Green AIO and root tabs
Substrate: Imagitarium black aquarium sand
Plants: root, floaters, free standing.
Filtration: aquaeon canister with filtered overhead return
Lighting: 4 x 22” full spectrum led panels
So I set my tank up over a year ago.. sand, driftwood, a few plants, and fish. Waited my cycle then added more fish and plants. Plants died, most fish died, wasn’t a good run.
Bought a better test kit, but still everything passed except ph. Ph from the tap is 7.5, but after a week in the tank you would find it in the 5s. Something in the tank is bringing the ph down to lethal levels.
Months passed and motivation fell off. Nothing like losing everything over and over. A few fish were hearty enough to make it, but no plants survived. Even the snails shells were eat away from the acid and eventually cracked and chipped killing the snails, or at least allowing them to be eaten.
One day I just said enough is enough, I’m tired of looking at a pathetic tank. I’m either gonna figure this out or shut it down.
I started using alkaline buffer to make the ph rise from the falling 5s to 7+ and keep it there. When it falls below 6.5 again(as it will after about a week) I add the alkaline buffer again to bring it back up.
I assumed this would help as the ph was the only thing out of spec on the test strips. I ordered some plants and bought more fish, and although my fish survival rate improved (only lost 1 fish since), I can’t say my plants were doing very good. Browning and melting down to nothing in a week to ten days.
Decided to start checking other possible parameters for problems and bought another test kit. The kh and ph told me I was severely deficient with my co2 levels.
According to the internet you don’t even need co2, and that driftwood adds co2, so do fish, waste, water movement, excess food, etc.. all the things I have plenty of, yet somehow I have very low co2 per the test. Again I feel confident I’ve found my issue.
Installed a co2 reactor, dialed it in to 25-30 ppm for 8 hours a day, and waited. My co2 checker finally started turn green, and I’ve held it there every since.
Much to my satisfaction, my plants stopped dying.. or at least dying quickly. Now what took a week to completely die and disappear, I’m getting a solid 3 weeks before any browning at all.. but it is all still browning, and definitely not growing. I have root plants, floating plants, and plants that sink but don’t really float. All plants are still browning no matter where they get their nutrients from.
Next I started fertilizing them more. I was using Flourish, but switched to Easy Green after it didn’t seem to make any difference. Then added root tabs for the plants that pull from the substrate.
Unfortunately though, even after co2, root tabs, Easy Green AIO, and all my other attempts, I just can’t seem to get these plants to thrive, or even grow at all.
I’m finally tagging out for help, I don’t know what I’m doing that’s so wrong, I’m doing so much more than most people I’ve ever known with a freshwater tank.
Can anyone here help put me on the right track, I’m desperate to be over run with greens and reds and not just from the livestock.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully save me from this plant purgatory!
-shane
