[CaliEAB]

I'm new to planted tanks and am slowly sprucing up my equipment to actually grow plants rather than just slow their deaths from years gone by. So, to get started I got plants from my local FS and liked the look of some nice cabomba - lots of stems, nice and green, not too tall. Well, before I upgraded my light from the kit light to a coralife 65, there was lots of browning, etc.

Then I got the light and it took off, became green again :smile: and put down lots of roots. Fast forward 2 weeks and it's tall but getting brown again and is straggly. :icon_frow Everyone in the tank is chewing on it too! THere are lots of mini plants budding off of the naked parts of the stems though. What should I do with this stuff? Can you cut the buds off and plant them? Should I cut the "mother" plants into piecs and replant?

Details - 65 watts @ 6700K, sand over sphagnum, no CO2 (but getting a system soon), using Tetra liquid plant food and as of yesterday, started dosing with Excell Florish.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated! :help:

 

[Coltonorr]

sounds like a nutrient deficiency to me. Cabomba in my experience likes high light, CO2 and ferts.
What kinds of fish do you have? What size tank?
Yes you can cut the mini plants off, they will send off roots

 

[CaliEAB]

Thanks for the reply! It's a 29G and the fish are a mix of black mollys, zebra danios, rummynoses, and there's some MTS. Do the all-in-one plantgro chems from Petco do the trick?

 

[GTR]

They may work better than nothing. But from a chemistry standpoint you just can't mix everything in one bottle and keep in solution.

SteveU

 

[Coltonorr]

Yeah I would go with dry ferts.

 

[CaliEAB]

Yeah - that's true, eh? I was in SF last weekend and went into an amazing planted aquarium shop specializing in ADA gear. The number of options was daunting (and expensive) to my newb eyes. What would you recommend for a newb set up?

 

[CaliEAB]

Dry ferts? Do you put these under the substrate? Like tabs?

 

[CaliEAB]

I just took a quick tour and found sections on the forum discussing this. THis is a great repository of knowledge!

 

[Coltonorr]

no I mix dry ferts in a set amount of water and dose 3x a week. You would have to find out what method you'd like to use.
Rexx Grigg sells dry ferts and also has good writeups about dosing
You can also go with Orlando @ Green Leaf Aquarium

 

[CaliEAB]

Ah! THat makes sense - mix your own is proabbly a lot cheaper too. I'm a short drive from these guys: www.aquariumfertilizer.com ( I got the link from another thread) - they seem to have alot of choices plus a pre-mixed set. What do you think?

 

[Coltonorr]

I like the dry ferts that I mix myself.

 

[CaliEAB]

I like the dry ferts that I mix myself.

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to try some out.

 

[Postal Penguin]

I have heard Flourish Excel melts cabomba, so that may be the root of your problem.

 

[CaliEAB]

I have heard Flourish Excel melts cabomba, so that may be the root of your problem.

Oh! Really? Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Darkblade48]

I have had experience with Excel melting Riccia only. There are others that have experienced Vallisneria melting with Excel. I have never heard of it melting vascular plants such as Cabomba, however.

 

[Coltonorr]

I never had Cabomba melt but like Darkblade said, Val melted nicely for me...:hihi:

 

[CaliEAB]

Yikes - Well, I've been using the Excell for a few days and neither cabomba or my vals have melted (yet). I got a used CO2 system this weekend (woo hoo!) so hopefully, that will help things out. The guy also sold me in his "I have to sell everything now b/c of a move" a pile (20+!!) of small anubias plants. It really looks like a planted tank now! So, hopefully everything will do okay once I get the C02 setup. I'm going to get some proper dry fertz from the folks in Napa.