New tank, plants melting

3057 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Iruga, Mar 21, 2017

Iruga

Discussion Starter · Feb 21, 2017 (Edited)

Hello,

I'm a bit new to planted tanks, and I'm having a problem.

I've had a 23ish gallon tank running for a while, Pool filter sand for a substrait, and various plants. I've been using Seachem products, flourish, iron, excel. the plants in this tank either grew well, or just didn't have much noticeable change.
Edit: This tank no longer exists. It was tanked down to be prepossessed and all plants moved to the bigger tank

I recently set up a new tank about 55g (probably a bit less as I've built an internal filter/sump in it)
this tank is the problem. I have a few plants in here as well. but most of them melting. especially the Nymphoides Hyrophylla, and some amazon sword (I think it's amazon sword anyway). This tank is much brighter than the old one. I'm using 2 t8 bulbs, 32w, 48inch. one is a specific bulb for plants gro-lux (link). I don't have the package handy. the other bulb is 6500k 32w, 48 inch. I'm using CaribSea Eco Complete for the planted sections of the tank ( I have a "river" of sand in the middle of the tank, but nothing is planted there)

Also I have some Anubias as well that seems to be doing ok, aside from the tips of the leaves curling downwards.

So I was hoping someone could give me advice on why my plants could be melting.

a few possibilities I've found from looking around include a co2 deficiency, but I thought dosing with the Seachem stuff was handing that. I haven't used co2 in either tank, though the Nymphoides Hyrophylla was/is growing well in that tank.

the other thing i saw was that to adapt to the new conditions plants will sometimes shed their leaves and grow new ones. this would make more sense for the Nymphoides Hyrophylla than for the sword, as I took the Hyrophylla out of one tank and planted it in the other. the nutrients should be much greater in the new tank because of the better substrait. The sword though was in a tank with eco complete at the LFS I got it from and its melting much more slowly than the hyrophylla.

In any case thanks reading this far and hopefully with your help I can figure this out and fix the issue.

EDIT:
So it's been a while, I've ordered some CO2 equipment to see if that makes a difference, Starting smaller. In the mean time I have a bit of an update on the plants I have.
Any additional input would be appreciated.
In the image below is kind of a status of my tank compared to the old tank.
Both tanks were being dosed with flourish, flourish excel, and flourish iron.

See less See more

Save

1 - 4 of 4 Posts

SprManKalEl

· #2 · Feb 21, 2017

Excel could be melting the plants. Not all plants can be dosed with it. Happened to me. I'm no expert but the stem plants are the most sensitive to it. I would do a 50% water change and start over without Excel.

Also. I've noticed that tips of my leaf plants die if allowed to get dry. If they're growing above the water or the water level is too low then make sure that you raise it or prune.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

Save

Iruga

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 21, 2017 (Edited)

SprManKalEl said:
Excel could be melting the plants. Not all plants can be dosed with it. Happened to me. I'm no expert but the stem plants are the most sensitive to it. I would do a 50% water change and start over without Excel.

Also. I've noticed that tips of my leaf plants die if allowed to get dry. If they're growing above the water or the water level is too low then make sure that you raise it or prune.

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reply.

nothing is above the water yet, so That's not an issue I'm currently facing.

as for Excel, I use it in the smaller tank where I took the Hyrophylla from, and it didn't melt in that tank. would it still be a likely cause in that case? would over/under dosing cause this?

Save