[zackg337]

please help!? i am new to the hobby and really admire these beautiful planted tanks. i went out and got some dirt for under the fluorite substrate. for the plants i have anubius, amazon sword, crypts, dwarf sag, corkscrew val and java moss. heres the problem, i set up my tank about a week ago and dwarf sag and val and the sword are just melting. i am currently using a liquid co2 and I'm wondering if a diy co2 system would improve? also the tank i bought was a kit so it came with an led light.. could that be the problem? the light is not strong enough? or is all of this just something these plants got through trying to adjust to these conditions.. thanks in advance guys!

 

[thedood]

Can you post pics? Please also post complete specs and water parameters of your setup.

 

[c9bug]

Dwarf sag does just fine in a low light tank. I would not increase your lighting yet. Many plants melt when they are adjusting to new environments. I would give it a little longer to adapt to your water parameters. In my experience liquid CO2 can sometimes cause some melting if you are overdosing or the plant is not used to glutaraldehyde.

Either way, give it some time to see if it recovers. If other plants start having issues, photos would help solve the issue.

 

[thedood]

I quit using excel because it was affecting my italian val and vesuvius sword.

 

[zackg337]

maybe I'm just overdosing the
dwarf sag looks bad
idk if you can see these tiny pieces of val back here but they're like an inch. looks like some new growth though.

oh and sorry for the bad pics. i have no camera so I'm using Photo Booth on my macbook

 

[dpod]

It's hard to tell exactly what's going on from those pictures, but regardless there are few common issues you might be experiencing.
1) your light is probably on the weaker side, but without knowing which kit it's hard to say. Don't worry about that yet, as the best evidence will be leggy growth.
2) Vals and crypts are notoriously prone to melting during transitions, especially when Excel dosing is involved. Just give them a bit of time, and consider cutting your dose in half.
3) The sword probably is probably transitioning to submerged leaves. I can't find it in the tank, but if it's in the back right then that's definitely an emersed leaf. Watch for new leaves, and try adding a root tab underneath it to give it more nutrients.

you also seem to have some Alternanthera reineckii around the rocks. How's that doing?

 

[zackg337]

its funny because I've heard a lot of people talking about the crypt melt but mine seem to be doing better than the val. i will cut back on the excel for sure. i had the sword in this tank for about a month. it had some great leaves and 2 shoots that were growing leaves and roots. in the process of dirting my tank the sword got a little dry and i had to cut all but 1 leaf. in the week of it being darted i have 2 new growths. i feel the reineckii is doing better than the val. which is funny because i did not expect it to grow in this tank. just picked it up to make the girlfriend happy. do you know if it'll shoot out runners like sag? or do i cut and replant? in the next week i was thinking of building a co2 system. do you think that would be beneficial?