[SHA]

Does anyone have any idea why my red root floaters were fine for like 3 months and then randomly just started dying? They even flowered and were spreading like crazy and now I only have a tiny portion of it left. I can’t find anything on what it might be. I thought maybe the light was too much but the light has been on the same setting since I first got them.

 

[Asteroid]

Is it being pushed under the surface at all. I whole leaf needs to be completely above the surface to spread. Ferts?

 

[somewhatshocked]

Note - please be mindful of where you post. Moved to Plants section.

Does anyone have any idea why my red root floaters were fine for like 3 months and then randomly just started dying?

Could you possibly share more details about your setup so people can help you?

What are your water parameters? Could you be more specific about your lighting? Is there a ton of surface agitation? What kind of livestock do you keep? What do you fertilize and how often/how much?

 

[SHA]

Is it being pushed under the surface at all. I whole leaf needs to be completely above the surface to spread. Ferts?

Nope not being pushed down. I have a ring around what I had so that it wouldn’t even go towards the filter. I haven’t dosed any ferts yet because I’m trying to figure out what the best one would be considering I have shrimp. I don’t want to kill them 😂.

Note - please be mindful of where you post. Moved to Plants section.



Could you possibly share more details about your setup so people can help you?

What are your water parameters? Could you be more specific about your lighting? Is there a ton of surface agitation? What kind of livestock do you keep? What do you fertilize and how often/how much?

I haven’t checked my water parameters recently so that I can’t really say accurately but I can check if it’ll help people help me better. My lighting is a Chihiros c2 rgb and it’s cycle is for 12 hours R 70% G 35% B 51% (I’m not sure if you needed that cause I’m new at this but yea lol). I’ve tried other lighting amounts and I found that this one helped my plants growth and colors the best. There is almost no surface agitation for the floaters because I have a ring around them. I have 10 Pseudomugil Gertrude and three orange shrimp, one of them have eggs. Because of the shrimp I haven’t started fertilizing anything because I’m scared of killing them and I’m trying to pick out the best fertilizer that won’t just wipe them out. There’s a couple random snails that I missed when I was adding some new plants and I’ve seen them on perfectly good red root floaters and then next thing I know it has holes in it so I usually remove the snails when I see them especially since I don’t want a bunch of snail babies. My setup is almost 6 months old.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Snails play an important role in a planted tank, as they generally only eat dead or decaying plant matter. If they're eating your plants, they're likely dead or dying in the areas they're eating. Snail populations won't get out-of-control if they don't have an overabundant food source. It's just a myth that they need to be removed from a tank.

Definitely check your water parameters. And let us know more about your specific light. How far away is it from the surface of the tank? It's possible they're being cooked a bit, for lack of a better term, due to seasonal changes with the weather. But I'm leaning more toward a nutrient issue.

 

[SHA]

Oka

Snails play an important role in a planted tank, as they generally only eat dead or decaying plant matter. If they're eating your plants, they're likely dead or dying in the areas they're eating. Snail populations won't get out-of-control if they don't have an overabundant food source. It's just a myth that they need to be removed from a tank.

Definitely check your water parameters. And let us know more about your specific light. How far away is it from the surface of the tank? It's possible they're being cooked a bit, for lack of a better term, due to seasonal changes with the weather. But I'm leaning more toward a nutrient issue.

Okay thank you, I was putting the snails in another tank cause I didn’t want to kill them but now I just won’t remove them. I’ll check my water parameters and be back with them in a few. Should I test for everything or is there something I should target more? My light is 6 inches away from the surface it’s the highest it can go. I did think I was burning them because of the marks on some of them but I agree it might be a nutrient issue since they were fine at first and just started doing bad after a while. Maybe they had nothing more to “eat”. Thanks for your help.

Snails play an important role in a planted tank, as they generally only eat dead or decaying plant matter. If they're eating your plants, they're likely dead or dying in the areas they're eating. Snail populations won't get out-of-control if they don't have an overabundant food source. It's just a myth that they need to be removed from a tank.

Definitely check your water parameters. And let us know more about your specific light. How far away is it from the surface of the tank? It's possible they're being cooked a bit, for lack of a better term, due to seasonal changes with the weather. But I'm leaning more toward a nutrient issue.

Also sorry for posting in the wrong thing at first, I didn’t know.

 

[somewhatshocked]

If you have liquid test kits, definitely test for everything you can. That will be helpful for others to give you better recommendations. If you have water hardness tests, please also check those numbers.

I'm most interesting in seeing nitrates but providing everything you can will help - including water temperature.

Additionally, could you provide more photos of the tank?

 

[SHA]

I’m not home yet but this is it during its water change last week I hadn’t filled the water back up all the way yet. During the water change I had added the Monte Carlo and extra hair grass that’s why it looks like that there lol but that’s it.

If you have liquid test kits, definitely test for everything you can. That will be helpful for others to give you better recommendations. If you have water hardness tests, please also check those numbers.

I'm most interesting in seeing nitrates but providing everything you can will help - including water temperature.

Additionally, could you provide more photos of the tank?

My ph is 7.4, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, and nitrates are also at 0 ppm. Temperature is 74°F. I’m also noticing there might be a start of blue green algae even though I’m not too sure since it’s one tiny spot. Maybe that has something to do with the problem.

 

[jake21]

Are the plants that are dying drying out? It looks like they are clumping up. In my tank ( I have red root floaters) they have to spread out a bit as the ones in the center of the clump sometime get squeezed upwards.... I think the leaves prefer to actually be touching the water.

 

[somewhatshocked]

My ph is 7.4, ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, and nitrates are also at 0 ppm. Temperature is 74°F. I’m also noticing there might be a start of blue green algae even though I’m not too sure since it’s one tiny spot. Maybe that has something to do with the problem.

Any idea about your kH & gH? kH is likely fine but I'm wondering about gH specifically.

From the looks of it, there's not enough fertilization going on and your tank looks really new. I would try adding a bit of fertilizer once per week. You won't kill your shrimp. Just don't over do it. You could get something as simple as Seachem Flourish and dose once per week after your water change and see if things improve.

In the interim, you could take some of your Red Root Floaters out of tank and place them in a container with nutrient-rich water to see how they do. That way you don't lose them all.

You could also try adding Frogbit and Salvinia.

 

[SHA]

Are the plants that are dying drying out? It looks like they are clumping up. In my tank ( I have red root floaters) they have to spread out a bit as the ones in the center of the clump sometime get squeezed upwards.... I think the leaves prefer to actually be touching the water.

Everything has been touching the water except the couple of new growths that are growing above the old leaves. Right now I barely have any so they’re not being squished together or anything like that. They just randomly started dying they were perfect and flowering early June. I thought they were drying out too but they’re soft when I touch them not crunchy or dry. I do see what you’re saying though, what looks like is overlapping others is new growth that is connected to what’s under it. Usually I separate the new growth from the old stuff so that they’re not so high up off the water surface and they start growing roots pretty much right away but maybe I’m messing up their process by doing that?

 

[SHA]

Any idea about your kH & gH? kH is likely fine but I'm wondering about gH specifically.

From the looks of it, there's not enough fertilization going on and your tank looks really new. I would try adding a bit of fertilizer once per week. You won't kill your shrimp. Just don't over do it. You could get something as simple as Seachem Flourish and dose once per week after your water change and see if things improve.

In the interim, you could take some of your Red Root Floaters out of tank and place them in a container with nutrient-rich water to see how they do. That way you don't lose them all.

You could also try adding Frogbit and Salvinia.

I ordered the test for that since I don’t have it right now I’ll test it as soon as it gets here on Wednesday. Yea it’s pretty new at 6 months old thank you for your input I’ll try getting fertilizer ASAP then. Thanks for the reassurance about the shrimp lol

 

[somewhatshocked]

I ordered the test for that since I don’t have it right now I’ll test it as soon as it gets here on Wednesday. Yea it’s pretty new at 6 months old thank you for your input I’ll try getting fertilizer ASAP then. Thanks for the reassurance about the shrimp lol

As long as you stick to the less is more philosophy, as you obviously are, you'll be fine.

You've got enough plants that they'll use up any fertilizer you add to the tank pretty quickly - especially if you dose on the low side. So no real concern for shrimp.

One other thing that I've found helpful for Red Root Floater is to section off part of the tank for them. Not just in a circle as you've done (which is totally fine) but with a section if airline tubing or fishing line running from the back to the front of the tank. When there's more room to spread out, it tends to do a bit better.

Frogbit is the plant I've had the most luck with over the past few decades because it does best with flow. I usually stuff some of it behind my spraybars and allow it to grow out into the flow like this (from an old tank journal of mine):

As long as mother plants remain anchored, baby plants do well and spread out like crazy in high flow.

 

[jake21]

my kh is 3 and gh is 7 ph is 7.1 and i fertlize about once a month maybe less. Stuff grows like wild flowers - current is almost not. This is an fyi - oh and i feed it very high light.