the leafs from my stargrass are falling out! what am i lacking? they were growing nicely for a week then this happened... maybe a water change would help? or more fish? i have a 50 gallon tank with 3.6 wpg and this is the 2nd week it started... i have a discus 9 baby angels, 5 cory cats, 4 glasscatfish, 2 clown loaches, 2 amano shrimp, and 8 otos and 3 SAE... the CO2 is not a problem other plants are pearling also!
symptoms?
- Thread starter kagentx
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TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have had problems with stargrass doing this, but I have kindof hard water, and I have heard of them having slightly more difficulty in hard water. I had a gourami in there that used the tiny pieces for his bubble nest, and he may have been the entire problem, but who knows. I wound up abandoning this plant due to the prolific debris.
Do you have an iron-rich substrate, like laterite or fluorite? You might check your iron levels.
Do you have an iron-rich substrate, like laterite or fluorite? You might check your iron levels.
thanks for replying =D, anyways, i'm just fed up with not being able to grow plants in my tank, i'm just hoping this time it would be different. i have those hygro sunset plants in there and they are showing red color on the top, i'm planning to order better plants as soon as i get everything settled in. btw tank girl, when should i first change my water?
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
Typically you change your water when your nitrAtes approach 40ppm, but with your discus you will want to keep them lower than that, maybe 20ppm (I am no discus expert, but they are more sensitive and require pristine water conditions). A lot of "master" test kits do not include nitrAte, but for me it is the test I use the most.
malkore
Aquarium Advice Addict
I change my water every week, about 25%, rain or shine. Plants and fish seem to appreciate it.
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
I was changing my water twice a week, until my plants started really eating up the nitrates and now I do it once a week and add potassium nitrate to keep it at ~5ppm.
Mr Burns
Aquarium Advice FINatic
i'm trying to clarify this to myself...TankGirl said:
you were doing water changes twice a week, and that was taking too much nitrate out? plants need the nitrate for growth and is not harmful for fish at low levels, correct?
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
Low levels is fine for fish. In a high light, heavily planted tank like this, with CO2 injection, the plants use every scrap of nitrate and after a week without water changes nitrate still reads dead zero. The plants start to look a little bad and do not grow as well. This is moderately stocked tank.
Water changes are still necessary (in tanks without special conditions like this one I still do more frequent changes) so I went ahead and cut back to a schedule of about 25% every week, and dose the nitrate, potassium and iron. I have phosphate present in my tap. IME, very frequent water changes have kept me from having problems with any kind of illness or fish deaths for over a year, and it is helpful for more than just keeping nitrates down.
I got the impression from Kagentx (maybe incorrectly) that this was a new tank, and my initial response was based on when to do the very first water change after cycle is complete, or after using Bio-Spira.
Water changes are still necessary (in tanks without special conditions like this one I still do more frequent changes) so I went ahead and cut back to a schedule of about 25% every week, and dose the nitrate, potassium and iron. I have phosphate present in my tap. IME, very frequent water changes have kept me from having problems with any kind of illness or fish deaths for over a year, and it is helpful for more than just keeping nitrates down.
I got the impression from Kagentx (maybe incorrectly) that this was a new tank, and my initial response was based on when to do the very first water change after cycle is complete, or after using Bio-Spira.
i'm on my third week now, everything seems fine except for some new leafs turning red on my radican sword, according to some sites, i'm lacking in nitrogen... does that mean i have to feed more or have more fish? i still haven't done my first water change yet
P.S. this site is great, i finally can get some help frm people who actually knows what they are doing instead of some LFS who tells me clown loaches don't eat snails when they do, thanks to you all
P.S. this site is great, i finally can get some help frm people who actually knows what they are doing instead of some LFS who tells me clown loaches don't eat snails when they do, thanks to you all
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
Test your nitrates. Echinodorus are heavy root feeders, so some root tabs might help, depending upon what kind of substrate you have. I do know that the leaves will turn yellow in low iron levels, but I am not sure about red.
Lordy, lordy, lordy....
G
Guest
Guest
Are they turning red after being green, or just new leaves growing and they are red from the start? I ask because my ozelot sword leaves are red at first, then get greener as they age, totally normal. A few sword varieties do this.
I don't have a radicans sword, but I do know that swords are often mis-identified at the store.
betowess
Aquarium Advice Freak
Many "red" plants turn from green to red if they recieve alot of light (which is good). The pigment changes to protect the plant from two much light for photosynthesis. Green hygro will turn tan when its getting alot of light and will grow laterally instead of vertically with alot of light.
I highly recommend reading and re-reading Rex Grigg's post at the top of this forum to get a handle on some of the basics. It will really help to understand some important fundamentals on water chemisty and ferts and cycling a tank which can help save you experiencing a lot of headaches!
Good luck.
I highly recommend reading and re-reading Rex Grigg's post at the top of this forum to get a handle on some of the basics. It will really help to understand some important fundamentals on water chemisty and ferts and cycling a tank which can help save you experiencing a lot of headaches!
Good luck.Similar threads
