Black plants

[nanofish]

I'm totally new to plants but since I'm starting up a new tank I decided to try and keep some. I'm setting up a biotope so just planned to try one species. A month ago or so I got a bunch of Amazon frogbit off of ebay for pretty cheap. They looked pretty beat to me (the plant newbie) when they came because a lot of leaves were off and all of the roots. I put them in and the next morning saw little roots. From that point on I started getting excited about plants. Something I never thought would happen. I couldn't wait to see how much they grew everyday when I turned the lights on. I was getting new leaves, baby plants, and roots that nearly touched the bottom of my 40 gallon breeder. I thought things were going smooth and it looked really good. Then after about three weeks of that I noticed leaves turning dark brown/black. patches at first that I removed but eventually it was all of my plants dying. I'd like to try again but does anyone know what I did wrong? I'd prefer not to have this happen again. I'm not sure what info you guys need. I didn't fertlize (have since bought Seachem Flourish), I have 2 39W T5 HO 6700 K bulbs sitting right above the tank, no CO2 but an open tank. Any advice for me? I'm open to anything.

I did try to google this but came up with too much nitrates. When I tested that I was only at 20 ppm. So confused.

 

[Patrice]

Well you have the same setup has me. I don't know about you type substrate but for now, what i can tell there only one way to fix it.
Don't add flourish supplement only. You will have lots off algae if you don't balance it with iron, potassium, co2, nitrate, and they others i forgotten .
I think, what happen to me when they turned blacks, was to much iron.

 

[nanofish]

My substrate is quikrete playsand. I haven't used the flourish yet since I sadly killed everything off before hand. So where do I get the other things? Another type of fert?

 

[Patrice]

Sadly you are going in something very expensive maybe less if you live in they US. Fertilizers are found at some aquarium store . But the best one is the powders . You can prepare your own mix just for you and give some to your plants every 3 days, depending how strong your light are. Stronger the light, more you add.

From what i know , there are aquarium plant fertilizer calculator on many site.

Need co2 . Make diy bottle or flourish excel . Excel is more controllable. I use co2 injection, its they only way to reduce the maintenance .

You must read about your plants, see what its needs .

 

[Vircomore]

I did a little digging on Amazon Frogbit, and it looks like its lighting requirements are "medium to lower".

How long do you run your aquarium lights each day? It is very possible with 2x39w T5HO that it was just way too much light and the plants "burnt out".

 

[Patrice]

lighting requirements are "medium to lower".

How long do you run your aquarium lights each day?.

Its very possible that you light are to strong

You need to know you height of your light from the water and the height of you aquarium. Here the site that ex-plane it the best. Look at the second picture and T5HO 2 bulb.


PAR vs Distance, T5, T12, PC - Updated Again Charts

For me i leave it 6 hours on, to control algae. The reason is, i have lots of indirect light. So its on at 12am to 6pm. When under control i will change it to 2pm to 8pm so i can see it at night.

 

[nanofish]

Thanks for the advice guys. When I was researching the Amazon frogbit all the caresheets I saw said moderate to bright lighting. So I actually looked for my light based on that. I left the light on for 10 hours. The water was slightly lowered in the tank so the light was only about two inches from the plants. I was trying to keep an eye out for burnt plants since all the sites I saw didn't really say how far they should be. To be honest though I was looking for something resembling more fire scorched as opposed to dark brown and decaying like. I have yet to see any signs of algae but the plants were only in there 3 weeks and I'm not sure how long it takes before algae shows up. If that is the problem I guess my solutions are shortening the light period, raising the light more, or trying the bulb that came with the tank?

On the CO2 injections, are they necessary for floating plants? When I was researching plants I heard people saying they weren't because the plants got all they needed from the air.

 

[Patrice]

If that is the problem I guess my solutions are shortening the light period, raising the light more, or trying the bulb that came with the tank?

On the CO2 injections, are they necessary for floating plants? When I was researching plants I heard people saying they weren't because the plants got all they needed from the air.

For you lights ,That's the rights wait to do it. Keep it up.

For you floating plants Your right it getting it from they air. But co2 and the rights fertilizer will always help if your having problems with your plants.

Please add your result of the change here, to lets us know what happen.