Help!! Dying plants.

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Mcgolg76

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 7, 2013
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Two week into a fish in cycle. Planed my tank and it looked great. Two weeks later and plants look a mess. Using an led light so asked for easy plants that required low lights. Had lfs employees pick for me and wish I paid better attention to what i got. Using gravel substrate and the flourish drops. Just got root tabs yesterday.

These are my before pic
 

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These are current pics. Any help would be appreciated
 

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Your sword plants need root tabs as they are heavy root feeders. You will see a big improvement once they get the nutrients they need. Any really bad looking leaves need to be trimmed off so the plant doesn't waste energy on them.

The grassy looking plant looks like it's acclimating. Melting leaves on plants that new is not uncommon. Just give it some time.

The stem plants... to me they look like they are in their emersed growth form which means they have to undergo a leaf change to their immersed or submerged form. This takes time. But I can't tell if leaves are missing due to rough handling, acclimation or too little light at this point. I doubt your light is going to support their growth very well.

Adding a liquid carbon daily can help a lot and you need to at least be using Seachems Flourish Comprehensive and API Leaf Zone for extra potassium and iron weekly. A better option would be dry ferts as they provide all the proper macro and micro nutrients you plants need.
 
Just started using root tabs yesterday. So really just need to be patient. Seems like my initial water changes might have been a little rough cause saw a bit of plant debree afterwards. Do I really need to upgrade my light. Thought I have low level light plants. Higher growth not super important. Just want them to stay alive and green.
 
No you don't need to upgrade your lighting but as is the stem plants may not flourish. Using a liquid carbon daily will aid plants in photosynthesis and growth especially in lower light tanks. It helps them to utilize the light that they do get. I run 2 low and I mean low light tanks, use liquid carbon daily, and grow a variety of plants, including some stem plants that normally couldn't be grown in that light level. I'm not saying liquid carbon is a miracle additive but it definitely helps a lot. Plus even low light plants do much better with ferts and I don't consider those stem plants, which I can't identify as I'm pretty sure they aren't in their submerged form, low light.

You can buy Metricide 14 Day Solution on line for about $20 and $7 for shipping, mix it at a 1:1 ratio with RO or Distilled water, and get 2 gallons for $27 bucks. That is dirt cheap compared to a name brand like Excel. Start dosing at 1ml per 10 gallons of tank water and after a couple weeks increase dosage to 1ml per 5 gallons of tank water.

If you start using Glut and give the plants ferts you will see improvement. You can always upgrade lighting down the road if you want.
 
Using flourish twice a week now. Should I increase my use of it.
 
Don't increase it unless you start using liquid carbon. What you have to remember about Flouish is that it is mostly micro nutrients. Plants also need macro nutrients (nitrates, phosphates, potassium, calcium, and magnesium).
 
Will liquid carbon cause algae problems. Also have some hitchhiker snails Sneak in. Will the plants. Saw some crawling on leaves.
 
Liquid carbon actually has algaecide properties which helps deter normal amounts of algae. It is often used to spot treat algae to kill it.
 
From now on give your plants a hydrogen peroxide 3% soak before adding them to the aquarium. Use a 1:4 ratio of peroxide to water and let new plants soak for 20 minutes before planting. This kills most snails, eggs, and other unwanted hitchhikers.
 
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