melting roseafolia

[calfishguy]

As some of you may already know Im a absolute beginner at planted tanks and am having. A lot of trouble. My roseafolia seems to be deteriorating. The leaves get large holes/look week and melt/rot off. This has been happening for a few weeks. However everything else is doing better than ever. My swords barely have holes my ludwigia is growing well the anubias and crypts as well. The large crypts however still seem to have some holes. The small ones seem unaffected. The corkskrew vals keep melting but I think its do to the excel. The weird thing is when the other plants were doing bad the roseafolia was nice and now it looks horrible when everything else looks much better

Here is my dosing regimen
3ml comprehensive 2x a week
Excel 15 ml after PWC and 2 ml every day
Iron 3 ml 3 times a week
Potassium 12 ml three times a week
Phosphorus 10ml twice a week
Trace 7 ml twice a week
Root tabs

One 50% PWC once a week
29 gallon tank 2 angels one bn pleco
T5no dual 18w 1600
Newish bulbs.
Phosphate .5-.75
Nitrates 10-15

I really don't know where to go from here I'm a point where I'm considering ripping most of the plants out

Please note I will be doing pps pro when my 500ml bottles of flourish water are empty.

Thanks in advance.
I'll post some pics soon.

 

[calfishguy]

 

[imissmytruck]

I preface this with...I am NOT a plant expert. I did have similar problems with all different sorts of plants. The useful info I got from this site is...

1. Nitrate levels dont really matter too much. Mine is typically VERY high. over 60ppm

2. Dont over due cleaning the canister filter if that is what you are using. I only use mechanical media.

3. I do 50% water change once a week. After the change I overdose with EXCEL.

4. I only clean the filter once every two weeks or so.

5. I only use my co2 Once a week when the lights are on.

6. This the most important IMO. Make sure all your plants are getting the required light. Some need more intensity and others need less. Plus the redish plants actually use a different spectrum of light than anything green.

7. A melting plant is usually a sign of low iron content. (if I remeber correctly)

If I can ask...why are you adding Phosphorous?

 

[calfishguy]

I preface this with...I am NOT a plant expert. I did have similar problems with all different sorts of plants. The useful info I got from this site is...

1. Nitrate levels dont really matter too much. Mine is typically VERY high. over 60ppm

2. Dont over due cleaning the canister filter if that is what you are using. I only use mechanical media.

3. I do 50% water change once a week. After the change I overdose with EXCEL.

4. I only clean the filter once every two weeks or so.

5. I only use my co2 Once a week when the lights are on.

6. This the most important IMO. Make sure all your plants are getting the required light. Some need more intensity and others need less. Plus the redish plants actually use a different spectrum of light than anything green.

7. A melting plant is usually a sign of low iron content. (if I remeber correctly)

If I can ask...why are you adding Phosphorous?

From what I've been reading I need to add phosphorus to add phosphate to the tank. It's one of the three macro nutrients. The red plants also like a higher level. If I wouldn't add any they would be at zero and from my understanding my plants would be doing worse than they are now.

 

[imissmytruck]

I wish you much luck. Aside from maybe adding more Iron to your dosing, and more lighting I fear I have no help for you. I shy away from adding chemicals to my tank, It tends to throw my levels off. When I had my Rosefolia, it wouldnt grow...I just stayed alive. Then i went and bought Marinelands Hidden LED lighting in red. It feeds the spectrum, and after two or three weeks I had to cut most of it out because it was growing too fast. I go tso tired of trimming it everyday I just got rid of the **** thing.
How big is your tank? How deep? The wattage on the lighting is probably low.
Good luck to you!

 

[calfishguy]

I wish you much luck. Aside from maybe adding more Iron to your dosing, and more lighting I fear I have no help for you. I shy away from adding chemicals to my tank, It tends to throw my levels off. When I had my Rosefolia, it wouldnt grow...I just stayed alive. Then i went and bought Marinelands Hidden LED lighting in red. It feeds the spectrum, and after two or three weeks I had to cut most of it out because it was growing too fast. I go tso tired of trimming it everyday I just got rid of the **** thing.
How big is your tank? How deep? The wattage on the lighting is probably low.
Good luck to you!

It's a 29 tall and from what I have been reading its medium light and that's what roseafolia needs. I could be wrong tho. Do you have any suggestions as to what to replace it with?

 

[imissmytruck]

I changed from the flora max T5s to a 48" coralife dual t5 28watt. One bulb is a 6,700K and the other is a colormax. And I use two hidden LED lights by marineland. One in red which has a feeding spectrum and the other is a two way full spectrum white and a non spectrum blue light. Once I changed my lighting to these four I had a massive bloom in my aquascape. Costly up front but worth the investment. The jury is still out on if an LED can actually feed the proper UVBs, but mine seem to have done the job. The problem with the coralife t5s is the bulbs for the 24 or the 48 inchers cost the same. So with my 55 I just went with the one long fixture. But for supplemental lighting I do have a shorter 24" version as well. In all I put approximately 150 watts of light into my tank from 6 to 8 hours every day. Plus my tank is by a window with a lot of natural light.
Like I said, it's a bit pricey. I am about $300 into lights alone not counting the cost of replacing bulbs every six months. Still, that is ALOT less than some serious folks put in.

 

[Rivercats]

Are any of the plants new to the tank? Are all the plants having problems or just some? Your readings on nitrate and phosphate are good (10-20ppm nitrates and .5-1.0ppm phosphates are good for planted tanks). IMO your lighting could be alittle higher. I use Corkscrew Val with high doses of liquid carbon and I can tell you in the beginning they seem to grow and slowly melt but once they get acclimated to the tank and liquid carbon they take off (at least all mine have) so be patient on them. As for the holes are they still happening or is new growth coming in and staying healthy and holeless? Is the roseafolia a recently added plant? If so it could be acclimating. Is the top growth looking good on them? If so I'd trim them down and replant the good top growth.

 

[calfishguy]

Are any of the plants new to the tank? Are all the plants having problems or just some? Your readings on nitrate and phosphate are good (10-20ppm nitrates and .5-1.0ppm phosphates are good for planted tanks). IMO your lighting could be alittle higher. I use Corkscrew Val with high doses of liquid carbon and I can tell you in the beginning they seem to grow and slowly melt but once they get acclimated to the tank and liquid carbon they take off (at least all mine have) so be patient on them. As for the holes are they still happening or is new growth coming in and staying healthy and holeless? Is the roseafolia a recently added plant? If so it could be acclimating. Is the top growth looking good on them? If so I'd trim them down and replant the good top growth.

All the plants are looking better other than the roseafolia it is not a new addition. It was growing like a weed when first introduced but now err. The things you said about corkscrew Vals makes sense they are melting less and less. The new growth on the roseafolia is okay for a few days then it melts/rots like the older leaves. I'm sorry to say I don't want to upgrade lighting now I might be getting co2 and going high tech within the next year but I'm not ready for that yet.

Since the roseafolia seems to be dying can you recommend a similar plant that could replace it.

Thanks again rivercats and everyone else who helped.

 

[Rivercats]

Actually roseafolia is one of the red plants that can handle alittle lower light than other red ones. You could try Limnophila hippuroides or Rotala Indica (Rotala roundifolia). I know the rotala will do okay with your light but it may not turn as red/pink as you want. Or for a pop of color you could do a red tiger lotus.

 

[calfishguy]

Actually roseafolia is one of the red plants that can handle alittle lower light than other red ones. You could try Limnophila hippuroides or Rotala Indica (Rotala roundifolia). I know the rotala will do okay with your light but it may not turn as red/pink as you want. Or for a pop of color you could do a red tiger lotus.

Do you think I have enough light for a red tiger lotus I think that would look great.

 

[Rivercats]

Yes it would work even in lower light. Many don't think they do well in lower light but they actually do and also color up nicely. One thing tho is I do add a root tab high in iron by mine for better color.

 

[calfishguy]

Yes it would work even in lower light. Many don't think they do well in lower light but they actually do and also color up nicely. One thing tho is I do add a root tab high in iron by mine for better color.

Okay excellent. Would adding a bit of flourish iron to the sand under it help at all?

 

[Rivercats]

People say they do that but I can't see where it would be much help, nothing like a good root tab high in iron would do since it will continously release nutrients for an extended length of time.

 

[calfishguy]

People say they do that but I can't see where it would be much help, nothing like a good root tab high in iron would do since it will continously release nutrients for an extended length of time.

Okay thanks. Sorry for all the questions but I have another one. Do you think ordering a bulb that had its leaves cut off be a good investment. Its on eBay.

Here's the link http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=260620377323&index=3&nav=SEARCH&nid=78220704033

 

[Rivercats]

You did notice it's coming from Malaysia? I would pass as you can find them very easily here in the states.

 

[calfishguy]

You did notice it's coming from Malaysia? I would pass as you can find them very easily here in the states.

Okay I found a place in canada that has them. As it will only be going in my 29 I'm kinda concerns that it will take over the tank. Do I just trim the leaves off as needed?

 

[Rivercats]

You can trim the leaves as needed to keep the size where you want it (thats what I do) and you trim off any leaves that are headed towards the surface. This encourages fuller bottom growth.

 

[calfishguy]

You can trim the leaves as needed to keep the size where you want it (thats what I do) and you trim off any leaves that are headed towards the surface. This encourages fuller bottom growth.

Okay thanks