Plants dying?

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AaronBurr

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 10, 2013
Messages
110
Location
Northern NJ
Hello All,

I have had my tank for about a year now and recently my plants have developed an eaten/hole look in their leaves. My tank is low tec, my attempt at a Walstad tank. I dont have anything that would eat the plants (ottos, drawf gourmi, tetras, and MTS). And all my levels all seem normal for my tank.

pH : 8.0 (my water is consistently high.)
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 3 ppm
Gh: 20 ppm

Any ideas on what could be causing this?
 

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Its a nutrient deficiency

Im not fully familiar with the walstad method but i believe it to be 'setup and leave alone'. Idea of creating and self sustaining ecosystem.

What substrate did you use??? From my understanding you need to use a high in nutrient substrate to keep the plants healthy. Fish waste alone wont provide everything they need
 
Hello Aaron...

There are several things you can do to help keep your plants healthy. I have low tech tanks and keep quite a few fish in them along with large, frequent water changes of 50 percent every week to 2 weeks to maintain good mineral levels. I feed the fish a variety of frozen, freeze dried and flaked foods from good companies and feed every 2 to 3 days. The fish are healthy and provide a steady source of wastes that dissolve in the tank water and feed the plants. Periodically, I dose a cap full of Seachem's Comprehensive.

Low tech tanks still need a decent amount of light. It's the plants' energy source. I use a couple of GE aquarium plant bulbs from the hardware store. Either T8s or T12s.

Pretty easy.

B
 
The leaf in the picture looks like it has been eaten. from your list of fish the only one that might be able to do that is the Otos. Typically they don't but if there isn't algae they may be the cause.
As to lights, The Ge aquarium tubes, have a very low light output. They have nice colour for accenting some fish, but they won't grow plants the way a similar tube in either 5000k or 6500K will. The latter tubes have about 50% more light, and are usually cheaper.
 
The leaf in the picture looks like it has been eaten. from your list of fish the only one that might be able to do that is the Otos. Typically they don't but if there isn't algae they may be the cause.
As to lights, The Ge aquarium tubes, have a very low light output. They have nice colour for accenting some fish, but they won't grow plants the way a similar tube in either 5000k or 6500K will. The latter tubes have about 50% more light, and are usually cheaper.

The plant has definitely been suffering from nutrient deficiency rather than eaten. In nutrient deficiency the plants will develop small holes and rot out from there leaving the framework of the leaf behind.

If it was eaten it would be a healthy leaf with whole chunks missing.

Also, most lights at a hardware store can be bought in 6500k or very close to it.
 
I know its a bit belated (personal life got real crazy suddenly) but I wanted to thank everyone for their comments. I have changed out my bulb and hopefully that will solve the issue. Thanks again for the help!
 
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