Plants turning brown

[Mcgolg76]

My current setup is a 75g. Substrate is pool filter sand. Lighting is two 54 watt t5ho bulbs. One white and other one rosette. I fert with flourish twice a week. Also have root tabs for my swords. I do not dose with co2.

The problem is a bunch of my plants are turning brown. Would think they were dying cause not enough lights or nutrients. The thing is the the same plants are growing like crazy. Doesn't look like algae on the leaves. Should I be dosing co2 maybe. Have almost zero algae growth in tank and all plants are growing fast.


Not sure what the plant in first pic is. Other one I think is baby tears. Top of the tears are green and bottom tends to be brown.

Any help would be great. Not too knowledgeable about plants.


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[Hooked on Fish]

G'day Mcgolg76,

I used to have a similar problem with my previous tank. Basically I had a nutrient poor substrate that plant's don't grow well in. Unfortunately slow growing plants end up getting covered in algae and eventually dying. So how did I fix the situation? Simple, I read Dianna Walstad's book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". After that I set up my first "dirted" tank and haven't looked back. To get good plant growth without resorting to a CO2 injection I suggest you consider a soil substrate, using a daily recommended dose of Flourish Excel or similar (see Algae Control With Flourish Excel | Aquariums Life) and a siesta lighting schedule (5 hours on 4 hours off followed by 5 hours on again). Honestly I wouldn't have believed how well plants grow under these conditions if I hadn't tried it myself. To illustrate in the picture below you will see a bunch of Ambulia and Bacopa that has doubled in height in less than two weeks. When I bought these at my LFS they looked really sick and now they have vibrant new growth.

Cheers

 

[ImACoolguy]

Identifying your plants will greatly help. It looks like they are not getting enough light IMO.


Caleb

 

[Mebbid]

G'day Mcgolg76,

I used to have a similar problem with my previous tank. Basically I had a nutrient poor substrate that plant's don't grow well in. Unfortunately slow growing plants end up getting covered in algae and eventually dying. So how did I fix the situation? Simple, I read Dianna Walstad's book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". After that I set up my first "dirted" tank and haven't looked back. To get good plant growth without resorting to a CO2 injection I suggest you consider a soil substrate, using a daily recommended dose of Flourish Excel or similar (see Algae Control With Flourish Excel | Aquariums Life) and a siesta lighting schedule (5 hours on 4 hours off followed by 5 hours on again). Honestly I wouldn't have believed how well plants grow under these conditions if I hadn't tried it myself. To illustrate in the picture below you will see a bunch of Ambulia and Bacopa that has doubled in height in less than two weeks. When I bought these at my LFS they looked really sick and now they have vibrant new growth.

Cheers

Its funny you say that, i just undirted my tank and havent looked back since.

The first picture is a rotala of some sort. I also agree that it looks like its not getting quite enough light but i would focus more on the obvious problem areas first.

1 - your ferts. The ferts youre using arent sufficient for a medium light tank. I would suggest looking into either ei or pps pro dosing schedules for dry ferts.

2 - definitely add some carbon. I use metricide 14 as a cheap stand in for excel. Its the same thing, only twice as strong. I would start with 5ml daily of the metricide 14 for your tank and then move up from there.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Def not gonna change substrate. So guess I will try using diff ferts. Plants are growing crazy though.


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[Mcgolg76]

Dumb question. If metricide 14 is sold as a sterilizer then wouldn't kill my good bacteria and my microorganism



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[ImACoolguy]

Dumb question. If metricide 14 is sold as a sterilizer then wouldn't kill my good bacteria and my microorganism



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Not dumb. I've heard of Metricide but never have taken the leap of faith to use it.


Caleb

 

[Mebbid]

Dumb question. If metricide 14 is sold as a sterilizer then wouldn't kill my good bacteria and my microorganism



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Only in really really high concentrations. Its literally the same exact active ingredient that excel uses.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Do you dose daily? How long is shelf life


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[threnjen]

Metricide comes with some sort of activator that you throw out that is part of what makes it a sterilizer.

You dose it daily, it breaks down in about 12 hours. Shelf life, forever-ish I would think!

It is WAY cheaper than buying Excel and it is the same thing.

 

[Mebbid]

Metricide comes with some sort of activator that you throw out that is part of what makes it a sterilizer.

You dose it daily, it breaks down in about 12 hours. Shelf life, forever-ish I would think!

It is WAY cheaper than buying Excel and it is the same thing.

Yeppers

 

[ImACoolguy]

Yeppers

I just may have to get some of that.


Caleb

 

[Mcgolg76]

Just ordered a gallon off of eBay. 21 shipped


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[tiger terror]

Just ordered a gallon off of eBay. 21 shipped


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I use met 14 day on some of my tanks..just a reminder you can dilute it..the gallon you get can be split diluting with distilled water into 2 gallons(1-1 ratio)...you want to keep it in containers that light cannot penetrate as it will lose it's effectiveness...I use old 500ml fert bottles(seachem,api,etc...) Will last you quite a while depending how many tanks you have..I dose 5 ml per 10g's...keep in mind this works for me but may not work for you..

sit in silence

 

[Mebbid]

I use met 14 day on some of my tanks..just remember to dilute it..the gallon you get can be split diluting with distilled water into 2 gallons(1-1 ratio)...you want to keep it in containers that light cannot penetrate as it will lose it's effectiveness...I use old 500ml fert bottles(seachem,api,etc...) Will last you quite a while depending how many tanks you have..I dose 5 ml per 10g's...keep in mind this works for me but may not work for you..

sit in silence

Dillution isnt necessary tbh.