Sad Sagittaria

[MurphyFish]

Hi everyone,

First post here, looking for suggestions on what might be missing in my tank. I attached some pictures of my Chilensis, which seems to be dying back one leaf at a time. Some leaves become transparent, others develop green and yellow stripes before rotting off. I've had this bunch (6 plants total) for about a month. In the pic they are the plants beneath the heater (yeah, I know I need to get a background for the tank). They are planted in gravel + laterite, use liquid fertilizer. Have one of those yeast and sugar CO2 canisters- I know it's too small for this tank, but I put the Chilensis right next to it.
Thanks for any ideas!

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

It does appear to be lacking some nutrients. Can you give us some more details about your tank?

Tank size
amount of light and hours per day
CO2 level you maintain
what and how much are you dosing
what is your nitrAte level

 

[MurphyFish]

Sure, sorry I forgot the parameters earlier! Thanks for your help.

40 gal tank
Lighting: 20w 24" aquaglo fluorescent bulb, 18000K, on for 10 hours/day. Also this plant is in an area of the tank that gets about 5 hours of indirect sunlight daily. Most of the tank is shaded and contains unkillable plants (anubias and javaferns).
Substrate is medium sized gravel with laterite. I use Seachem root tabs as well as dosing with Flourish trace and Flourish excel on alternating weeks.
I have one of those yeast and sugar CO2 diffusers (Hagen Natural). It is making about 4 bubbles/minute right now
Water parameters:
pH: 6.5
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10
GH: 60ppm
In order to maintain the soft water, I have to add deionized water during water changes (30% weekly). I live in SW Ohio, and I think the tap water here is bascially liquified rock (pH 9.4, GH >300ppm) which makes the cardinal tetras mighty unhappy. I use the API tap water filter.
Any red flags? Thanks

 

[neilanh]

Based on your info there, I'd say it's one of two things.

Lack of light is a possibility. 18000K light is above the real usable range for plants, you may want to consider getting a bulb in the 5000k to 10000k range. I don't recommend going above 10000k for plants.

Could still be nutrients. You can also consider adding flourish comprehensive into your mix of trace and excel.

AFAIK, those plants you have aren't heavy root feeders, so the root tabs may not be helping you all that much here. If they were swords or anubias, that'd be a different story I think.

 

[fort384]

Looks to me like the main problem to start with would be the lighting. Swap out the bulbs for some 6500-10000K lights. The other issue is there may not be enough it. 20W of light over a 40gal tank is in the realm of very low light... to the point that it may not be able to sustain plants.

 

[MurphyFish]

Thanks for all your help, looks like a lighting upgrade is in order. I've been putting it off, hoping that the sunlight would be enough to sustain things. There are Anubias in there, which is why I got the root tabs. It's in the shaded corner. There are also some mutant microswords which are trying to take over the bottom of the tank. Will def. get a better bulb. Yet another case of local pet store not giving great advice...but I got the microswords at a steal because they had them labeled as anacharis
I'll let you know how the lighting comes along, thanks again.

 

[MurphyFish]

We'll see how things go from here...swapped out the 20w bulb for a shiny new fixture with 2 * 57watt 8000 K bulbs. Hopefully the Anubias don't burn. I think the fish are a little shocked by how bright things are in there now- they are all hiding on the bottom and the pictus cat is after them. I love the way the plants look with all the light!
Anne

 

[fort384]

Sounds good. That is a big upgrade! Keep an eye on things. Fertilizer may become necessary at over 2wpg.

 

[MurphyFish]

YES!! you knew what was bound to happen....it didn't take long to start growing a lush patch of algae in the corners and on the wall of the tank . I took out one of the bulbs and cut down the photoperiod, have dosed Excel twice. So far that is working, the algae is about 75% receded so far. Will scrape the remainder off the wall. I think I will have to go very slowly and work the tank up to handling all that light. Water parameters all about the same. Anne