"Sterilizing" plants and transparent Cabomba

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VioletEmber

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jul 8, 2011
Messages
489
Location
SF Bay Area, CA
#1
I have some java moss in my new fish/ QT tank and I'd like to move some into an empty low light area of another tank - but I'm not 100% sure the new fish are disease free yet. Is there a way to kill any possible yucky things to move it?

#2
I have some lovely cabomba and some stems are a nice green but some are getting pale and transparent-y. I have root tabs and some homemade osmocote tabs in there and it seems to keep the plants alive but they aren't thriving. These plants are in a section of the tank that actually gets direct sunlight. Is it possible that they are getting too much light? Or is it a deficiency? (20g long, sand substrate, 1 bolivian ram, 6 neon tetra, 5 Cory and an albino bristlenose pleco.)

My nitrates are in the 10-20 ppm range - the API test kit is hard to tell between those two! Could this be too high and causing the problem?

Thanks so much for any help!
 
Cabomba is really a low light plant, it could be getting to much. Are you dosing any liquid fertilizer?
 
If I'm not mistaken, cabomba is a high light plant. Your plant might be limited by the amount of carbon dioxide in the tank. Natural sunlight is very strong and plants might show deficiency if you don't have a balance of light, nutrients and co2.
 
I have some java moss in my new fish/ QT tank and I'd like to move some into an empty low light area of another tank - but I'm not 100% sure the new fish are disease free yet. Is there a way to kill any possible yucky things to move it?

I always do a quick dip in 10 parts water to 1 part bleach, rinse well, then soak in water with Prime, and I do mean a quick dip, in-out into the Prime. Doing a quick dip won't damage the plants, the rinse and soaking in water w/ Prime will get rid of the chlorine from the bleach.

#2
I have some lovely cabomba and some stems are a nice green but some are getting pale and transparent-y. I have root tabs and some homemade osmocote tabs in there and it seems to keep the plants alive but they aren't thriving. These plants are in a section of the tank that actually gets direct sunlight. Is it possible that they are getting too much light? Or is it a deficiency? (20g long, sand substrate, 1 bolivian ram, 6 neon tetra, 5 Cory and an albino bristlenose pleco.)

My experience with Cabomba is that it likes lots of light and to not be planted, it does better as a floater.

My nitrates are in the 10-20 ppm range - the API test kit is hard to tell between those two! Could this be too high and causing the problem?

NitrAtes at 10-20 shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks so much for any help![/QUOTE]
 
Awesome advice everyone! Thanks so much!

QUOTE="Atxpunx"]If I'm not mistaken, cabomba is a high light plant. Your plant might be limited by the amount of carbon dioxide in the tank. Natural sunlight is very strong and plants might show deficiency if you don't have a balance of light, nutrients and co2.[/QUOTE]

I think this may be right on the money. I don't run any CO2 in the tank and I'd forgotten about the relationship between light and co2. I had also forgotten I had put a little stem of it in a different tank that gets less light and although it isn't growing quickly in there, it is a bright emerald green. So if I have this right, it isn't that it is getting too much light per se, but that it is getting too much light in relationship to the amount of co2. Makes sense to me.

Now off to fix the lighting and dip some plants! Thanks!!!
 
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