Help with my Anubis Barteri plants!

[FreshwaterRook]

I recently came across a complete tank set up thru Craigslist. In the tank, the guy had some Anubis Barteri plants and I'm starting to see them have black spots and it looks like some of the leaves are deteriorating. I have everything that came with the tank: 46 gallon bow front, elheim 2213 filter, Aquaclear over the top filter small, 150w heater, air pump with 2 aerators inside the tank, 50lbs of colored gravel, 1 10gallon bucket's worth of rocks and 3 big driftwood pieces. I have the same fish in the tank that came with the tank and also I brang 30 gallons of the original water in the transport from the seller house to mine. I added water conditioner, stress coat and bacter wise (3 days in a row as suggested) to introduce healthy bacteria to the tank. And now about a week later, I'm seeing the plants dying. Oh and I keep the water at 75 to 78 degrees. Now I'm not sure if this is important but I'll add it to see if it helps diagnosing the problem: the heater in my apartment went out for a few days until the repairman came to fix it and the temp in the tank dropped to 70 degrees so I added another small heater to bring the temp back up to 78 degrees. Please help.

 

[John2.0]

Were the Anubias showing any problems with the previous owners??
What kind of lights do you have? How long are they on for? Do you use any fertilizers at all?? Do you know the hardness of your water?


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[FreshwaterRook]

Hey John2.0

The previous owner never mentioned anything extra about the plants, so I'm going to take a strong assumption he didn't use fertilizer, so I didn't think of getting any. Although, with reading around a bit, I've seen some differing opinions about fertilizers and CO2 injections and such. At this point, I'll leave it to someone more skilled to lead me in the right direction.

The main light is a PowerGlo 30W T8 and he did include a separate LED light fixture with 4 LED lights, which creates "moonlight" for them at night. The main light is normally on for 9hrs-11hrs and the "Moonlight" usually for 1 hr. (But I don't put it on all the time). Now one thing to note is that last night when I put on the "moonlight" I could see this red fuzzy stuff over some of the plants and the driftwood. What is that?

I used an API test strip and the GH is 180, KH is 180, PH 7.5, NO2 0 & NO3 20. I'll add some pics to better help. Thanks!

 

[John2.0]

I am not sure what ppl use or recommend to use on this site but this is what I would do if it was me. I would cut the time period the lights were on to 8hrs a day then I would dose either Flourish Comprehensive or Bright well Aquatic Florin multi per the instructions. To me it looks like lack of nutrients and maybe some algae.

 

[FreshwaterRook]

Thanks John.

I will be looking to pick some up tomorrow. Now how soon should I expect to see a turnaround?

 

[John2.0]

Anubias are slow growers.... so cant really tell ya about new growth. But if you don't see an improvement with the deteriorating leaves with in a couple of weeks then something else needs to address that's probably a lil over my head. Anyways the leaves that are already deteriorating are probably a loss so the goal is to make sure no more start to die. The ones that are really bad and nearly gone I would go ahead and cut off if it was me. You can wait till others chime in and see what they say as I am also interested too see myself.

 

[FreshwaterRook]

Ok, I trimmed the plants and added the Flourish Comprehensive. I will keep you posted. Thanks again John.