Hornwort

[earhtmother]

So everyone always says that Hornwort is one of the *easy* plants but I can't seem to keep it alive. It will look great for awhile then starts going brown & drop its needles.
HELP

 

[goatnad]

So everyone always says that Hornwort is one of the *easy* plants but I can't seem to keep it alive. It will look great for awhile then starts going brown & drop its needles.
HELP

pictures and more info on the tank will help. lighting, ferts, co2, dosing, parameters will help to narrow down what might be going on.

 

[earhtmother]

Only have the lighting canopy that came with the tank now retrofitted with 2 40W LED bulbs. No ferts, no CO2, I'm on a well so no additives although I did just pick up some Prime since we're no longer allowed over the counter antibiotics in Canada unless prescribed by a vet so I figure it might help in my quarantine tank & aa a preventative in all my tanks at water changes which are usually 50% weekly. Its been over a year since I tested for anything except TDS which runs 250-300 from my tap. Fish are Swords Guppys Kribs Corys Molly's which are breeding so they must be reasonably happy. The shrimp tank is 50/50 tap/distilled and they too are breeding and their mosses are fine.

 

[goatnad]

Your problem is way way to much light, no co2 and no ferts. With the high light you have you are driving the plant to hard and it doesn't have enough nutrients to keep up. What size tank is this?

 

[earhtmother]

125g 70g 45g 30g

 

[earhtmother]

Would cutting down the amount of time the lights are on be a reasonable compromise? CO2 is a definite NOT happening, I will use ferts in the water column if I must, but would prefer not to as I hate *fussing* with my tanks. Are all liquid ferts the same or is there one that is better than the others, and are there any fish that would be negatively affected that I should keep an eye on?

 

[goatnad]

Yes and no. You are still pretty deficient of nutrients. So even at low light there may not be enough there from fish water and tap water. The best thing to do is start dosing. You could look into auto dosing systems. Also which of the tanks you listed has the dual 40w lights on it?

 

[earhtmother]

And all this *fiddling* is why I've always used silk plants and went for floaters that *supposedly* required no additional help from me.
Pic 1 is on a 70g
Pic 2 (x2) 30W on 125g
Pic 3 is on a 40g

 

[King Fisher]

With liquid ferts you pump in the recommended amount once a week after a water change. It takes every bit of 10 seconds.

 

[earhtmother]

That I don't mind as long as it is going to do the job without becoming the entrance of a very long rabbit hole. I was going to look into a properly planted tank and all the stuff that goes along with it eventually just not NOW. Only thing I am unmoving about is NO CO2 and anything used must be scaleless fish & shrimp safe.

 

[King Fisher]

Im not real big on plants so I keep low light plants with a basic LED strip light under the hood and add liquid fertilizer once a week. I use Thrive and it's one pump out of a pump bottle per 10 gallons of water once a week. They make Thrive S that is shrimp safe.

NilocG Aquatics Aquarium Fertilizer Shrimp Specific | ThriveS All In One Liquid Fertilizer (500ml) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XK816RT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ENUOCbGJRTYTH

 

[earhtmother]

King F you sound like me. When I first started in tanks as a teenager MANY years ago(40+) planted tanks meant you used real plants instead of plastic, the more red they were the more light you needed, fertilizer was pretty much all liquid, plants over $5/$6 were pretty much unknown and Endlers were only Guppys. All this fussing and fiddling is definitely not something I would normally do, my tank plants need to be like my garden plants, put them in the *ground* and leave them alone unless.they need to move or go in the compost pile.

 

[King Fisher]

I garden/landscape as well. But I gotta work at it out here in the high Sierra in northern Nevada. Nothing easy about it here. Lol.

In all honesty, the liquid fertilizer is pretty darn simple in application. Definitely something worth trying and it works great for me.

 

[earhtmother]

Great, nice to know that someone with the same aquarium *mind set* finds them satisfactory. If the fish didn't like plants or I didn't need floaters for fry protection my tanks would be all wood & stone [emoji58]

 

[King Fisher]

You may need to start an African Cichlid tank [emoji6]

 

[earhtmother]

The 125g was originally a cichlid tank but it just didn't stick. The Kribs that are still in it with Sworda & Platys now are the only reminders