Need advise on 1 month old planted tank

[rickrollxx]

I have some vals and a couple stem plants that are a little rough. Have new growth starting but leaves look rough. I use fert tabs and dose with leaf zone and flourish. Also use liquid co2. What do you guys think?

 

[TMaier]

Are you sure these are new leaves and not ones from the introduction?

 

[rickrollxx]

They are from introduction.

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[Fresh2o]

Not sure what's going on with the stem plant but the inter nodal spacing suggests that it needs more light. If older leaves are starting to decay but the newer leaves are fine, if could be that the plant is shifting resources to the new growth.
As for the vals, care must be taken when using glutaraldehyde type products (API CO2 Booster, Seachem Excel, etc). Dosage should be started lower than normal and gradually increased as they can cause these plants to melt.

 

[rickrollxx]

I do have new growth starting on the vals. Should I trim the bad leaves.

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[Bert2oo1]

I do have new growth starting on the vals. Should I trim the bad leaves.

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Yea any leaves that die don't regenerate so they are a waste of energy/ algae creators for your tank. It's vital to keep on top of trimming or you will let algae get a foot in the door

 

[Warriorplantedt]

re: 1 month old tank

Just joined today seems like a good group of people from what I have read. I agree with a lot of the advice posted so far my question is what temp are you running? and also with the val if you just introduced it sometimes does like to "melt for no reason but it will bounce back. I do agree that you might want to up your light a bit but give a good trim to avoid algae.

 

[rickrollxx]

Thanks. I run at about 78 degrees. I have my light on for 6 hours. Maybe turn up light a
Iittle. I also noticed one of my plants root rotted. I cut it and replanted. What would cause this

 

[Bert2oo1]

Thanks. I run at about 78 degrees. I have my light on for 6 hours. Maybe turn up light a
Iittle. I also noticed one of my plants root rotted. I cut it and replanted. What would cause this

Was it an old root? Generally they rot out the old ones and when they start growing new ones after being put into a new enviroment

 

[Warriorplantedt]

do you know what type of plant it is? some of your rhizome plants like anubias, bucephalandra, bolbitis, ect... will rot if the rhizomes are planted into substrate.

 

[Warriorplantedt]

do you know what type of plant it is? some of your rhizome plants like anubias, bucephalandra, bolbitis, ect... will rot if the rhizomes are planted into substrate.

Also, give them some more light 6 hours is minimal. if you have a busy schedule you can purchase a timer pretty inexpensively and run your cycle like that.

 

[rickrollxx]

This is like the plant but it was smaller and I just got them a week ago.

 

[rickrollxx]

I also have a very nice timer that runs 3 outlets at all times and 3 outlets that are timed day and night. I'll move to a little longer light. I also turned up a little and added more red and blue.

 

[Warriorplantedt]

Its rooting out From what I can see in the photo. Imo let it ride and give it light. also what are your water changes looking like? And I might have missed it but how big is that tank? I do see what you are talking about with the rot though, its rooting out it will be fine

 

[rickrollxx]

Water changes are once a week. The tank is a 20 gallon. This plant came like this but the other smaller one was rotted at bottom. Hopefully trimming it will help.

 

[Warriorplantedt]

Oh ok It came like that. you have a few options you can float it, trim it, or leave it. I did notice your substrate though, it looks like gravel topped with sand? not a bad medium for plant growth but I would advise a little more depth I cant see too good in the photo looks a bit on the thin side. do you know how deep it is? P. S. dont use option three plz

 

[rickrollxx]

It's mainly sand with a little gravel mixed in. It's about 1" or so. I also just started using root tabs.

 

[Warriorplantedt]

It should be fine. Give it some time slack off on the fertilizer a bit and keep up on your water changes with a small volume like 20g I would do like 2 10% twice a week. the reason I say this is because if you do increase the light, you want to keep your nitrate and nitrite down untill your plants can sufficiently uptake them to avoid algae. just be patient and stay on top of your maintenance. It wouldn't hurt to add some type of clay type substrate to your bottom to absorb the nutrients so your stem type plants can access them better.

 

[Warriorplantedt]

I have a video you can check out if you need help

check that out and find that substrate its cheap works good and the plants love it