BettaGamma
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi all,
I have a lightly-moderately planted tank I set up back in November--my first tank since I got tired of the hobby way back in middle school, lol. The plants started out doing fairly well but now look, quite frankly, terrible. Hoping someone more experienced can help me to diagnose why that may be. Some stats and params on the tank:
10 gallon
Finnex Planted+ 24/7 HLC, runs 6-9 hours a day (I'll explain what that means below)
*White led 100%, blue and reds 10%
Running Seachem Tidal 35 and air pump + sponge filter
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: 0/0/0-5
pH/temp: right around 8/78 F
Dose 1mL API CO2 booster every day, 1 mL Flourish Comprehensive 2x per week
Used 6 seachem root tabs back in November, have since supplemented maybe 3 or 4
Seachem flourite black sand substrate (~2.5 in. all around)
Been doing 40-50% wc every week in an effort to suck algae/debris out of the tank, but thinking I will start 1x every 2 weeks and in lower volumes to build some nitrate up as I suspect a possible nitrogen deficiency
Plants
Crypt wendtii green
Crypt parva
Crypt lutea
S repens
Dwarf Sag
Amazon Sword Compacta
Phew! All that out of the way, some of the leaves on most of the plants (save the sword) have brownish patches on them like they're decaying. The s repens looks especially terrible--the old leaves are almost completely brown and the new green ones at the top don't look fantastic either. Additionally some of the new leaves from the sword (I recently pruned probably half of its leaves since they looked so unhealthy) are coming in twisted--possible Ca deficiency??.
Hard for me to tell if this is all due to a nutrient deficiency or if they're infested with algae/diatoms. I should mention that I had some pretty bad algae issues towards the beginning despite being conservative with the lighting to begin with, including thick green slime coating a lot of the leaves and some cyanobacteria for a time. Both have disappeared since I've been dosing liquid co2 but I have pretty significant green algae on my glass still (still trying to figure out the right photoperiod/intensity) so I wonder if it's algae on the leaves blocking out light and creating the issue. However, I've tried gently scraping off the leaves like has worked in the past but nothing readily comes off.
The finnex light is a little weird in that you program in 3 hour slots, but the light gradually ramps up from darkness to your first light setting (and vice versa) over the course of 3 hours as well. I.e. I have the light set to be on for 12-3 and 3-6 (solid 6 hours), but the light gradually comes on (I assume linearly) from 9-12, and gradually off from 6-9. I consider this 9 hours in total (since I figure 9-12 and 6-9 are equivalent to 1.5 hours roughly). I keep the white lights at 100% and the reds and blues at 10% whenever it's on. I'm not sure if the plants look as bad as they do because of not enough light, or if the algae is harming the plants and I need to tone the light down. Although I still suspect the true bottleneck here is ferts.
Another thought: would it be advisable to buy some more plants that are fast growers to help choke out the algae, since mine are generally slow root feeders? Perhaps some valls and/or a floating plant? I'd like a more densely planted tank regardless but perhaps this would help.
TL;DR, my plants are doing pretty bad (i.e. brown patches on old leaves, gnarled growth on amazon sword) despite pristine water, consistent ferts, and what I think is pretty moderate lighting. Do I need to cut down on/increase lighting, address some nutrient deficiencies, buy some faster growing plants, or some combination of the 3?
Sorry to be so long winded. I will post photos of each of the plants in the morning when the lights come on again.
Thanks for your assistance, in advance.
I have a lightly-moderately planted tank I set up back in November--my first tank since I got tired of the hobby way back in middle school, lol. The plants started out doing fairly well but now look, quite frankly, terrible. Hoping someone more experienced can help me to diagnose why that may be. Some stats and params on the tank:
10 gallon
Finnex Planted+ 24/7 HLC, runs 6-9 hours a day (I'll explain what that means below)
*White led 100%, blue and reds 10%
Running Seachem Tidal 35 and air pump + sponge filter
Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate: 0/0/0-5
pH/temp: right around 8/78 F
Dose 1mL API CO2 booster every day, 1 mL Flourish Comprehensive 2x per week
Used 6 seachem root tabs back in November, have since supplemented maybe 3 or 4
Seachem flourite black sand substrate (~2.5 in. all around)
Been doing 40-50% wc every week in an effort to suck algae/debris out of the tank, but thinking I will start 1x every 2 weeks and in lower volumes to build some nitrate up as I suspect a possible nitrogen deficiency
Plants
Crypt wendtii green
Crypt parva
Crypt lutea
S repens
Dwarf Sag
Amazon Sword Compacta
Phew! All that out of the way, some of the leaves on most of the plants (save the sword) have brownish patches on them like they're decaying. The s repens looks especially terrible--the old leaves are almost completely brown and the new green ones at the top don't look fantastic either. Additionally some of the new leaves from the sword (I recently pruned probably half of its leaves since they looked so unhealthy) are coming in twisted--possible Ca deficiency??.
Hard for me to tell if this is all due to a nutrient deficiency or if they're infested with algae/diatoms. I should mention that I had some pretty bad algae issues towards the beginning despite being conservative with the lighting to begin with, including thick green slime coating a lot of the leaves and some cyanobacteria for a time. Both have disappeared since I've been dosing liquid co2 but I have pretty significant green algae on my glass still (still trying to figure out the right photoperiod/intensity) so I wonder if it's algae on the leaves blocking out light and creating the issue. However, I've tried gently scraping off the leaves like has worked in the past but nothing readily comes off.
The finnex light is a little weird in that you program in 3 hour slots, but the light gradually ramps up from darkness to your first light setting (and vice versa) over the course of 3 hours as well. I.e. I have the light set to be on for 12-3 and 3-6 (solid 6 hours), but the light gradually comes on (I assume linearly) from 9-12, and gradually off from 6-9. I consider this 9 hours in total (since I figure 9-12 and 6-9 are equivalent to 1.5 hours roughly). I keep the white lights at 100% and the reds and blues at 10% whenever it's on. I'm not sure if the plants look as bad as they do because of not enough light, or if the algae is harming the plants and I need to tone the light down. Although I still suspect the true bottleneck here is ferts.
Another thought: would it be advisable to buy some more plants that are fast growers to help choke out the algae, since mine are generally slow root feeders? Perhaps some valls and/or a floating plant? I'd like a more densely planted tank regardless but perhaps this would help.
TL;DR, my plants are doing pretty bad (i.e. brown patches on old leaves, gnarled growth on amazon sword) despite pristine water, consistent ferts, and what I think is pretty moderate lighting. Do I need to cut down on/increase lighting, address some nutrient deficiencies, buy some faster growing plants, or some combination of the 3?
Sorry to be so long winded. I will post photos of each of the plants in the morning when the lights come on again.
Thanks for your assistance, in advance.