Unhealthy Plants - Please Help!

[Rivercats]

Hi RC,

I'm back! I have waited and now the diatoms have gone. Very pleasing. I have now added fish and they appear to be very happy.

Just wanted to show you the tank as it is now for your thoughts. The Macrandra seem to be growing nicely, the Wallichii dont though, well not to my mind. The Cuba look a little ill to me. Some of the leaves have 'dissolved' almost like they have turned to dust. They seem to be growing up but not sideways much. Though perhaps its too early to tell.

I reduced lighting as you advised to get rid of diatoms, that worked. Lighting has resumed to 10 hours a day now. Is that ok? Co2 is kept constant during photosynthesis period ie when lights on.

I have bought a TDS meter, the TDS is 350 aprox. I have been dosing macro/micro and the plants have responded well in many ways. The lighting you recommended has also means the algae reduced significantly

The pictures attached are:

- DSC03561.jpg (when initially planted)
- DSC03563.jpg (diatoms outbreak)
- DSC03589.jpg (how things are today, you can see some growth)
- DSC03593.jpg (close up on the cuba)

Nitrate will still be high im afraid. My landlord wont let me fit a RO system, so I will have to purchase RO water from the LFS I guess. Will the plants not use up the Nitrate eventually? I mean the 6 tiny fish are hardly going to excrete my ammonia > nitrate > nitrate are they? I was hoping that as the tank is quite heavily planted it will eventually consume Nitrate.

Would really appreciate your feedback as always

Thanks

I wouldn't just up your lighting from 6 to 10 hours. Go up to 7 for a couple weeks and see if algae stays away. Then go up to 8 for a couple weeks and see if algae stays away. Personally I wouldn't run the lighting more than 8 hours.

Rotala Wallichii really likes softer water so that might be why it's not doing as good. Try adding some root tabs to the HC and see if that helps.

 

[Fredje]

My landlord wont let me fit a RO system, so I will have to purchase RO water from the LFS I guess.

No need to involve the landlord...

A small unit (e.g. 150l / 24h) can easily be mounted into e.g. a wooden wine box and with a simple adapter (e.g. something like on bottom of this page: http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/showproducts.asp?Category=187&Sub=133) you can easily hook it up to the kitchen faucet whenever needed.

 

[Rivercats]

I don't know if you have anything like this available over there but I have this unit and it's worked great for a few years plus it's portable. You hook it up, use it, and put it away. I have the Pro-100

portable countertop reverse osmosis drinking water system - remove fluoride, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, prescription drugs and more

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Thanks to you both for RO advice. The problem has been resolved. I only have a 100 litre tank, probably only got 85 litres of water in it.

My LFS sells RO (tested it yesterday at 11ppm TDS) for £3.50 per 25 litres. I think as I only have a small tank and the shop is only up the road it would be far cheaper to just buy the RO for now.

So I have 25 litres in the back of my car I bought a JBL product to add minerals plus balance GH / KH etc.

As I am planning on bring GH down from its present level of around 13 degrees, to a more beneficial level of around 6 I won't actually add any of the supplement minerals. My KH is about 6 though, so ideally I'd not want that to go down much more. Especially as I have a pressurised co2 system! Any tips on that?

I don't want to upset the fish or plants, what kind of a water change percentage should I head for. Would 25% be too high on a first go?

Thanks

 

[Rivercats]

I do 50% WC's on my tanks weekly unless I have a low bio-load. You have to use good judgement on what is best for your tank. Also watching your weekly nitrates and phosphates will give you a good indication on how much water you need to be changing.

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Well, I have just done a 27L W/C with RO (80L aprox tank), no added minerals, just pure RO (10-15PPM TDS). Here are my results:

GH from 10 to 8
KH from 8 to 6
PH no change
TDS 340 to 250 (woohoo)
NO3 from >40 to <40 (API and JBL tests are hard to read IMO)

I dont know if it was just co-incidence, but soon as I did that the plants started pearling like mad. I am going to the LSF and will do another 27L W/C but this time I'll add some minerals to ensure GH / KH doesn't crash. I'm aiming for a GH of about 6 and KH about the same, does that sound wise?

I'm so excited! (Perhaps I should get out more)

Thanks for your help

 

[Rivercats]

If you add any minerals your just going to raise your Kh and Gh again. Your ph won't crash unless Kh starts getting below 4. I like to run my tanks at Kh 4 and Gh 4. That is enough for plants and snails if you have any and is enough to keep Ph stable. Your trying to drop your numbers not increase them by adding minerals back in. The only time you add minerals back in is if your using straight RO or the above levels drop below 4.

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Thanks, I'll reframe from adding minerals unless GH/KH gets below 4.

Will be very interesting to see how the macrandra / wallichii and HC do with less Nitrate and softer water

 

[Rivercats]

The Wallichii will do much better in softer water.

 

[The sea monkeys Rock]

Hi Rivers,

Okay so over the past week, I have done 4 25% WCs using RO. The parameters are as follows:
GH:5
KH:4
PH 7ish
TDS around 200
Nitrate 20-25

Adding a weekly liquid fert with extra iron from time to time. I also have to add PO4 as its always zero when I check with JBL test kit.

The HC are finally starting to spread which I am pleased about. However the Wallichii's look like they should be a in grave yard, and the Macrandra look like anemic zoombies.

Any tips?

Thank you

 

[Rivercats]

Your readings are good except the nitrates are a little high. If you keep using RO perhaps you can get them down to around 10ppm. If you are adding phosphates and keep getting a zero reading you will need to add more. Eventually you'll register a reading when you get enough in the water.

The Wallichii and Macrandra are going to need time to recover but you should start seeing better looking new growth. If you have any root tabs you could add a couple around those stems to see if you can give them a little extra boost. You also might have to increase the iron if the Macrandra begins turning yellow, not pale, yellow.