Why did my waterspite die ??

[candymancan]

Hey guys, Question for you... In my 27g hexagon my watersprite I bought about a 40days ago died.. I had changed my gravel from blue rocks to floramax and removed my UGF about 34 days ago.. The ammonia levels in the tank have been extremely high 8pmm + for well 32 days.. I have like 25 fish in the tank all small mostly like neons and other tetra's... The cycle is finally ending as I have nitrites in the water at 5ppm and ammonia is down to 2ppm.

All my plants are thriving... better then I have hoped actually some have literally exploded... The plants I have are..

Amazon sword, Telenthara cardinalis red, red neseae, red tiger lotus, a broad anubias and 4 stems of Limnophila hippuroides, wisteria

The watersprite however I got after I changed my rocks and stuff.. It was a potted one in dirt wrapped in paper... and it was fairly good sized.. I bought 2 of them.. one for my 55f and one for my 27g.. The one in the 55g has exploded its like 4x the size and covering an entire corner of the tank.. The one this thread is about didn't grow 1 inch.. didn't grow any new leaves no buds.. nothing.. The leaves were green well most of them but some were turning and being coverd in brown diatoms what it looks like but the odd thing is none of my other plants have diatoms on them.. The plants stems were brittle like dried up leaves from fall.. and the leaves on it fell apart when I touched it.. the roots in the gravel were rotted and I only managed to save 1 stem which is still green and im floating it right now

So anyway not to drag this out.. my telenthara cardinalis I got before the transition of rocks and it was in those petsmart bags from tetra or topfin I think... they were tiny itty bitty like the size of your pointing finger to the first kuckle by your nail... and now the plant is HUGE bushy about 5 inches tall and DEEP RED... my neseae is the same... its all orange right now and its about 14 inches tall and is taking over half my tank.. its like a jungle right now.. So how can these plants be fine but the water sprite which is supposedly easy to grow just died..


Since my 55g has water sprite on both sides of the tank and watersprite I might add that grows like a weed.. I want to transplant a big chunk to my 27g... but the problem is my 55g has planaria worms and some other white dot like things that grow on the glass... the fish and plants are fine so I assume they are just non harmful things... My 2.6g betta tank got them when I moved java fern over... So how do I disinfect the watersprite without killing it so I don't infest my 27g with planaria worms...

 

[flitabout]

Where to start.. I think the plant is the least of your worries right now you need to do a water change. If you are doing a fish in cycle your ammo and nitrite should never be over .25ppm. I am not trying to be rude at all but I am shocked that your fish are still alive with numbers like that.

 

[Grand1011]

Yea I agree. Change the water as soon as possible and wait about adding any other plants until the water is normal.

 

[wildroseofky]

You need to read this article quickly Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice I, too, am surprised your fish are still alive. I jumped in to fish keeping without any research and had to do a fish in cycling myself. I feel so sorry for my first fish. They did not live past a year. That high of ammonia shortens their life cycle.

Now on to your Water Sprite. Sometimes new plants just do not take to a tank. I have bought a lot of plants and it has been hit or miss. Sometimes a plant would die like yours in one of my tanks but do just fine in another one. If you bought two of them and only one died than it was probably just bad luck. Let the stem you have left float and it may grow new roots and turn into a great plant. I find I have better luck with new plants if I let them float for a few weeks before planting. I have found that new stem plants rot if I immediately put them in the substrate.

 

[candymancan]

Fish are alive because of daily doses of prime.... please stay on tpic of my threads... this is getting irritating on this and another fish forum when people tell me I need to do this and that when it isn't what I was asking... I know your trying to help... but it really irritates me when you don't know what your talking about because you don't know what my situation is and what I did to keep them alive..

My fish survived 5 weeks of 8PPM of ammonia because it wasn't toxic I was dosing a lot of prime every 24 hours.... Plus there is no point in wasting water and making my water bill high by changing it every single day because my tap has 2PPM ammonia in it... and within a few hours the ammonia went right back to 4-8PPM... Do you know how much water that is changing 12 gallons everyday for 5 weeks ? if changed it The bill would be crazy.

Anyway im not going to explain myself about this subject.. My fish are fine didn't even lose a neon.. and no one was suffering or had red gills or was gasping for air..

Anyone have any ideas about the plant ? Wild you are probably right

 

[wildroseofky]

Did you know that high ammonia can kill plants too? Plants need some nitrates but too much can kill them. I know that water changes can get expensive. I have a 29 gallon, a 10 gallon, and a 5 gallon tank plus a 30 gallon plastic container that I use to grow out plants. My sisters used to get water from a spring to fill their fish tanks when I was a kid. Unfortunately we have been in a drought for the last couple of years and most of the springs have dried up or just barely wet the ground. I have heard some people say they collect rainwater to use. A lot of people frown on it here but my water is so bad I have considered doing just that. I live way out in the country though. I plan on setting up a water catchment system when I get my tiny home finished. If you fish are fine do what you want. They are your fish. It is just that we on here are amazed because most of the time that high of ammonia will kill a fish. Prime really does wonders though.

What kind of light are you using?

 

[jbueno]

Ok just a lil off topic sry.
Water. The well or spring water need to be put into a tank with a little higher temp than normal. The reason whybis bc it has that natural bacteria in the water that would have been nueturalized that the water treatment plant.

High ammonia. On top of doing the prime u can use a straight on ammonia reducer because prime will help but ur also adding in a whole bunch of extras. Which wont help especially if u r only doing water changes every month.

Water sprite. A fairly durable plant. Under the right conditions it can grow in the substrate but most float it. Ur substrate needs to be rich in nutrients for it to thrive. It died in my new substrate in my 55 but my 20 that almost 5 years old had no problem making it grow crazy fast..

This is all imo and from my experience with water sprite and well water and dealing with high ammonia too. I hope this helps.

 

[Rivercats]

There is no need to be rude when people are trying to help. How do they know how informed a person is about what is going on in a tank without mentioning it or having the OP mention what has already been done especially if it's something other people not knowing the full story are going to comment about. Anyway moving on....

Wildroseofky is correct that high levels of ammonia can kill plants. Most likely the water sprite was sensitive and or it wan't getting enough nutrients. And as she already mentioned some plants just don't like some tanks water chemistry and don't thrive yet will thrive in another tank even with the same parameters. There is no way to know for certain.

As for cleaning the plant before moving you can soak it in hydrogen peroxide 3% at a rate of 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 3 parts water. Let the plant soak 20-30 minutes then plant, don't rinse. But just so you know there is always a possibility that a couple may not be killed.

 

[Delapool]

Is there any way to copy a thread on the phone app? I knew what was going on but only as I had read the other thread on speeding up cycling.

Also I need a thread folder or something so I can create sub-folders on different topics. Is there any way to do that? Thanks.