What am I doing wrong?

[Atlantis]

I came home today and noticed my plants aren't doing so well. It is a 10gal planted tank. My swords have holes in them and the leaves(or whatever you call them) on my cambomba are falling off. I am adding CO2 to the tank and I have 2X13watt bulbs for lighting for 10 hours a day.

The inhabitants include:
2 Buenos Aires Tetras
2 Electric Yellow Labs(temporary)
3 Rosy Barbs
3 Ottos
1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco

I have also attached a picture of the tank. I don't know what I am doing wrong. Do I need to fertilize? Can someone help me?

 

[Todd2]

could be snails

 

[Atlantis]

There are no snails that I know of in the tank.

 

[Allivymar]

I blame the plec! LOL Also might be the yellow labs. I do think something is taking a bite out of em.

I've noticed my plec will take tastes of my amazon swords and oi, do they look horrible now. My angels AND loaches also like to nibble at em despite getting greens in their diet.

 

[Terry]

Your leaves are being sucked to death by your plec, the damage to the leaf looks like it is central so it is your plec rasping at the leaves. If the damage is to the edges it is your other fish having a nibble.

 

[Guest]

Well, i would reccomend some root tab type ferts for the sword, he'd like that.

I kill Cabomba, so I cannot help you there. 3 different bunches, all at different times, it fell apart every time, and I allegedly did things right. Who knows? :?

As for your Co2, I would suggest getting something better than the airstone. The pic is helping me a lot here. I would take your co2 tubing and airstone and rubberband it to your hob filter intake, so the filter sucks up the bubbles. It will crush the bubbles and make your co2 dissovle into the water much more effectively. Also, keep the water level high, so your water return from the filter disturbs he surface as little as possible.

 

[Atlantis]

OK, thank you everyone. The yellow labs will be out in a week. I will keep an eye on the pleco. I think I will run to the fish store this week and get some ferts.

Corvuscorax, do I have to put CO2 tube close to the impeller so it suckes the bubbles down? I have tried it and if the tube isn't really close then the bubbles float to the top of the intake chamber.

 

[TankGirl]

I think the problem is more of a nutrient deprivation issue. I have had swords look like that with no plecs or plant-disturbing fish in sight. There is enough of a bioload there that there should be adequate nitrates, but with that light and CO2, maybe a root tab would be in order, like CC posted. The next thing to consider would be phosphates or iron, so maybe some Flourish would help. Improving the CO2 setup might be a lot of it, and I really love the Hagen CO2 diffuser, especially for a 10-gal, because you need only one. It is such a great improvement on the air stone method. You have several things to try here, so let us know!

 

[Guest]

I really love the Hagen CO2 diffuser, especially for a 10-gal, because you need only one. It is such a great improvement on the air stone method.

I second this, was just suggesting the intake idea from what I saw in the pic.

Keep in mind with Swords, they are heavy root feeders, don't take much nutrients from the water column, so it is important to root feed them.

 

[Atlantis]

I was at my lfs last week and he didn't have any hagen diffusers. I knew the airstone wouldn't work once I started getting more plants than just the cabomba. What is a good online store that has the hagen diffuser? I checked BigAls and they don't have it.

 

[TankGirl]

I have gotten mine from PetsMart. Try thatfishplace.com, too.

 

[angelstiger]

Here is a good page on a DIY co2 reactor. http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/diy_reactor.htm

 

[TankGirl]

That looks like a great reactor, and pretty cheap to construct. Thanks for the link!

 

[betowess]

You might have to buy the whole Hagen unit to get the ladder diffuser, but you probably already figured that as a possibility. I believe Cambomba needs a ton of light, like 3 to 4 watts per gallon, and all the nutrrients... root tabs, CO2, Iron, Potassium, and probably a iron rich substrate like flourite. HTH

 

[Guest]

You might have to buy the whole Hagen unit to get the ladder diffuser, but you probably already figured that as a possibility.

No you don't. I just got the ladder with tubing for 10 bucks from Drs. Foster&Smith.

hooked it up to a 2 liter soda bottle diy, its working great!