Couple of issues need to know the cause

[jcarlilesiu]

Ok... so recently i had a little bout with ich. It went very very well, I added about 1.25 tablespoons of "sea salt" and a temerature raise. The ich cleared up fast, with in about 4 days, and the tank will be removed of salt today. About 8 days total treatment, i moved the temp back down a few days ago. I lost one otto the worst that was infected, and one white cloud for unknown reasons. Why i am telling you all this im not sure. On to my questions.

At the same time all this was going on, I was battling "new tank" algae, with a "plant and fish safe" algae liquid. It actually worked, and the algae has been stemmed ever since, but im not sure what cause the problem im about to explain, the high temps, the salt, or the algae treatment.

I am seeing noticible deterioration in a couple of species of my plants, while the rest are thriving. My Amazon sword has tons of new growth however the old leaves started developing "holes" and are now completely skeleton like. They will get pruned tonight, like I said, none of this happened on the new growth. My dwarf sag started melting away, sometimes mid-leave, first getting translucent and eventually just falling apart. Since the temps have come down and no more algea treatment has been added, it is stable. The third is my ozelott sword, same as the amazon... old leaves developed holes and eventually fell apart. Any ideas what this can be from. The ozellot has new growth too, about a leaf a week which all seem to be doing fine.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Temperatures can kill certain species, from what I understand Swords are especially susceptible to this treatment.. Salt is also not that great for them (sort of like salting that nasty neighbours garden)...

You can try trimming the leaves to stop the damage, but it is possible the temps killed the entire leaf.

 

[crazycat]

salt can be very damaging to plants. the last time i treated for ich with salt, i removed all of my plants prior to adding salt. it may be that they are reacting to that. but once the salt is gone, and with some tlc, they probably will come back. swords are pretty tenacious.

 

[malkore]

Also, please avoid using any liquid algicides. They are not a fix for the problem. Algae forms from a nutrient imbalance, and a lot of algicides are phosphate based, which only worses the nutrient imbalance.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

good to know... in the mean time though, with out CO2 (as i cant afford it right now)... the lack of those nutrients is going to promote algea growth. Any alternative methods to keep the algea down and the plants up while I save up for a pressurized CO2 system? Maybe less light usage, im currently at about 8 hours on my 10,000K and 4 on my 6500K CF s

 

[LindaC]

I treated my tank a while back for Ick, using high heat alone, without the salt, and lost a few of my plants due to the high heat. Some plants just don't do well in that situation.

 

[malkore]

Run half the lighting, or try DIY CO2 (some is better than none) and possibly use Excel too.

10 hours is a little better lighting period anyways, so 8 hours in your case may help. Algae has a lot more problem dealing with shorter photoperiods than plants. The algae just lacks teh complexity of a plant's biology and can't accomodate shorter photo periods.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

You could also try Phos reducing filters (green pads, typically 3$ or less at a LFS) like the one made by HBH. removing a lot of the phos. will reduce the growth of algae AFAIK.

DIY Co2 is also a viable option (and preferred) since it will also help plants grow (stunting algae instead of the other way around)