James_in_MN
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I'm convinced that all plants except those that start with "java" are destined to die in my care.
20g high tank - round 1
When starting my 20g tank, I decided on anacharis for the background plant. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Aqueon hood I bought doesn't even come close to having enough light for any plants in my tank. The end result was anacharis that melted far enough to disintegrate when I touched it to take it out of the tank.
Cleaning up thousands of dead anacharis leaves was quite the joyous occasion, LOL.
20g high tank - round 2
I replaced my useless Aqueon full hood with a glass top and Marineland LED light system. I, once again, chose anacharis as my background plant for the tank. The plants, with my new light, seemed to work quite well for a short while. Unfortunately, the anacharis started to turn brownish at the stem and headed toward another melt. I was, fortunately, able to get the plants out of the tank before the same disastrous meltdown occurred.
I had melted some of my corkscrew val at the same time, so I thought that perhaps the Seachem Excel might have done damage to both of those types of plants. After doing some reasearch, I came to the conclusion that they were likely dying due to nutrient deficiencies. I was adding Seachem Excel and Seachem complete, but that apparently still didn't cover the major nutrients iron and potassium.
I also discovered that anacharis is primarily a cold water plant, so thus ended my anacharis experiment.
20g high tank - round 3
I've now switched background plants from anacharis to wisteria, and picked up API root tabs from one of the local LFS. When I picked up the root tabs, it was suggested to me that I could cut the tab down to quarters and place them at the roots of the plants instead of stocking the whole substrate with them. The reason they gave was that adding a bunch of whole tabs monthly, as the package suggests, was more than was necessary, and that the company was just trying to get you to overbuy their product. Since that sounded like an honest assessment instead of an attempt to push products on me, I followed their suggestion.
I had to leave for a business trip that was almost two weeks long. When I returned, the wisteria had grown like a weed! I figured I had finally found the combination of plants that might actually survive in my care.
Unfortunately, this too shall pass. This week, my wisteria has gone into full meltdown mode out of the blue. Fortunately, the whole plant didn't fully wipe out, but the lower stem seems to have. So now, I have a bunch of wisteria floating at the surface, and some remains that needs to be cleaned out of my tank.
20g high tank - ??
So now, I have to figure out what in the heck happened.
Did they fail to get enough nutrients for the month because I cut the root tabs into quarters? I have to almost assume that was what may have happened, since it seemed to have melted down from the roots up.
Is there some other background plant I could go with that doesn't turn to mush in my care? My java ferns, java moss, and small crypts in my 10g seem to be fine. My corkscrew val and amazon sword seem to be hanging in there in my 20g.
Can I continue to use Seachem Excel, or should I try to set up a pricey CO2 system?
20g high tank - round 1
When starting my 20g tank, I decided on anacharis for the background plant. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Aqueon hood I bought doesn't even come close to having enough light for any plants in my tank. The end result was anacharis that melted far enough to disintegrate when I touched it to take it out of the tank.
Cleaning up thousands of dead anacharis leaves was quite the joyous occasion, LOL.
20g high tank - round 2
I replaced my useless Aqueon full hood with a glass top and Marineland LED light system. I, once again, chose anacharis as my background plant for the tank. The plants, with my new light, seemed to work quite well for a short while. Unfortunately, the anacharis started to turn brownish at the stem and headed toward another melt. I was, fortunately, able to get the plants out of the tank before the same disastrous meltdown occurred.
I had melted some of my corkscrew val at the same time, so I thought that perhaps the Seachem Excel might have done damage to both of those types of plants. After doing some reasearch, I came to the conclusion that they were likely dying due to nutrient deficiencies. I was adding Seachem Excel and Seachem complete, but that apparently still didn't cover the major nutrients iron and potassium.
I also discovered that anacharis is primarily a cold water plant, so thus ended my anacharis experiment.
20g high tank - round 3
I've now switched background plants from anacharis to wisteria, and picked up API root tabs from one of the local LFS. When I picked up the root tabs, it was suggested to me that I could cut the tab down to quarters and place them at the roots of the plants instead of stocking the whole substrate with them. The reason they gave was that adding a bunch of whole tabs monthly, as the package suggests, was more than was necessary, and that the company was just trying to get you to overbuy their product. Since that sounded like an honest assessment instead of an attempt to push products on me, I followed their suggestion.
I had to leave for a business trip that was almost two weeks long. When I returned, the wisteria had grown like a weed! I figured I had finally found the combination of plants that might actually survive in my care.
Unfortunately, this too shall pass. This week, my wisteria has gone into full meltdown mode out of the blue. Fortunately, the whole plant didn't fully wipe out, but the lower stem seems to have. So now, I have a bunch of wisteria floating at the surface, and some remains that needs to be cleaned out of my tank.
20g high tank - ??
So now, I have to figure out what in the heck happened.
Did they fail to get enough nutrients for the month because I cut the root tabs into quarters? I have to almost assume that was what may have happened, since it seemed to have melted down from the roots up.
Is there some other background plant I could go with that doesn't turn to mush in my care? My java ferns, java moss, and small crypts in my 10g seem to be fine. My corkscrew val and amazon sword seem to be hanging in there in my 20g.
Can I continue to use Seachem Excel, or should I try to set up a pricey CO2 system?
