My plants are crying for help........

[hb3133]

I'll start with my biggest concern and work my way down. Please sit back and grab a cold one. First, both my anubias nana and coffeefolia have started to gather darkish green/black random spots on the leaves. I am assuming its a type of algae. The plants are in the foreground of my tank and have direct light for the 9 hours of timed light. Next, my dwarf sags started turning clear and yellow (2-3 weeks ago) but continued to grow. I moved them around in my tank and increased the dosage of the Macro ferts. They seem to be geeting greener over the past few days. Have I solved the problem? Finally, the tips of most of my java ferns have turned from the normal healthy green into a dark, sickly looking dark green. The plants seemed to continue with growth. Is this normal or a type of defiency? Other than these 3 issues, the other plants are healthy and growing well. I love the christmas moss and so do the shrimp. I was worried when I first added the shrimp to the tank full of hungry brass teteras. No problems! The fish are timid, the shrimp are breeding like crazy and the ottos love the setup. If you are ever intrested in trading/buying some shrimp, let me know! Thanks!

My Quick Help Info

Tank Stats
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Size of Tank (Gallons / Litres): 10 gallons w/ aquaclear HOB
Running for how long: 2+ months

Water Params
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Temp: 78
pH: 7.4
Ammonia (ppm): 0ppm
NitrIte (ppm): 0ppm
NitrAte (ppm): 5ppm
KH (degrees): ?
GH (degrees): ?
Ferts you are using (what and how often): Flourish- 2 to 3 times per week, as directed, Flourish Excel- 3-4 times per week as directed; Flourish nitrogen- 3 times per week as directed, Flourish potassium- 2 to 3 times per week as directed and Flourish Phosphorus- 2 to 3 times per week, dosed seperately, as directed. I use Bio-safe after weekly 40% water change.


Lighting (Wattage & type of bulbs): 2x15 watt compact flourescent bulbs.

Substrate: Eco complete with thin layer of natural looking gravel.
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Fish In Tank: 6 juvenile brass tetras, 2 oto's, and 30 or so Red Cherry shrimp.

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Plants In Tank: 1 anubias nana, 1 anubias coffeeflia, 1 green wendtii, 1 red wendtii, 6 anacharis, 10 dwarf sags, 1 mother java ferns with a bunch of seprate smaller plants, christmas moss on the bogwood, a handful of java moss, and small amount of willow moss.

 

[travis simonson]

CO2

 

[Purrbox]

Sounds like the directed amounts on the bottles, if you're following the suggested amounts on the bottles instead of using the formulas to determine targets, are insufficient for your tank. This handy little calculator will help you determine the actual amount to dose in your tanks. As Travis mentions CO2 would help too, but I doubt it's necessary with your current lighting.

Something else that will help is ensuring that you aren't dosing the Flourish and Flourish Phosphorus at the same time. This can cause Fe difficiencies which could be part of the yellowing you're seeing. I suspect though that since it was leaves getting pale to clear, that it was a Nitrate/Phosphate deficiency instead.