Plants not looking great

[jmmwa8220]

Hey guys, hoping you can help me out here, I'm not sure what I'm dealing with, but I suspect it's either Phosphorus or Iron deficiency... Any help is greatly appreciated, I'm a bit of noob to get aquarium scene, I've got the fish figured out pretty well but these **** plants are really giving me a headache. Thanks so much in advance!

[Aiken Drum]

How long have you had the plants?

That looks like leaf melt to me which is a normal stage of plants transitioning to life underwater. Plants are cultivated only partially submerged where they have ready access to CO2. You take that plant, fully submerge it and cut off the CO2. The plants leaf structure needs to change to cope with its new environment and old growth may die off. New growth will be better adapted to its new environment. This process can take months and you may lose all your original growth to this transition, but its the health of new growth that you should be looking at. Remove dead and dying leafs so the plant can concentrate its resources on new growth.

Are you seeing any new growth?

[jmmwa8220]

Wow, that's some great info, I honestly had no idea. They are probably around 2-3 weeks old, or less for some of them. Not really noticing much new growth yet. I've been putting in Flourish every few days to make sure they had all the micronutrients they needed, and have two T8 flourescent lights on a timer set to the sunrise and sunset. The tank is def overstocked, but I have two filters running, on HOB Marineland 250, and one Cherlam 350 GPH filter with the aerator installed, could it be over oxygenating the water and suffocating the plants? Or I just need to be patient and pick off the dying parts and wait for some new growth? Any other supplements you might recommend for the 80 gallon tank, overstocked with new fish, mostly juvenile African cichlids. Thanks a ton ☺️

[Caliban07]

You need nitrogen potassium and phosphorus in larger amounts. New growth should be seen quite readily as the plants will use there carbon stores for a while on their transition but when the stores deplete and they stop growing then you need to take action.

[jmmwa8220]

Ok thank you, I'm ordering up an all in one fertilizer, hopefully that will help. Thanks for the advice!

[Aiken Drum]

Just be aware that the vast majority of all in one fertilisers essentially contain zero nitrogen or phosphate. What are you ordering?

[jmmwa8220]

This is the one I got, I'm pretty sure it's got it all? What would you recommend if not this one? I still have time to cancel it!

[Aiken Drum]

Thats the one i would recommend. Not available here in the UK but its the go to fertiliser where you can get it.

[jmmwa8220]

Awesome �� thank you ☺️ should I still dose weekly Flourish? It's the micro only fertilizer, from Seachem I think.. or alternate them or something? What would you suggest to keep the plants at max health and growth, the goal is to be able to do no water changes, and really be filled in with plants. Thanks!

[Aiken Drum]

I would just stick with the thrive and dose it as instructed.

You still need to do water changes. Even if the plants are taking up all your nitrate water changes do more than that. There are other waste products plants dont take up. If you arent changing water then carbonate hardness will deplete and then the nitrogen cycle cant function. As you top up evaporation your general hardness will just rise and rise as the salts build up.

[jmmwa8220]

Gotcha, will def keep that in my mind thank you!