plants not doing well

[icon149]

I've got a 75 gallon planted tank with a 48" coral life 260 watt PC light, everything has been great for about a year, and now all my java fern is getting ratty and full of holes, and my valis keeps dying (used to almost plague my aquarium it grew so fast, now daily i pull out handfulls of valis leaves). I've also noticed some of my cryts are melting (but not bad). I do not inject CO2 but I do have peat in the water (just in a nylon sock) so the water is fairly soft and about 6.8 ph.

are the bulb im my light just ready to be replaced could that be the cause.
I remember readign some where that flourescant lights need to be replaced anually. is this the case with my PC and would they cause such a change in my plant growth?

 

[MantisX]

Hi. I dont think the loss of light intensity would hurt your plants that bad. I have a 72 watt PC that ive had for about 2 years. Im not growing anything serious with it, but whatever I put under the lights grow fine. I think you may have a nutrient problem. I had a nice set of vals once, but I started adding cichlid salts to the water and they showed the same symptoms you are describing. Do you add salts to your water? What kind of fertilizer are you using for the plants? What are your current water parameters? ph, kh, nitrates? The people here help really well once they get info like this from you.

Hope this helps

 

[medge00]

IMO, bulbs do need to be replaced once a year....

what fertilizers do you have going?

 

[Guest]

It's not the lights. PC bulbs will pretty much run till they burn out. They do lose intensity and spectrum but they lose around 20% in the first couple of hundred hours and are still at around 70% when they fail. So the gradual loss of 10% of the light is not the cause.

You have a 75 gallon tank with 260 watts of light. You don't inject CO2 and you give us no idea of what your fertilizer regime is. I'm betting that the plants are suffering from a systemic lack of nutrients. Remember that light, carbon (CO2), nitrate, phosphate, and potassium are the big five. Then you have iron and the rest of the trace elements.

How often do you do water changes and how large are they?

 

[icon149]

Sorry about the lack of information, I'm at work so i can't test my water right now, but the PH is usually around 6.8, the KH is usually around 3 degrees. nitrites and ammonia are always 0. (I haven't quite been able to get a good feel for the GH test, as the water never seems to make a big shift when i add the drops, so i won't claim to know what it is).

I change 10 gallons of water about once a week or once ever 2 weeks (never go much more than that). I add seachem flourish after a water change. and no other fertilizers

I have a substrate of Flourite and Eco Balance gravel. Oh and i don't add any salts, and I medicate fish in a quarantine tank (i've never put any medications in my 75g)

I've got about 36 fish in the tank, 1 school of neons (10), 1 school of rummy nose (8), 4 angels, 3 clown fish, 3 marble hatchets, few ottos, few flying fox's (false SAE's), 1 bristle nose cat, 1 banjo cat

 

[malkore]

I agree with Rex, especially looking at your water change/flourish dosing.
260watts over 75 gallons...you're vals need potassium without a doubt...probably iron too (not to mention nitrate and possible phosphate). Since you don't inject CO2, and don't complain about algae problems, your nitrates and phosphates are probably zero (or close to it), which is gonna starve plants.

Vals also appreciate a little bit of root fertilizing too.

 

[icon149]

Ok, so what do you recommend for fertilizers. Algea hasn't been an issue to date, but my plants have all been doing well up until a few weeks ago.

what products do you recommend and about how much should i start with to avoid having an algea problem?

 

[malkore]

Well, first I recommend injecting CO2. With that much light, and no CO2, any macros you dose are likely to spawn and algae bloom.

Assuming you get a pressurized CO2 setup, I'd but dry macros from gregwatson.com or off-ice at plantgeek.net
You'll want potassium nitrate, some mono-potassium phosphate, and potassium sulfate (I don't find I dose enuf nitrate to get enuf potassium). I'd also order Plantex CSM+Boron.
Rex might disagree with me on this part, but I use Flourish Iron for my iron needs.

 

[Momotaro]

I fully agree with Rex and Malkore.

Your plants are dying because they are starving. That size aquarium with those lights, you plants were running on hyperdrive. No CO2 and no food, the plants are crashing and burning.

If it were my aquarium, the first thing I would do is start a "planted aquarium" water change schedule. 50% a week to purge any build up, and reset the aquarium. Better water changes more suited to a planted aquarium is the easiest, least expensive thing you can do for your aquarium.

Next, think CO2. That much light, plants are going to need CO2, and the addition of CO2 is going to help stave of any algae as you start to fertilize your aquarium.

First step for fertilization, get a phosphate test kit and a nitrate test kit. These are the macronutrients you aquarium needs, so you are going to need to have a handle on the levels of the substances you are going to be dosing.

You are going to need to get your fertilizers. Malkore has given you two of the best sources for the things you will need. Before you dose, do some research. Check out: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_fertilizer_intro.htm

Live it. Learn it! Make any changes slowly to avoid algae blooms.

Sounds like you are almost there! You need to make some adjustments, which should be quite easy for you to do! You will have happy, healthy plants again soon enough!

Mike

 

[Guest]

Flourish Iron is a great source of Iron. I just find Iron Chelate much cheaper.

icon, you need to do bigger water changes more often. I try and do 50% once a week in my high light tanks and always at least 50% every two weeks. Never do I let the tanks go more than two weeks without a 50% water change.

You do need CO2. And you have been given good sources for nutrients. Flourish just is not enough in a tank that size with that amount of light. It contains very little nitrate or phosphate. In fact most planted tank people treat Flourish as a TRACE additive.

 

[Gyration]

hihi, my two cents. CO2 and nutrients very improtant to plants, even algae. I don 't think I have seem a PMDD article on this site yet, but I think those PMDD are very useful.

FYI: Potassium Nitrate is the basic stump remove you can get at the local home improvement store like home depot or something. Potassium Sulphate is the thing they use to preserve meat, called Salt Peter. Or you can purchase them online, but I find it that getting them at the local stores are much easier and faster. Don't have to wait for shipping.

Magnesium sulphate is just your regular epsom salt you can get at any drug store.

those are some of the ingredients for the PMDD, which for those you don't know, it is a fertilizer formular poor people like me use.

Lighting should be good. Chealed Iron is cheaper, I buy 1 gallon of it for 22 bucks plus shipping, not too bad at all, 1 gallon lasts forever.

Oh whatever you do, don't do what I did, overdose your tank with such nutrients, I got a very nice shade of green on my tank because I overdosed thinking it would help, but it helped me algea, as much as the plants

anyway, this is my two cents on the plants. Of course, I am just learning about them right now, I just started seriously looking into plants and how to take care of them.

 

[Mr Burns]

i just ordered the basics from greg watson over the weekend...check out rex's FAQ on what/how much to buy and you should be good to go in that respect.

 

[Guest]

Gyration,

Potassium Sulfate is NOT salt peter. Potassium Nitrate is Salt Peter.

And many stump removers don't contain pure KNO3, and around here when you do find a stump remover that contains pure KNO3 it runs $5 for a one pound bottle. Greg Watson sells it for $2.17 a pound and you know it's pure. Also you can't find the Plantex Trace mix just anywhere. In fact it's VERY hard to find.

Also I'm going to do my PMDD rant. PMDD is NOT the solution. You are much better off dosing each nutrient separately when needed as needed. The PMDD formula is a one size fits none method IMHO. Many people that have hard water don't need to add the magnesium if they are doing any type of regular water changes.

Bulk chemicals are much cheaper than packaged fertilizers. But be sure you know what you are buying and how to dose it.

 

[malkore]

Rex, you always beat me on the response!

I'm of the opinion that PMDD="I'm too lazy to mess with real fertilizing routines"

YOu'd have to tweak the PMDD to your tank's setup...adn then if you change much (remove or add plants, fish, or adjust CO2) you'll have to remix your PMDD.

Pure KNO3 is getting hard to find. Only 1 brand of stump remover is pure KNO3, and as Rex said it's more than double the cost of gregwatson.com (and incidentally I only pay $1 a lb from my supplier)
Convenience always comes at a cost...and in this case it's the health of your plants.

 

[Mr Burns]

keep reading rex's FAQ over and over until you start hearing...

"Nitrates 5-10 ppm
Phosphates 0.5-1.0 ppm
Iron 0.1-0.3 ppm
Potassium 10-20 ppm"

...in your sleep it's pretty much engrained in my mind so all that's left to do is test and dose -each- nutrient accordingly (well, it's not -all- that's left to do, but you get the idea.) another great resource is chuck gadd's "Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms" page http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

 

[Gyration]

Actually I don't use the PMDD to the letter of the law, i have each individual component seperately and I add only what's needed, if I know what's needed, and when in doubt, I just don't add anything

 

[Momotaro]

Thats the way to go Gyration!

When you use the term PMDD, that automatically implies an all in one fertilizer mix to all of the "plant brained" people.

Mike

 

[Gyration]

The only problem I have with PMDD is that I don't konw how much Potassium is in my tank. I know that the magnesium is easy to check, just check the hardness of the water. So I always add the potassium sulfate, hopefully it doesn't OD the poor plants.