Dying plants ..

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

Hi all .I have a 29 gallon planted tank . Sand substrate. My plants are all suddenly dying off again .this is the second time in about a year . I have vallisneria and a few other plants that were all growing well for a few months, now have all died away down . I've added more root tabs a couple of times ,but no improvement. I asked a guy in the fish shop and he recommended lifted my sand and putting aquarium soil underneath it . I dont really want to do that . Is it possible to keep plants growing in just sand with root tabs long term ?

Slaphppy7 · Aug 9, 2021

Pics of the plants may help for suggestions on the issue.

Corypower · Aug 9, 2021

Brendanpat said:
Hi all .I have a 29 gallon planted tank . Sand substrate. My plants are all suddenly dying off again .this is the second time in about a year . I have vallisneria and a few other plants that were all growing well for a few months, now have all died away down . I've added more root tabs a couple of times ,but no improvement. I asked a guy in the fish shop and he recommended lifted my sand and putting aquarium soil underneath it . I dont really want to do that . Is it possible to keep plants growing in just sand with root tabs long term ?

It really depends on species

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

I'll take some later when I get home. My main one that was spreading lots of new shoots and growing well is vallisneria gigantea. Which is now only wee stubs left

Slaphppy7 · Aug 9, 2021

Brendanpat said:
I'll take some later when I get home. My main one that was spreading lots of new shoots and growing well is vallisneria gigantea. Which is now only wee stubs left

Not sure if you have seen these charts online yet, but you can look them over until you have a chance to post pics: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=aq...ncy+chart&iax=images&ia=images&iaf=size:Large

Byron · Aug 9, 2021

I can guarantee that the substrate itself is not the issue, and adding soil is not going to improve plant growth but can cause serious fish issues. The issue for aquarium plants is the balance of light and nutrients. We need to know the light data, and what (if any) plant additives or fertilizers you are using. A photo of the entire tank as already asked for will certainly help us too.

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

These are the pictures of my tank . Where you can see the vallisneria is dyed down to a stub . They used to fill the tank to the top .the other plants have never grew at all . They haven't died but have just stayed the same for about 8 months or more

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

As you can see ,I have floating plants shading a lot of my light . I have tried thinning them out ,but this always leads to an algae explosion. I thought because I always buy low light demand plants that they should still grow . Could this be the problem?should I try moving my plant light to the other side of the lid ,or move the floating plants to allow direct light down and hope the plant can outgrow the algae ?

Fishfinder1973 · Aug 9, 2021

Do you add any nutrients?

Byron · Aug 9, 2021

Are you using any fertilizers/supplements?

I don't have the specs for the light, but one photo has a line of white diodes and another line of blue...the blue is going to affect algae, and there is black brush algae on several of the lower plant leaves, so this is one thing. Do you have the Kelvin rating for the white diodes?

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

These here ...

Byron · Aug 9, 2021

I should also have asked for the GH of the water, as this is a prime source for calcium and magnesium which are minimal in most fertilizers, though there are ways around this...but the GH is the starting point.

The light may be the issue. I have tanks of thriving plants using the Flourish Comp liquid and their tabs, the TNC look pretty good so these should not be the issue.

Essjay · Aug 9, 2021

The main tube is an Aquael Leddy Plant tube. It may not be exactly the same one as this link, but all the names (plant, sunny etc) are the same for all their lighting styles.

Leddy Tube RETROFIT - Aquael

www.aquael-aquarium.co.uk

Byron · Aug 9, 2021

Essjay said:
The main tube is an Aquael Leddy Plant tube. It may not be exactly the same one as this link, but all the names (plant, sunny etc) are the same for all their lighting styles.

Leddy Tube RETROFIT - Aquael

www.aquael-aquarium.co.uk

Thanks. Having looked at the link, the Sunny is probably the best. If one had two, one Sunny and one Plant would likely be good. But the plant on its own is to me a tad too "cool" if it is the only light. So-called "plant" light traditionally has a rather goulish purplish colour hue, which may or may not help the plants but certainly affects the colour rendition of everything in the tank. And this light is or was (in the fluorescent tubes) always significantly weaker than the "daylight" 6500K. This is partly due to the lower green light, which while it does not drive photosynthesis it has been shown to have a positive impact on plant growth when it is added to the red and blue (as in the Sunny).

Brendanpat · Aug 9, 2021

Yes it's the plant version I got especially for that tank .it didn't come with it .I'm not sure of the Kelvin rating . My water gh is 120ppm . The algae on them other plants has been building very slowly over nearly a year . If they were growing I think it wouldn't be there really ?

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Dying plants ..

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