Advice Needed Please, Plants Seem To Be Dying

[marieukxx]

I have a small planted tank with no co2 but I do dose every 2 weeks with waterlife tropiflora. In the tank I have two lots of java fern which has really grown big and one lot of anubius which was doing great until recently.
 
The anubius is just dying off. The leaves were lush and green and it was growing but now they just get brown holes in the leaves and I keep cutting them off and it's practically bare now. I noticed now one oof the Java Fern has started getting borwn spots and holes!
 
I was looking up and it seems maybe it's a potassium deficiency? The tank light is on for 6 hours a day. All that's in the tank are the plants I mentioned and a Betta fish. It's been set up years now and the Java Fern is really bushy and big. The anubius used to look great but now it's a mess! I was thiking of ripping it all off and buying some fresh anubius but if there is a defiency in the water I need to sort that out.
 
I was looking at API Leaf Zone for extra potassium. Would that be a good thing to get? Would I use that alongside the waterlife tropiflora?
 
Any help would be much appreciated
 
The tank:
 

 
The Java Fern, they aren't just brown spots, they are holes

 
The anubias which I have to keep cutting because the leaves are so bad so now it's very bare:

 

[daizeUK]

Your Tropiflora contains potassium so I would put the blame on carbon deficiency.  Your plants have little use for more potassium if they're not getting enough carbon to make use of it.
 
It looks like you have a lot of plants for the size of tank, which is similar to a problem I had recently with one of my tanks.  As your plants grow they need more and more carbon.  Now that your plants have reached a certain size, there simply isn't enough carbon to go around.
 
You can either remove some plant biomass or start adding carbon (either liquid or CO2) to give the plants what they need.  Either way the unhealthy leaves will never recover so you may as well remove them.

 

[marieukxx]

Thanks for the reply, I never thought about having too many plants. I'm looking at the liquid and I see API liquid CO2 booster. What do I do with that? Just dose according to instructions like I do my waterlife tropiflora? I take it I still use the tropiflora as well.

 

[marieukxx]

what about somehing like this:
http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190805376287&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en
 
Is that any better?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes, you can start by dosing it according to the directions.  Its not 'carbon dioxide' but it is a carbon source the plants can use.
 
 
Its possible that the dose might need to be increased, but the plants you have aren't 'hogs' for nutrients.
 
 
 
The reason that you probably never thought about having too many plants (and a CO2 deficiency) is because you might be thinking of the needs of terrestrial plants.  With terrestrial plants, CO2 is never too much of a problem. Because the air has plenty and the wind moves more to fill in whatever the plants use.   But, with aquatic plants, the CO2 can only get into the tank through the air/water interface.  And if there isn't much flow, that CO2 takes a long time to get to the plants and the natural carrying capacity of water for CO2 is rather low (~3-5ppm) versus (~30ppm) that is the standard goal for heavily planted tanks.   Your plants don't need that level of CO2, but the goal is to make sure that they have 'enough'. 
 
Liquid carbon solutions (like the API CO2 Booster, which I have used and still use) is useful in low-medium light tanks with low-medium needs are... And that's what anubias and java fern really are.  So, its an ideal option for you.

 

[daizeUK]

I don't have any experience with pressurized CO2. Those small canisters are expensive for the amount of gas they contain as they won't last very long. However they may be a good solution for a tank your size. Liquid carbon is likely to be cheaper for a small tank though.

The products I would recommend are EasyCarbo and Flourish Excel. They both do roughly the same thing but EasyCarbo tends to be cheaper.

With liquid carbon you need to dose every single day, unlike your Tropiflora ferts. Yes, you will keep using the Tropiflora fertilizer alongside the carbon - ferts become even more important when carbon is being added to a tank.

Follow the instructions on whichever bottle you buy. It's not a good thing to overdose it (inverts in particular won't like it). I would start with quarter- or half-dose for the first week and gradually increase each week until you are at full dose, to allow the plants time to adjust.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's not really a necessary step to take with the plants you have.  Pressurized CO2 is much more useful in tanks with HIGH LIGHTING and fast growth plants.
 
 
Do you have any plants besides the java fern and anubias?

 

[marieukxx]

Sorry for the delay replying, I'm babysitting atm. I just have the Java Fern and anubias in the tank. So maybe it's best to go with the API co2 booster then. The only problem is I find it says on these things to fill the cap according to litres or gallons and it's only a 21 litre tank and I never know how much to use. I've looked it up and it says 1ml per 38 litre so how much would I use and how on earth would I measure that out right?  If I used the 1ml that would be too much. Edit: Just found a small syringe I have that has ml's on it and has two lines under the 1ml so I guess that's 1/2 and 1/4. How much should I give for the first week and so on?  Is it ok for my zebra nerite snail? Sorry for all the questions.
 
I don't really wanna use the co2 cans tbh. I just want something easy that will save my plants as I love that tank with the plants and would hate it if they died off.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Then CO2 booster is your best choice.
 
I'd recommend getting a medicine syringe - available at the local pharmacy/chemist.  Very cheap and very easy to use.  Get a syringe that marks in 0.2 mL.  That would allow you to measure out 0.6ml which would be an adequate dose for your tank at this point.

 

[marieukxx]

Then CO2 booster is your best choice.
 
I'd recommend getting a medicine syringe - available at the local pharmacy/chemist.  Very cheap and very easy to use.  Get a syringe that marks in 0.2 mL.  That would allow you to measure out 0.6ml which would be an adequate dose for your tank at this point.

Thank you so so much. Is this right to get:
http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261231396315?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
 
so 0.6ml is what I dose and shall I do less than that for a week to get the plants used to it? Thanks

 

[eaglesaquarium]

That's the stuff (Although you don't need 10 of them!)
 
No, I'd just go with the full dose immediately... if you are worried though, you could do a half dose for a week, and then bump to a full dose after that.
 
Or even start at 0.1mL (for 2 days), then 0.2mL (for 2 days), then 0.3mL (for 2 days), etc.   Ultimately, the thing is that I've never seen it cause problems with those plants but doing it slower is never a bad idea.

 

[marieukxx]

Thank you for all your help.

 

[marieukxx]

The liquid Carbon seems to be doing the trick! My Anubias has started sprouting new leaves which are nice and green. Hopefully it won't be long before it's back to how it used to be.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to all that gave me advice