I kill everything

[CassCats]

My duckweed thrives in my fry tank and 29 gallon live bearer tank although it just dies in my Betta tanks.

Ive tried that too... put it in the fry tanks. Still dies haha

 

[EllRog]

I'm glad I'm not alone in this. I think half the time I must be crazy if I can't even keep duckweed alive.

I manage to kill anacharis

 

[Retired Viking]

I manage to kill anacharis

I had great anacharis over 3 feet long and beautiful green for about 8 months then within a short time almost all of it died. I just put some new anacharis in my tetra tank hopefully it will thrive.

 

[EllRog]

I had great anacharis over 3 feet long and beautiful green for about 8 months then within a short time almost all of it died. I just put some new anacharis in my tetra tank hopefully it will thrive.

I remember you saying about that, 3ft of anacharis is crazy! I can't manage to keep salvinia alive either. Basically useless at plants

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I remember you saying about that, 3ft of anacharis is crazy! I can't manage to keep salvinia alive either. Basically useless at plants

Salvinia is useless - do idea why on earth I got it...

 

[CassCats]

Salvinia is useless - do idea why on earth I got it...

My salvinia took out 2 filters haha busted the motors

 

[Retired Viking]

Salvinia is useless - do idea why on earth I got it...

I still have it in my tetra tank, it looks alright and gives the tetra shade but I miss the anacharis arch and forest I had. I put some new anacharis in on one end to start a forest again for my ember tetra to hide in. They spent most of their time in it when I had the last forest.

 

[Croissant]

Oh man... I'm sorry to hear this I can't keep my plants either, nor aqautic nor potted, they just wither away.

 

[Flushable Pets]

I should send you some of my hornwort. Not only have I not killed it, it's on track to take over one of my tanks! It's grown over a foot in 2 weeks!

 

[CassCats]

I should send you some of my hornwort. Not only have I not killed it, it's on track to take over one of my tanks! It's grown over a foot in 2 weeks!

I keep that one alive just fine actually haha

If ya want to kill it though, just bleach dip it haha or use flourish excel. It hates those

 

[Flushable Pets]

I keep that one alive just fine actually haha

If ya want to kill it though, just bleach dip it haha or use flourish excel. It hates those

This is truth. All of mine were wild collected locally. I tried my first batch dipped in bleach. Instant Christmas tree needles in the carpet. Second time I did a QT. They did meh until my cichlids shredded all of them one night. The most recent batch was QT and is doing great and kept away from my male cichlid!

 

[CassCats]

This is truth. All of mine were wild collected locally. I tried my first batch dipped in bleach. Instant Christmas tree needles in the carpet. Second time I did a QT. They did meh until my cichlids shredded all of them one night. The most recent batch was QT and is doing great and kept away from my male cichlid!

Its a strange plant for sure.

Though I brought in a winter plant from the wild. Didn't like that. Instant needle melt.

 

[Bub]

Water sprite is the way to go if you can get your hands on it. If you manage to kill it, I will be thoroughly impressed. It grows like a weed.

 

[CassCats]

Water sprite is the way to go if you can get your hands on it. If you manage to kill it, I will be thoroughly impressed. It grows like a weed.

I had a tiny leaf hitch hiker of it once, it didn't take, but never had the full plant. Its not common in my area

 

[StevenF]

With floating plants the issue is almost always a nutrient deficiency. Plant need 14 nutrients to grow. If you are short on just one your plant will look like this and die.

How's your filter set up? These floating plants hate getting wet.

I have seen Slavinia and duckweed survive complexly under water. Dispite what everyone says plants getting wet is not the issue.

floating plants have access to all the CO2 they need and plants can get by with very little light and yet don't die in extremely bright light of direct sunlight. So if it isn't light and CO2 , it has to be a nutrients plants issue..

If so why did did Flourish comprehensive fail to resolve the issue. Seachem like many other aquarium fertilizer companies assume you are using tap water so they take advantage of that by not supplying nutrient that are common in tap water. magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper, and chloride are often not in the fertilizer or are only present at very low levels that are insufficient for good plant growth. Also many fertilizers assume you overstock your tank. So the fish waist might be present at a high enough levels to help.

Flourish comprehensive has less than 1/10th of copper a plant can consume in a week. It also has less than 1/20th of the needed Zinc. If you have zinc plated iron pipes you would have enough zinc but since the 60's Copper has been used. But today new homes probably have plastic pipes.

Tap water also typically has Calcium and magnesium, which are detected by your GH kit. You have enough. But in some places the water will have very little in it. Plant need almost as much Calcium as potassium. And magnesium is needed at levels similar to phosphorous. And yet flourish has levels close to the amount of iron, a trace nutrient.

Now if your lucky your tap water and flourish will work well. But for me my RO water it didn't because, my water had no calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc, and chloride. And everything died in my tan, including duckweed and the plants in the substrate.

YOur submerged plants are probably ding ok due to low light levels. At low light levels they can get by with low nutrient levels. While the floating plants get more light and therefore cannot get by with what is in the water column. If you are using root tabs the nutrients the nutrients might be trapped in the substate with little to no nurtirnets in the water column for the floating plants.

I eventually resolved my issues by making my own fertilizer. But it might be possible with a different fertilizer. Using this fertilizer calculator. 22.3ml of flourish trace for every 10 gallons of water would get your trace nutrient levels near what I now use Zinc will be a bit higher than I dose and Molybdenum is a little lower than I would like but I think it would work. It all depends on what you have or don't have in your water source. If doesn't have iron so you would have to fertilize with iron to 0.1ppm. You could use Seachem iron but it doesn't last long in the water. So I would break the iron dose to 0.03ppm over 3 days during the week. Do a 50% water change once a week to remove any buildup.

If that doesn't work your might have a phosphate or potassium deficiency.