Plant Assistance Please

[JasonMichael]

Hi guys,

I've recently upgraded my tank and I've noticed some of the plants leaves are slightly turning a brown colour and breaking off - could this mean I am leaving the T5 lights on too long or not enough? Or do the plants need some sort of fertilizer or something?

Any assistance would be great thanks!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Can you tell me the size of the tank and the wattage of the T5's and how many you have, more than likely needing ferts and maybe CO2 if you have much higher light now?

 

[JasonMichael]

Can you tell me the size of the tank and the wattage of the T5's and how many you have, more than likely needing ferts and maybe CO2 if you have much higher light now?

Size of the tank is 350l (juwel rio 300), 4 foot. x4 54watt T5s, one set of lights has x1 day x1 nature which are on for around 5 or so hours and the other set x2 blue lights for the night.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

If you have all 4 on then that's to much light, you need to be dosing ferts and CO2, if you use 2 bulbs then the other 2 bulbs separately then your photo period is way too long.

 

[JasonMichael]

If you have all 4 on then that's to much light, you need to be dosing ferts and CO2, if you use 2 bulbs then the other 2 bulbs separately then your photo period is way too long.

I'm running the 2 separately, usually the day and natural ones for around 3-5 hours and the blue ones for around 1-3 hours. What type of ferts and CO2 would i need?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

That's a pickle, as so long as you run them separately you shouldn't have problems and shouldn't need CO2, got any pic's? That way we might be able to see what the deficiency is?

 

[JasonMichael]

That's a pickle, as so long as you run them separately you shouldn't have problems and shouldn't need CO2, got any pic's? That way we might be able to see what the deficiency is?

I'll take some and upload them tomorrow to this thread I'll have to try and get some good pics ahah, thanks for your help so far!

 

[Dazzler666]

What type of plants are they? Some plants are not meant to be submersed fully in an aquarium so all the light & fert in the world wont help them!!
I would trim off the dead leaves & roots then re-plant & use some form of fert.
To me your lighting seems perfectly adequate tho if anything id maybe up the day cycle to around 8 hours.
Also maybe consider if you have/run a lot of air ornaments turn them off during the night to allow CO2 to build up which helps the plants when photosynthesising .... I think?!
Dont get me wrong, im no plant guru (to say the leadt!!) but just tryng to offer suggestions!! .
Maybe worth this being moved to the plant section too for more specific advice!!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

What type of plants are they? Some plants are not meant to be submersed fully in an aquarium so all the light & fert in the world wont help them!!
I would trim off the dead leaves & roots then re-plant & use some form of fert.
To me your lighting seems perfectly adequate tho if anything id maybe up the day cycle to around 8 hours.
Also maybe consider if you have/run a lot of air ornaments turn them off during the night to allow CO2 to build up which helps the plants when photosynthesising .... I think?!
Dont get me wrong, im no plant guru (to say the leadt!!) but just tryng to offer suggestions!! ��.
Maybe worth this being moved to the plant section too for more specific advice!! ��

Turning off air pumps does not alter the amount of CO2 in the tank, it just increases the oxygen. Upping the day cycle will mean your going over the recommended 8 hours light if you include the evening lighting so I'd keep it to a max of 8 hours, 10 if you really want too. This topic is in the planted section and as soon as the pic's are up I'm sure we can give some sound advice.

Steve.

 

[JasonMichael]

What type of plants are they? Some plants are not meant to be submersed fully in an aquarium so all the light & fert in the world wont help them!!
I would trim off the dead leaves & roots then re-plant & use some form of fert.
To me your lighting seems perfectly adequate tho if anything id maybe up the day cycle to around 8 hours.
Also maybe consider if you have/run a lot of air ornaments turn them off during the night to allow CO2 to build up which helps the plants when photosynthesising .... I think?!
Dont get me wrong, im no plant guru (to say the leadt!!) but just tryng to offer suggestions!! ��.
Maybe worth this being moved to the plant section too for more specific advice!! ��

Turning off air pumps does not alter the amount of CO2 in the tank, it just increases the oxygen. Upping the day cycle will mean your going over the recommended 8 hours light if you include the evening lighting so I'd keep it to a max of 8 hours, 10 if you really want too. This topic is in the planted section and as soon as the pic's are up I'm sure we can give some sound advice.

Steve.

Yesterday after I had them on for a solid 8 hours they were so bright and lush! The green looked amazing! Anyway lol, I've attached a few photos and circled in red for quick identification, any help would be great Because I want to add more but want to make sure these are doing okay first

Thanks for your help!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The first plant doesn't look aquatic to me, looks like a marginal plant so the roots can handle being soaked but the leaves wont so I'd take it out, the second obv the same plant and the 3rd is a sword which is fine but how long has it been in your tank as these have a habit of melting and re growing leaves to adjust to the new conditions.

 

[lljdma06]

The first plant doesn't look aquatic to me, looks like a marginal plant so the roots can handle being soaked but the leaves wont so I'd take it out, the second obv the same plant and the 3rd is a sword which is fine but how long has it been in your tank as these have a habit of melting and re growing leaves to adjust to the new conditions.

It's Cyperus helferi. Aquatic. Up the daylight bulb photo period to 8 hours, turn off the air stones. While you need some surface agitation, having run many non CO2 planted tanks in my time, you don't want water breakage, that's for SW, but ripples that don't break, if you know what I mean. Under the surface, however, it can be Hurricane city to get the nutrients evenly distributed, which is, IMO crucial.

The amazon and the helferi may well be going from emersed growth to submerged growth. Having taken tours of several aquatic nurseries in the South FL area, I can let you know that most plants in the trade are grown emersed. Easier and cheaper. Only the stemplants destined for very quick sale are actually grown submerged.

Remove the dead leaves and keep the tank "eat off the substrate" clean. What is the water change regimen?

EDIT: Increasing motion is typically done with filters and powerheads. Aim for about 20x turnover.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Strange my Cyperus Helferi looks nothing like that. Oh dear think TGM made a boo boo, they sent me Juncus Repens instead, just been looking it up.

 

[lljdma06]

Those look way different from each other!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Yeah but when planting a tank with about 40 pots of plants sometimes things get overlooked, I thought it looked quite similar to the tropica pictures actually when immersed so a difficult mistake to make I suppose.