Plant problems

[LP23]

Hello

Ive been cycling a tank for quite a while now and i decided to do a planted tank. Ive used fairly standard plants: bucephalandra, amazon sword, anubias barteri, dwarf sag, water sprite and water spangles. However they dont seem at all interested in taking any nitrogen compounds out of the water, and some just haven’t rooted at all e.g ive had the water spangles for two weeks and they’ve shown no signs of root growth and same for the water sprite. Is this a nutrient issue or am i just an idiot?

 

[KevinZ]

Bucephalandra & Anubias Will take a month to establish and start to growing new Leaf IME

 

[Byron]

Coud you post the numbers for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? A photo of the entire tank would help us see the plants and we may spot something. Are you using any plant additives (liquid or tab fertilizers)? Light data?

 

[LP23]

I was using a little bottle of fertiliser which i used up (planning to get more and probably root tabs) before i realised there was carbon in the filter which i have now removed. The ammonia from the API kit looks to be about .5- 1.0 ppm and the nitrite is about .25-.5 ppm so there not hugely high as they were when i was establishing the tank (although the cycling process was a bit of an ordeal) and i did a water change this morning so the nitrate is about 5 ppm. The plants struggling a bit are the dwarf sag which seems to have disintegrated a few of its leaves (although one has sent out a runner) and one of the anubias (left) is yellowing on a few of its edges. I dont really know the light data but its not a hugely deep tank and the light is quite strong. As well, when the substrate is disturbed a lot of debris seems to kick up and fly into the water column, and accumulates quickly in the filter which needs pretty constant cleaning.

 

[Byron]

That does not look troublesome at all. A comprehensive fertilizer will probably help though, as the nutrients normally occurring from fish foods and waste are not here. There are three good brands I would recommend, but as you are in England I will just suggest The Nutrient Company's TNC Lite. The "Lite" has everything except nitrogen and phosphorus, neither of which you want to be adding once you have fish. Nitrogen is not deficient now anyway, though I must confess the numbers for ammonia and nitrite do puzzle me. But maybe you have recently been using ammonia? Don't, with plants present. And if the plants are relatively recent, say within a week, they likely have not yet settled nor established. Do some water changes to get rid of the ammonia and nitrite, once it shows zero you should be OK. With the TNC Lite. They make a substrate tab too, but that won't offer much here with these plants.

 

[LP23]

Theres three cherry shrimp( one was lost to the old ‘i wonder if i can fit inside the filter intake’ problem) in here from another tank with breeders and they seem to hanging on but theyve only been in for about two days as theyre a bit of a litmus test for livestock safety.