Plants disintegrating / disappearing

[nobo]

Thanks. I'll probably stick to (at most) weekly half doses with the liquid fertilizer, rather than (as per packet) a full dose once to twice a week.

 

[Naughts]

Agree that it must be the baking soda for such a rapid decline, but just wanted to add that people say fluorescent bulbs have a shelf life of about a year then they are too dim. As your tank is second hand they probably need replacing. Personally I would try T5 again as my LEDs only grow algae!

 

[Colin_T]

When you first start using plant fertilisers, the plants take it all up very quickly and use it to repair damaged cells. After the plants have had 3 or 4 regular doses of fertiliser they start to produce new growth. This happens to terrestrial plants as well as aquatic plants. They need to repair damage and build up their strength, then they produce new leaves and branches.

If you don't have an iron test kit to monitor the iron levels in the water, you can do a 75% water change twice a week and add a full dose of fertiliser after the water change. The big water change will dilute any remaining fertiliser and there will be less chance of overdosing.

 

[utahfish]

New plants regularly " melt" when introduced to a new tank. Most aquatic plants are grown above water immersed and so when submersed the cell structure isnt built for submersion. As long as the roots or rhizomes are intact they should grow back if the proper light and nutrients are provided. If using fluorescent than generally watts/gallon is used as a measurement for effectiveness. For low light plants like ferns and anubius one wants around two watts/ gallon medium plants 3 watts per and high light plants with reds and carpeting plants one needs 4 to 5 watts/ gallon which also require CO2. Having said that the bulb needs to be between 5000K to 6500K and then with the correct lights the nutrients need to be readily available as well. Plants feed two ways, through roots and leaves. Some plants are heavy root feeders and some heavy feeders from water. The 3 macro nutrients are N(nitrogen) P (phosphate) and K ( potassium) N and P are provided from fish waste and other organics like rotting leaves. Tom Barr from the Barr report says the two most under fertilized nutrients in a planted tank are potassium and Iron. Iron is a micro nutrient and id recommend finding a liquid fert that has iron in it that is derived from ferrous gluconate as its easier for plants to absorb than other forms of iron which can also block other nutrient absorption. Id also suggest being very stingy and careful with iron dosing as its a micro nutrient and too much can cause algae blooms. The other was potassium which most liquid ferts is derived from potassium sulfate or potassium chloride. Great thing about potassium is plants use a lot of it and its not going to cause algae problems if one over doses it. The other problem your going to have with harder water is the availability of natural CO2 in your water hard water is usually associated with higher PH and the lower the PH the more Available CO2 in water. You could always lower your PH naturally with Peat but if not its not much of a worry. Good thing about your hard water is plants like java fern and anubius are heavy calcium feeders as they have thicker stronger leaves than alot of plants. Get your lights right whether you go LED or fluorescent or CFL,get a liquid fert that has ferrous gluconate as its iron source and some root tabs with the same, i recommend seachem root tabs as they use ferrous gluconate and you should start to see some improvement. Good luck.

 

[nobo]

Thanks all. Love the knowledge and helpfulness on here!

Given above, I strongly suspect the problem was the bicarb solution.

I have the extra LED light now - which does add a reasonable boost, and has colour modes as a night light.

Seachem Flourish (which I already have) is derived from forrous gluconate and potassium choride (albeit it doesn't seem to have any potassium in it - only soluble potash - K20). Not sure whether I should be getting some Flourish Potassium (or similar) as well - if this is regularly deficient. The Seacm FLourish is described as a comprehensive supplement, yet seems to be micro nutrients and trace elements - and suggests on the that for macro element (NPK) fertilisation, I may need other supplements. However, given the Topica aquasoil under the sand, and the types of plants I have, I'm (perhaps naively) hoping further supplementation won't be necessary.

A handful of the vallis are regrowing (I think from that batch that were only soaked for minutes rather than a day).

The anubias looks a bit spongey - a few of the leaves came off/stalks went mushy. Hopefully it'll recover...

I'm planning to replace the plants (without the bicarb dip this time) and we'll see how they get on. And add some frog bit too.

Will report back if any issues!

 

[Essjay]

I have the extra LED light now - which does add a reasonable boost, and has colour modes as a night light.

Are you leaving the light on all night? Fish need a period of total darkness in every 24 hours, at the same time every day.

 

[Byron]

Essjay's question on the light is important. I'llmove on to...

Seachem Flourish (which I already have) is derived from forrous gluconate and potassium choride (albeit it doesn't seem to have any potassium in it - only soluble potash - K20). Not sure whether I should be getting some Flourish Potassium (or similar) as well - if this is regularly deficient. The Seacm FLourish is described as a comprehensive supplement, yet seems to be micro nutrients and trace elements - and suggests on the that for macro element (NPK) fertilisation, I may need other supplements.

No on any other supplements. Flourish Comprehensive Supplement contains all the nutrients aquatic plants require except for oxygen, carbon and hydrogen and these three occur naturally within the aquarium. The nutrients in this product are in specific proportions to each other, which is important for plants. The macro's are not high because the product is as the name says a "supplement" to what occurs naturally, and most people have these (calcium, magnesium, etc) in the source water. It is only when you have very soft water that you might require additional products.

Over the last decade I have experimented with some of the additional products (iron, potassium, calcium) and either caused algae problems or actually killed some plants. Plant nutrition is not a matter of just dumping fertilizer in the tank; an excess of some nutrients can cause plants to cease assimilation of other nutrients. In a low-tech or natural planted tank, a comprehensive supplement is all that is needed (aside from good light obviously).

 

[nobo]

Thanks all. Comforting to hear that about Seachem Flourist. I guess I'll aim for a dose once a week (rather than once to twice a week as it suggests), and err on the side of under dosing (averaging somewhere between a half and a full dose).

The LED light will be used (if needed) to boost light during the c. 10 hours the florescent is on (currently 2pm - midnight); and occasionally (as in maybe a few hours here and there) for moonlight/colour effects - so they'll definitely get a good number of hours in darkness.

I may leave the replacement water sprite floating (when it arrives) and add some frog bit - think the pearl gourami I'm planning on getting will appreciate the cover. It will of course limit light down into the lower tank, so I may need to leave the LED on. But most (all?) of the plants I have are, I think, supposed to be ok in a fairly low light situation.

 

[nobo]

Plants replaced and so far so good, using Seachem Flourish. They've only between in for between 1 and 7 days though, depending on the plant, but doing much better than the original lot (all of which died, save for a few new shoots of vallis, after the original leaves disintegrated). I've also added some frogbit, which is multiplying nicely. So seems even a fairly short rinse in water with bicarb was the problem (despite having been recommended).