What Should I Do — Plant Advice Needed

[LindseyH]

This is my daughter's new aquarium (I'm looking after it). The plants are only a week old but they're already looking a little sorry for themselves. The elodea appears to be turning brown and slightly mushy at the edges and the vallis is breaking up (see pictures).

The lights for the aquarium didn't arrive in time so we've been using a desk lamp. Could this be the problem?

The other issue we've had was that I rather foolishly used cold water for a water change. The plants seemed to deteriorate more after that. I did quickly remove the cold water and get the temperature right again.

The filter has mature media in it and water tests are all fine. The water is hard and ph 7.9 from the tap. I do use dechlorinator.

We'll finally be getting the LED strips tomorrow, so my biggest question is: should I take some of these plants out and buy new ones? Will the better lights fix the problem or do I need to look elsewhere for a solution?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[minnnt]

Remove any faltering leaves as they release ammonia as they break down. The new lights should make a nice difference, what are they? Are they proper plant growing LED's or just normal ones? Dosing an all round fertiliser will help them along a little and offer much healthier looking growth.

 

[hensonc4098]

Hey there

It's likely that it could be the light that's causing the issue. Do know how many watts the desk lamp is? Also, how big is the tank in gallons? This will help to see if it's that the light intensity is too low.

Don't worry about using cold water for water changes - it won't harm the plants or the fish. As long as you use dechlorinator everything will be fine. The heater will just warm it up again. If you think about in the wild, if the fish are living in streams or whatever and they get a rain shower, there's going to be a drop in temperature, so they're used to it I'm not saying you could just chuck them in freezing water... but they'll be ok with a cooler water change

I've never used LED lights in tanks, so don't know how they are for plants. I've always just used fluorescent tubes. I'm presuming though it will be the same principle of light intensity for your tank size etc.

And minnnt can type faster than me...

 

[LindseyH]

The lights are Insterpet Daylight LED strips (the ones with the adhesive strip). I'm not sure whether they're proper plant growing ones but they're not the ones that cost hundreds.

I did buy some fertiliser tablets today — the type that you bury in the gravel and which last a year. I'd heard that some pond fertilisers can be broken up and used (much cheaper) — thought I might investigate that further and buy some at a later date.

Do you think these will recover in that case? I saw some very healthy vallis at the lfs today and the contrast really struck me (I was very tempted to buy it and throw mine away).

 

[LindseyH]

Hey there

It's likely that it could be the light that's causing the issue. Do know how many watts the desk lamp is? Also, how big is the tank in gallons? This will help to see if it's that the light intensity is too low.

Don't worry about using cold water for water changes - it won't harm the plants or the fish. As long as you use dechlorinator everything will be fine. The heater will just warm it up again. If you think about in the wild, if the fish are living in streams or whatever and they get a rain shower, there's going to be a drop in temperature, so they're used to it I'm not saying you could just chuck them in freezing water... but they'll be ok with a cooler water change

I've never used LED lights in tanks, so don't know how they are for plants. I've always just used fluorescent tubes. I'm presuming though it will be the same principle of light intensity for your tank size etc.

And minnnt can type faster than me...

The tank is 33 gallons (125 litres to me — I'm in the UK!). As for the cold water ... if nothing else it made my cherry barb start spawning within half an hour. I now have fry (hence the new java fern)! I'm glad that it's not responsible for ruining the plants though.

I've also noticed string algae and a strange white mulch around the heater suckers. That's an aglae too, I think (it feels very slippery).

I'll try trimming the plants. I did attempt to do that earlier but I find that, out of the water, it's suddenly hard to see what needs cutting. the brown areas seem to disappear, on the elodea, at least.

The desk lamp is pathetic. It's only a 40 watt but it's all we have. The lfs have been unable to get the LEDs and we keep being given new dates for when they're supposed to be in stock. I've now sourced them from somewhere else.

 

[hensonc4098]

I'm in the UK too, but it's because the watt per gallon rule is commonly used to judge how "high" or "low" your lighting is Even though you have over 1 watt per gallon which is pretty typical for a general low tech tank, it's likely that it's still a lighting related problem due the fact that the desk lamp is probably quite focussed instead of being diffused over the full tank like tubes are.

Do you have a fitting for a fluorescent tube on the tank?

 

[LindseyH]

Thanks for clearing up the gallons / watts issue, Henson.

I now have the LEDs and I bought some new vallis. The elodea had straightened up within hours of fitting the new lights and I'm seeing much less 'mushy stuff' on them now, after a bit of a trim.

Thanks for the help