Martin

Welp. pH is 8.8 on my test kit, but that's the maximum range so it could be higher. I had read up on the possibility of high TDS (which I didn't really know much about), so I just got a TDS meter that arrived about 30 minutes ago. The meter reads a TDS of 490-500 and additionally, it has a pH meter on it as well that is reading 9.7 😯 Now knowing about TDS, I suspect that has been a part of my chronic problems in fishkeeping all along. Have always had tanks that start off fine, but animal life slowly perish as time moved on. Never had a clear answer despite all other parameters looking good. Any advice with this new information? I don't want to overreact and just start dumping acid buffer, plus I don't know if that will even address the TDS issue.

Hey gang, About 2 years ago, I had a lot of success breeding RCS. I started with about 20 and it eventually bloomed to about 200. About a year in, something changed and I never figured out what. For whatever reason, they seemingly just went sterile. No offspring at all. There were no abnormalities when testing the water and no changes to my usual routine. No new additions. The colony eventually dropped and died off over time. I am now making a second attempt and my water parameters appear pretty good. My GH/KH is the only thing in question as my test strips always read the maximum levels. To be sure, I went ahead and got a test kit, which is reading a GH of roughly 100ppm/5.6 dGH and a KH of around 220ppm/12.3 dKH. From what I understand, the GH appears to be decent, but the KH is rather high. Usually, I don't chase water parameters, however, since I am trying to breed, should I be? I'm just concerned about molting issues with that KH. I did by some SeaChem acid buffer, but I wanted some opinions before I go down the rabbit hole. Thanks all! Martin

Lol, I used to have this problem, but then my wife realized there's a lot of crossover between this hobby and her gardening. "Wait, is that stuff Fluval Stratum? A lot of gardeners swear by it for some of these plants..." Suddenly all the questions went away...

Wow this topic still getting replies! Ironically, we had an aquarium expo in town last weekend, and as you may expect... more wood and rocks now in my possession. What a mess I am... 😬

Holy crap brother... that's beautiful.

Hey @Mmiller2001 forgot to ask, how long do you usually wait after increasing your ferts dosing before determining if you need to increase?

Thank you guys! @nabokovfan87, all rhizome plants are tied to hardscape and unburied. I read somewhere that rhizomes need light, but I never really understood that as most of these plants have a TON of leaves that block out vast majority of the light anyway, but whatever. @Seattle_Aquarist, thank you for that education! The plants originally came from BucePlant, not sure if they were grown emersed or immersed. I had assumed immersed since I observed practically zero melt on any of the plants and it has been several months. Even the crypts didn't melt, which I was really, really surprised by.

Thanks again for all the education. I'll report back in a few weeks!

Thank you so much guys (or gals)! @Mmiller2001, as always, thank you for taking the time to explain everything. I stayed up after my post trying to work out the math behind your statement and finally ran into the scenario you explained above. With 50% PWC, you eventually hit a cap since you are always taking out half and only replenishing by a static amount. I guess my only issue with the method is that I would need to know what my target concentrations are, which I don't, which I'm guessing the logic behind the approach is "keep going up till they don't die". So if 8 pumps doesn't work, increase to 10 next and so on. I'm really surprised by the "ferts don't cause algae" thing as I always understood algal problems to be an imbalance between light, food, and CO2. That's valuable information as that is what has kept me very cautious (one VERY nasty BBA situation in the past). I will certainly give Tom Barr a search/read. Last question: If you are trying to build up nutrients, why PWC so much? Wouldn't changing less and/or less often do a better job? @nabokovfan87 thanks to you as well as my other "regular consultant" lol. I have some Equilibrium but haven't used it in a long time as I have been trying to basically keep maintenance simple and not "chase numbers" so to speak. When starting off, the parameters really threw me off because our area is known for crazy hard water... mineral stains on EVERYTHING. Then I did tests for my first tank and I scratched my head at the findings. @Pepere thanks for your help, it looks like you take a similar approach to our fellow hobbyists above. Part of my problem is that I have gotten skittish when having to deviate from the directions on the bottles by large amounts. When EZ Green says 2 pumps per week and I'm starting to does way above that, I start to think something is wrong with how I'm approaching the problem. You guys are awesome!

@Seattle_Aquarist I haven't seen hardly any growth in any of the plants in the tank apart from the crypts, so yes, I believe the leaves we see are almost certainly all original leaves when they arrived. None of them went through any noticeable melt when I placed them into the tank. And to be clear, none of the rhizome plants are buried. @Mmiller2001 Lol, I have a Master's degree and practice medicine and you lost me! Not sure I understand your statement about "you can never have more than 2 times the nutrients dosed when doing 50% water changes". I would think the statement would be "you would halve the dosed nutrients in the tank" with each PWC since you are removing half the volume (assuming an even distribution of the nutrients within the column). If you wanted to increase the concentration of nutrients in the water, wouldn't you do smaller changes (or even none if your tank can sustain it) so to let the nutrients build over time with each subsequent dosing? I know you are right, I'm just trying to follow the science behind it. Given that this appears to be deficiency, should I continue to supplement with my SeaChem potassium? I've been dosing 2ml pretty much 3x weekly (every other day each week). And I believe both of you are correct, this is definitely not melt. I think part of my difficulty is not understanding nutritional needs of the plants. Vast majority of ferts out there follow the "put X in Y times" and viola! However we all know from our own human physiology that feeding a 10 year old and a 200+ pound adult the same exact meal do not yield healthy results one way or another. It's this reason that leads me to "trust and follow directions" rather than really understanding how to care for the plants. Having had algae problems in the past, I'm thinking "Okay, if I think I have a potassium deficiency, why would I dose a broad spectrum, all-in-one fertilizer and risk algal problems down the line rather than just fine tuning potassium?" I'm not sure my thinking is correct. You've already confirmed some of my own fears when you noted how some of the nutrients are too low in concentration because I've looked at the EZ Green label many times and have said to myself, "Uhhhh... is that a lot? Uhhhhhhhhh... is that one enough?" I do the same thing when considering my lighting times and intensity, but I could go on and on. EDIT: Oh, to be clear @Mmiller2001, I know you said 8 pumps and a 50% PWC weekly. Would I do a 50% PWC then follow with 8 pumps at once? Or would you continue just doing 2 pumps spread over the week, THEN a PWC at the end of the week? I'm of course assuming you wouldn't PWC right after dosing the column as that would just be a waste of ferts. I promise I'm not this stupid in other areas of my life...

Thanks guys! @Mmiller2001 Can you help me understand your thought process behind the 50% PWC? Just trying to learn from the situation! I owe you a consultation fee for always chiming in on my plethora of problems buddy! @Seattle_Aquarist Thanks Roy, the tank has been up and running somewhere between 3 to 4 months now. All the plants shown have been in there since that time apart from the two rosette swords on the far left. You are correct, it is practically spotless from an algae standpoint. I thought that was a good sign of balance. Am I thinking about it wrong? I don't know if it matters, but the tank originally had about 6x anubias plants spread across two or three species. Literally all of them got hit by anubias rot within the first few weeks except for one, though it doesn't look hot either. @Miranda Marie Hang in there! I assure you more of us go through the same problems! Some of my plants do great, others I can't keep alive for the life of me even though I follow directions for care.

Heya gang, Just wanted to ask for opinions on next steps for one of my planted tanks that is chiefly populated by various species of java fern and swords. Historically, I have been having a crazy amount of difficulties in this tank with my java fern, chiefly with the ever-slowly creeping of yellow to eventual brown leaves that die off. It is a very slow process and though all the plants are all still alive, it is clear they are not growing/thriving. My swords are also having some mild to moderate difficulties with yellowing leaves that eventually die off as well. Photos all below. First off, parameters: Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 20-40 pH: roughly 7.2 dKH: 4.5 dGH: 6.7 In terms of fertilization, I used to follow the EZ green directions of 2 pumps once weekly (low light, 20g tank), however once I saw the yellow/brown leaves, increased to twice a week, and eventually now, three times weekly. When that didn't do the trick, I figured it was a possible potassium deficiency specifically due to the appearance of the plants, so I started to supplement with SeaChem potassium, 2ml every other day, which I still do now. I put down root tabs as needed for my swords and crypts, however the swords still seem to have yellowing leaves even after putting down new tabs. The crypts seem very happy and are flourishing nicely. My substrate is a mix of roughly 70% Controsoil and 30% gravel. For time reference, I've been battling this for probably 2 months now. After taking a deeper look at all the leaves, I noticed small pinholes in the leaves of my rosette swords this morning, which leads me to think I've also got a manganese deficiency. Of note, this tank is only lightly stocked with bladder snails, ramshorn snails, and roughly 20 or so cherry shrimp. I've been planning to stock more shrimp but the Texas heat has made me hesitant to mail order just yet. I'm not sure if the lack of animal life could be contributing to this? I don't THINK so due to the presence of nitrate, but then again, I'm a dummy so... What do you guys think? I'm kind of at a loss because I FEEL like I have been diligent about fertilizing, but nothing seems to be helping. My other two planted tanks are all growing nicely so I just find it very odd to be seeing signs of possible multiple nutrient deficiencies in this one tank alone, especially after all the dosing I've been doing. If you guys agree with my diagnoses, are there any other supplements you guys recommend, especially manganese? Thanks so much in advance all. Martin EDIT: Forgot to include lighting habits. Because my HOB actually hangs on the side, I run two parallel 14W lights that run across the short side of the aquarium. I run them for 8 hours a day at 30% intensity. Admittedly, I never really quite got the hang of understanding wattage vs. time vs. plant needs and always just fumbled my way through this aspect. All I know is this tank has absolutely ZERO problems with algae growth. It is by far my clearest tank. Not sure if the key is in lighting...

Roughly 20% weekly, using a HOB with a sponge on the intake and the usual goodness inside the HOB (additional sponge, porous filter media for colonization, and filter floss). Just to fill in the remaining gaps: Nitrate 20-40 Nitrite 0 dKH 6.7 dGH 3.4

20 gallons, pH pretty much smack dab 7.0. I didn't know about the whole wood vs. rock pro's/con's. All of mine are usually attached to small rocks to allow me to adjust their position if needed. Regardless, this problem doesn't seem to be falling along those lines.

EzGreen 2mls about 2x weekly. I say about because I've never fully gotten the hang of balancing my tanks to combat algea, so I'm watching my lighting and adjusting my ferts accordingly. I also give a small dose of potassium supplement once a week for the Java ferns and have a few ACO root tabs down by my swords.

Yes sir, just thread.

Lol sorry, I should have chosen my words more carefully. All of my epiphytes are tied down to rocks and wood. I meant "planted" in a general sense.

Good morning all, I have been having an inconsistently consistent problem each time I plant anubias golden. Roughly half these that I plant tend to begin losing their leaves starting with some decay right at the base where the leaf connects at the stem. Since the stem is the leaf's lifeline, it pretty much dooms the leaf as it slows creeps outward to until the leaf is too brittle to stay attached and eventually breaks/floats away. This has only happened to me with this particular species of anubias and yet, it does not happen to all of them. Some of these are newly planted so maybe normal melt? Though at other times, it happens to some that have been established, though it is less prevalent. I don't THINK it is a nutrient deficiency as I would expect the problem to be prevalent with all of the goldens... I read up on anubias rot, but the rhizomes are strong an healthy and the leaves are not breaking off at the stem/rhizome junction. Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!

I don't know a thing about puffers, but I do know a gorgeous tank when I see one. That sir, is a gorgeous tank!

After a LOT of issues with my RCS colony, I wanted to share the joy of my revamped RCS tank with you all! Thanks to all of you for your constant input and expertise! We accomplished this together! EDIT: Was so excited, I posted and forgot the details: The tank is a 20g long with a blend of roughly 80% brown Controsoil and 20% gold pearl mini gravel with dragon/oko stone hardscape. There are 5x little shrimp homes I "enchanced" by applying superglue all over the exteriors and rolling them around in the substrate to give a more natural look (most are hard to see below apart from the one on the far left). The plants are a combo of a LOT of epiphytes and a few rooted plants: 3x Bucephalandra brownie phoenix 6x Anubias nana golden 3x Anubias short and sharp 2x Cryptocoryne tropica 1x Cryptocoryne albida costata 4x Echinodorus big bear 3x Java fern narrow mini 4x Java fern sunrise

Yup, this was my concern. I figured you would basically be doing the whole emersed plant melting when planted in a tank, but backwards. Ugh! TOO MANY FISH TANKZZZZZZZZ!!!

That looks fantastic! Thanks for the tips, I really didn't know what to do with my MC as everything I tried to keep it in place has utterly failed. I'm going to give this a try, though it means I would need to start another tank and my wife might leave me. @Patrick_G From your photos, it looks like you did this with other plants in the tank. Will this work while keeping the other plants safe? Are there any plants that you really shouldn't do this with? I have other plants I'd like to use, but don't want to accidently kill them in the process of dry starting the MC. Also, do you think this would work with gravel?

I have a good amount of Brazilian Pennywort in my tanks. The photo just doesn't look like BPW IMO. The stems are thicker (think bean sprouts) and the leaves don't grow that densely packed together either. It is a lovely plant in the photo. Please let us know if you figure it out!

@xXInkedPhoenixX Can you tell me about the dry starting process for monte carlo? I'm assuming you are planting it into the substrate with little water and letting it root into before proceeding to full submersion or something similar. I love the plant but it aggravates me to no end when planting due to the shallow roots and tendency to float. It sounds like something I need to consider as I have about 6 decent-sized patches just floating and waiting for use.

I also vote to float the plants, but holy crap look at all that chain sword! You have a shrimpy paradise in there! Throw some in!