Hi there. I'm new to planted tanks and there are some I just can't keep alive and I can't figure out why. Is it lighting, nutrients, substrate, water parameters? I'm hoping someone might have some ideas of what I can do.
10 gallon tank
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
water changes when nitrates go over 40ppm
pH around 8
kH VERY HIGH
gH practically zero (I try to dose with Seachem Equilibrium but it is hard to keep up with and keep it stable)
Temp- 79 degrees F
Pool filter sand substrate approx. 1.5 inches deep
Also I do have some of the plants planted directly in the sand, some were in Easy planters. The easy planters got anaerobic bacteria underneath and turned the sand black....not sure why though because i do try to keep malm to a minimum with vacuuming.
Can't keep many plants alive...HELP!
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
Hi there. I'm new to planted tanks and there are some I just can't keep alive and I can't figure out why. Is it lighting, nutrients, substrate, water parameters? I'm hoping someone might have some ideas of what I can do.
10 gallon tank
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
water changes when nitrates go over 40ppm
pH around 8
kH VERY HIGH
gH practically zero (I try to dose with Seachem Equilibrium but it is hard to keep up with and keep it stable)
Temp- 79 degrees F
Pool filter sand substrate approx. 1.5 inches deep
Dose of Easy Green and Easy Iron 2x/week and Easy root tabs 1x/month.
Lights were on 10 hours. Recently changed to 4.5 hours in the AM and 3.5 hours in the PM to see if that helps.
Spong filtered, minimal flow
Tank did have glass lid, recently removed
Plants:
-Anubias: Doing well
-Tiger Lotus: Growing like a weed
-Amazon Sword, Java Fern: Good roots, occasional melted leaf
-Frogbit: Turns brown and soggy (that's why i removed the lid, still no improvement)
-Octopus plant, bacopa, ludwigia, baby tears, water sprite, pennywort, cacomba, vallisneria: Lower leaves turned brown, Roots rotted, these plants all died.
-Wisteria: does decently floating, rooted seems to be growing new leaves finally
-Hornwort, Staurogyne repens, banana plant, gold lioydiella: surviving but not thriving
Also I do have some of the plants planted directly in the sand, some were in Easy planters. The easy planters got anaerobic bacteria underneath and turned the sand black....not sure why though because i do try to keep malm to a minimum with vacuuming.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!