Misadventures with Seachem Excel and moving forward

[SeverumKeeper]

My tank, 1 month ago. I had an outbreak of nasty algae, including black beard algae. I had planted my tank maybe two years before hand, and the algae was now getting out of hand, even though the plants were growing well.

I turned to SeaChem Excel, after seeing mixed advice online.

In this image, you can see one plant that's covered in blackbeard algae. You can also see a second type of plant, unaffected by the beard algae. Anacharis. This was the plant that had been doing best in my tank, filling it up to a ludicrous extent. Unfortunately, I was about to learn that it doesn't like Excel.

My tank just after dosing with Excel. Notice the huge clump of anacharis on the left...

A few days later. The algae is mostly gone - but so is the anacharis. It was absolutely nuked.

 

Little bits of have started to grow back, but I decided to plant something else instead. I'm blanking on the name of this plant, though - is anyone able to recognize it?

My goal is to grow this plant (as well as the rest of the tank) back up to that prior level of lushness. To help with this, I used up the rest of my fert tablets today, burying them mostly among the new plants but also around the swords I already have. I buried around 15 of the Seachem fert tabs in my 75 gallon tank.

I noticed some of the leaves on some of the amazons are starting to yellow - not significantly but I'm wondering if that means I was short on ferts?

I've considered CO2 but I don't think I'm ready for that yet. I want to see what kind of growth I can get by maximizing fertilizers first. How can I make sure I'm doing that?

Thank you for any help. I've had plants a few years but I'm still pretty nooby at plant keeping.

[Tami]

i think it is Bacopa monnieri - moneywort. It looks like what I have by that name

 

[SeverumKeeper]

10 hours ago, Tami said:

i think it is Bacopa monnieri - moneywort. It looks like what I have by that name

 

I think you are right, thank you! It looks like it can be floated? I had one stem float up, I wonder if I should leave it to grow up there...

[lefty o]

i would add some root tabs for your amazon, from its looks, it is starved for nutrients.

[SeverumKeeper]

24 minutes ago, lefty o said:

i would add some root tabs for your amazon, from its looks, it is starved for nutrients.

Thank you! I am a plant noob so don't always recognize those signs.

Is there a rule of thumb for how many root tabs I should use and how often? Or is is just "when plants stop growing or get yellow put some in"?

I had seachem root tabs and added them in a few weeks ago. Used the rest up yesterday, I'll order more - will do some research as to the best one. 

For water column fertilizer, I have Flourish - is that a good one, until I run out of it? I have been putting it in every few weeks, but will up the dose to once or twice a week per the instructions. What should I replace it with when it's out?

[lefty o]

its kind of an experience learning how much. i would probably start with like 2 tabs shoved down in near the swords roots per month. now as the plants grows, it will require more.

[SeverumKeeper]

Should I remove yellow/transparent leaves or will the plant reabsorb them? 

[Littlefish]

Remove them!  Decomposing plants, many ppl think, may cause algae.

[Frank]

If they go straight from green to transparent,  the plant is getting nutrients from them. I'm not so sure about yellow ones. Once a leaf is fully transparent, all of its available nutrients have been used up. Then, cut it off. If a leaf is removed before it's used up, the plant will simply start cannibalizing the next leaf in line. Meanwhile, you're being bought time to figure out what the plant needs. 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Frank

[SeverumKeeper]

So it sounds like what I should do is:

1) start fertilizing regularly, starting with the rest of my Flourish Comprehensive and then replacing with the Aquarium COOP all in one liquid fert? Is that a good replacement? Do this 2 times per week. For Flourish, up the dose by 1.5

2) buy even more root tabs and bury them right away. Replenish once per month.

3) when I do a water change every week or two, cut dead leaves and scoop them out.

4) leave some of the moneywort floating.

 

Anything else I should be doing to get a nice and lush aquarium? As nice and lush as I can go without CO2 - I want to see how good I can do without it before deciding if I want to get it.

[SeverumKeeper]

13 minutes ago, Frank said:

If they go straight from green to transparent,  the plant is getting nutrients from them. I'm not so sure about yellow ones. Once a leaf is fully transparent, all of its available nutrients have been used up. Then, cut it off. If a leaf is removed before it's used up, the plant will simply start cannibalizing the next leaf in line. Meanwhile, you're being bought time to figure out what the plant needs. 

Thank you, this post is really helping this plant noob get an understanding of what is going on here.

If you happen to know of any good ones, do you have any introductory sources for someone who has had plants in their tank for a long time but never really took care of them, but wants to start?

[Frank]

1 hour ago, SeverumKeeper said:

Thank you, this post is really helping this plant noob get an understanding of what is going on here.

If you happen to know of any good ones, do you have any introductory sources for someone who has had plants in their tank for a long time but never really took care of them, but wants to start?

Sorry,  but we've reached the extent of my knowledge. That was just something that I learned when I was busy killing houseplants.

Other than that, I've learned that the lighting intensity and duration, that most on the forum recommend work for me. And, that the fertilizer dosing recommendations, on bottle labels, are just a starting point for me. I'm up to fertilizing at twice the suggested amount. 

Good luck! There's lots of good advice on this forum.

[Tami]

not that I have it figured out but my first sword did amazing then rapidly died - I have learned that they want root tabs.  I started with 2 right at the roots when I planted and put 2 in every month as it puts out at least 2 leaves a month. Cory has a video on started plants and he says they need lots and increase as growing - my crypts seem to need them too.  My moneywort is new to me - it is growing very slowly (just put root tabs around them too) and it has grown some floating. The forum has lots of good advice, and aquarium co-op videos are great

[SeverumKeeper]

Hey guys. I've planted root tabs, I've been dosing with ferts every couple days, and my plants don't look fantastic. Any suggestions on how to best care for them from someone who knows plants better than I?