Help with planted tank . All the details I can trynto.explain lol

[Kyle murfitt]

Alright yall. Kind of going off a previous post I made . Trying to narrow down the issues and get help. 55 gallon planted tank and can't get plants to stay healthy / alive

Substrates- fluval plant and shrimp stratum, Caribsea cichlid sand 

Light - 54 watt , 48" bulbs , fluval planted bulb and blue bulb 

Water parameters as of tonight with master test kit:  ammonia- 0.25 -0.35ish ? Nitrite- 0.1 of anything,  nitrate - under 10 ppm , maybe like 7? Ph-7.8

Started dosing easy green ( twice a week ) , easy iron as recommended ,and root tabs  3 weeks ago( have added quite a few ). Was using flourish before the easy green products..

Have had Java fern,  Amazon sword,  anubias , anachris , and added more radican swords and anubias tonight. 

So .. from my learning knowledge , with water parameters seeming to be good is it just a lighting issue ? Have to have co2?? Anything would help and sorry for the book . Thanks yall

 

So from my learning knowledge water parameters seem ok

 

[Kyle murfitt]

Sorry no pics at the moment. Small to medium cichlids , green phantom plecco. Cory cats . Algae eater. One snail. All the fish are happy as can be but plants just won't hold 

[Phantom240]

1) Is your tank cycled? You should have exactly 0 ammonia when testing. Your nitrates are a little low, but I think that's only a minor issue. 

2) 54w 48", so I assume T8 bulbs? Get rid of the blue bulb, go with a daylight white instead. Regardless, that's going to be pretty low light at the substrate in a 55gal

3) How long have the plants been in your tank? If they're fairly new, they tend to die back and then regrow as they get acclimated to their new environment. 

Not trying to be short or rude, just trying to get to the nitty gritty of the situation. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Phantom240

[Kyle murfitt]

On 7/9/2021 at 10:35 PM, Phantom240 said:

1) Is your tank cycled? You should have exactly 0 ammonia when testing. Your nitrates are a little low, but I think that's only a minor issue. 

2) 54w 48", so I assume T8 bulbs? Get rid of the blue bulb, go with a daylight white instead. Regardless, that's going to be pretty low light at the substrate in a 55gal

3) How long have the plants been in your tank? If they're fairly new, they tend to die back and then regrow as they get acclimated to their new environment. 

Not trying to be short or rude, just trying to get to the nitty gritty of the situation. 

Not short or rude at all. I'll take all the blunt advice I can get lol. Tank has been going for 3 months now so assuming it is cycled. Have watched videos about cycled tanks and seems like what I've had going should be ok, if there's a for sure way to be able to tell I'd love to know.. Have done 30 percent water changes probably 6 times since starting the tank and try to allow natural bacteria to stick. Thanks for the info! Going to pop in the other white bulb tomorrow 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Kyle murfitt

[ARMYVET]

If your still showing ammonia and nitrite in any amount...I would question the cycle. 

My 29 gallon tank has been set up exactly 4 weeks now and last night I tested the big 3

ammonia 0

nitrite 0

nitrate 10

I gave it a couple squirts of easy green...fed them ..sat down and enjoyed watching the tank.  

My API test Kit is Brand new....if your still showing ammonia and nitrite of any amount ...is it possible your kits are misreading?

 

[Phantom240]

On 7/9/2021 at 11:52 PM, Kyle murfitt said:

Not short or rude at all. I'll take all the blunt advice I can get lol. Tank has been going for 3 months now so assuming it is cycled. Have watched videos about cycled tanks and seems like what I've had going should be ok, if there's a for sure way to be able to tell I'd love to know.. Have done 30 percent water changes probably 6 times since starting the tank and try to allow natural bacteria to stick. Thanks for the info! Going to pop in the other white bulb tomorrow 

Some tanks take longer to cycle than others, as there are a lot of variables, fish load being one of them. Plecos and cichlids tend to have heavier bioloads than other species, so that will require more beneficial bacteria to turn their waste from ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite to nitrate. The way to tell that your bacteria colonies can handle the bioload is by monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the water column. As bacteria colonize, they'll begin turning ammonia into nitrite, and further from nitrite into nitrate. When you test your water (and I recommend daily at the moment) and have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, and they're being converted to nitrate, that's when your tank is "cycled". It takes a VERY long time for it to mature and become "seasoned", but cycling is the most important part of a tanks ecosystem. 

What kind of filter is on your tank?

[Kyle murfitt]

On 7/10/2021 at 8:55 AM, Phantom240 said:

Some tanks take longer to cycle than others, as there are a lot of variables, fish load being one of them. Plecos and cichlids tend to have heavier bioloads than other species, so that will require more beneficial bacteria to turn their waste from ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite to nitrate. The way to tell that your bacteria colonies can handle the bioload is by monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the water column. As bacteria colonize, they'll begin turning ammonia into nitrite, and further from nitrite into nitrate. When you test your water (and I recommend daily at the moment) and have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, and they're being converted to nitrate, that's when your tank is "cycled". It takes a VERY long time for it to mature and become "seasoned", but cycling is the most important part of a tanks ecosystem. 

What kind of filter is on your tank?

Thanks again. And I was originally using a hob but switched to a magnaflow 360 and it's been going about a month and a half 

 

[Phantom240]

And you took the HOB out of the tank when you swapped filters, yeah? If so, then essentially what you did was almost completely restart your cycle, by removing the colonies of beneficial bacteria that had established in your old filter. In the future, if you want to swap filters, the best thing to do would be take media from your old filter and add it to the new one, or leave both filters running simultaneously for a couple months to make sure the bacteria have a chance to establish themselves in the new filter. Sounds like you're on the right track though!

[Kyle murfitt]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:07 PM, Phantom240 said:

And you took the HOB out of the tank when you swapped filters, yeah? If so, then essentially what you did was almost completely restart your cycle, by removing the colonies of beneficial bacteria that had established in your old filter. In the future, if you want to swap filters, the best thing to do would be take media from your old filter and add it to the new one, or leave both filters running simultaneously for a couple months to make sure the bacteria have a chance to establish themselves in the new filter. Sounds like you're on the right track though!

I left the hob on for almost two weeks , and 5hen used the filters as part of the new media for the canister. Still not enough to hold the cycle though I'm guessing. Time to test and wait. Great info man thanks again 

[Phantom240]

The cycle probably wasn't 100% complete yet, but you did give it a good head start putting the media in the new canister. Only thing I'd suggest now is monitoring your water daily and doing at least 25-30% water changes to keep ammonia under .25ppm. There's plenty of debate over how much ammonia is acceptable during the cycling process, but my opinion is to keep it under .25

[ARMYVET]

I know Cory is not a fan of fishless cycling but this is the exact reason I do like the method....I did not have to worry about doing any water changes.  I just had to be patient and wait for the ammonia and nitrites to return to zero....I didn't even care about nitrates because I know the plants would be using them for food.  

My pond id cycling right now with no fish and the nitrites are off the chart...but in a week or so they will be at zero and then I can slowly add in the livestock.  I never try to rush things anymore.  I always failed every time I did. 

[Kyle murfitt]

Changed both bulbs to daylight white 18,000k fluval. Checked again and there's still  more than .25 ppm ammonia.  Going to do another small water change tonight 

[Colu]

I would test your tap water for ammonia and add prime to detoxify the ammonia