Help with plants

[Leoaqua]

I've been fighting Blackbeard algae for ages. Since last weekend I started dosing liquid carbon everyday for high lighting. I'm using the finex stingray 2.0 for 7 hours a day. I use seachem flourish once a week and iron supplement once a week. I was wondering what is causing holes on my leaves? could it be the nerite snails? is it something else?

Also last weekend I got one Anubias nana petite, and I notice that the tips are becoming brown on some leaves. I have 3 new leaves coming out and i notice that the tips on the new leaves of the nana are brown. I have all of my Anubias with the rhyzome above the substrate. the nana petite is attach to a piece of stone. 

This is the parameters in my fish tank Ph between 6-6.5, Kh 0, Gh 120-180, nitrate & nitrite 0

This is the parameters in my tap water. Ph was between 6.5 to 7. although in the picture looks like a 7, nitrite & nitrate 0, Kh 0, Gh 0-30

 

 

I know the black beard will take months to go away while dosing with liquid carbon. But I would like to know what is causing the brown tips on the nana and possible holes on the other Anubias. I recently planted last week crypto parva and crypto wendtii green. 1 week with the cryptos no problems as far as I can see.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Leoaqua

[Patrick_G]

I think you need to add some Nitrogen and Possibly some Potassium. A good high strength comprehensive fertilizer like Easy Green will help a lot. From what I understand  Seachem Flourish is mostly micro nutrients and also fairly low concentration. I’ve only been doing this aquascape thing for a year but I’m also a gardening hobbyist so based on that here’s what I’d try. 
1. remove all the dead or dying leaves, they’re holding the plant back. Removing them will stimulate new growth. 
2. Start adding Easy Green at the low light level according to the label.

3. Cut back on the iron for now. A few sites suggest it can cause the BBA to grow faster. 
4. Some fast growing plants to help outcompete the algae. The more the better imho. 
5. Gently remove as much  BBA as possible. I think most of it will be removed with the dying leaves. 

[RockoB]

you can trim dying leaves and dip them all in hydrogen peroxide

 

[Leoaqua]

thanks @Patrick_Gand @RockoB, what confuses me is that the anubias with holes on their leaves are not dying, they've had holes on them for a few months now, and they keep being green and don't change color. Now, are you both saying that I should trim off the green leaves with holes on them? are they consider dying even though they still are green for a few months now? just confirming.

 

What about the Anubias nana petite with brown tips?

Thanks for the input

Edited September 19, 2021 by Leoaqua

[RockoB]

trim them when they are turning clear and almost liquid

 

[Patrick_G]

I want to be encouraging and I’m open to other opinions but I’m sure these will not recover without some serious intervention. They might live for a while but they won’t heal up. In Tom Barr’s recent aquascaping talk for the Aquarium Coop club he specifically mentions keeping Anubias trimmed to keep it healthy and forming new plant mass. 
For this plant I’ll be removing the lower leaf with the hole and possibly a few more. They really don’t like BBA! 

 

[Hobbit]

On 9/19/2021 at 6:06 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’m sure these will not recover without some serious intervention.

You mean the leaves, not the whole plant, right? Just don’t want to scare Leoaqua 😄 

I agree that the plants won’t heal those leaves. They may still be “working” in the sense that they’re photosynthesizing and giving the plant some nutrients, but they won’t ever look better than they do now. Plants don’t spend energy repairing old leaves. They’d rather put energy into making new ones.

That said, you do have a lot of damaged leaves on your plants, so I can understand being hesitant to trim all the damaged ones. Plants are pretty tough though. They have stored nutrients in their roots (especially the plants you’ve had for some time) and they’ll use those nutrients to fuel new growth. If you’re nervous, you can try trimming half the damaged leaves, starting with the worst ones. Once the plants grow a few more new leaves, you can trim the rest of the damaged ones.

With the anubias nana petite, I’d let the leaves be until they’re either infested with algae or turning brown and almost liquid like @RockoB said. I’m advocating a gentler approach with that one because you just got it and it won’t have established its roots yet.

On 9/19/2021 at 2:16 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’ve only been doing this aquascape thing for a year but I’m also a gardening hobbyist so based on that here’s what I’d try.

Oh hey! Twins! 😄 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Hobbit

[Patrick_G]

On 9/19/2021 at 8:03 PM, Hobbit said:

You mean the leaves, not the whole plant, right? Just don’t want to scare Leoaqua 😄 

Yeah it’ll probably live. It’s a tough plant.  I’ve put some of mine through a lot worse and they’re still around. 😀

[RockoB]

I'm sorry I am talking about leaves and also if the blackbeard algae gets bad enough you can always dip the leaves in hydrogen peroxide if it gets to bad on the leaves

[Leoaqua]

On 9/19/2021 at 11:03 PM, Hobbit said:

so I can understand being hesitant to trim all the damaged ones.

Yeah, I was hesitant about it since when I've read that when you split anubias, you should leave at least 3 leaves on the rhizomes. Cutting all the damage ones would pretty much just leave only like 1 or 2 on the rhizomes. Thanks everyone for the info.

 

On 9/19/2021 at 2:16 PM, Patrick_G said:

you need to add some Nitrogen

Bought some  easy green, waiting on shipment. I also order a nitrogen test as I've noticed that my nitrogen can pretty much remain at 0 for weeks. Now i understand that plants eat the nitrogen, but since i already have low nitrogen, wouldn't that mean that adding any fast growing plants, they would struggle to grow because my nitrogen levels are at constant low? I'm adding more plants to my tank, order baby tears, and scarlet temple just to add more.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Leoaqua

[Hobbit]

On 9/20/2021 at 8:30 AM, Leoaqua said:

Now i understand that plants eat the nitrogen, but since i already have low nitrogen, wouldn't that mean that adding any fast growing plants, they would struggle to grow because my nitrogen levels are at constant low?

The Easy Green should help get your nitrogen levels up. You may have to dose more often than what it says on the bottle if your plants use nitrogen super fast. Or you can always add more fish! 😊

[Leoaqua]

On 9/20/2021 at 9:18 AM, Hobbit said:

you can always add more fish! 😊

Would love to! But I'm limited by the size of my tank ☹️. 10 gallon with 1 dwarf blue gourami, 5 ember tetra, 1 clown pleco, 3 nerite snails and 2 amanos.

 

[Hobbit]

Hmm yeah that’s pretty good stocking. Is the clown pleco full grown? Do you have any wood for him/her to munch on? The more they eat, the more nitrogen they release! 😄 

Ether way, the Easy Green will help. One pump in 10 gallons raises the nitrate by 10ppm. You’ll just have to see how fast your plants use it.

[Leoaqua]

On 9/20/2021 at 9:42 AM, Hobbit said:

Is the clown pleco full grown? Do you have any wood for him/her to munch on? The more they eat, the more nitrogen they release! 😄 

My clown pleco is 11 years old! 😁 Got him back in Aug 2010. There's actually 1 problem I'm having with him i assumed is from age which i posted about on here. There's some pictures of him and yep he has 2 pieces of driftwood, which he loves to be around in 24/7, He does enjoy flakes though! It will be sad once i lose my pleco.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Leoaqua

[Hobbit]

Aww! Your sweet old dude. ❤️ It’s pretty amazing that you’ve kept him healthy and happy for his full life span! That’s what we all hope for for our fish.

[eatyourpeas]

@Leoaqua I experienced a similar situation and found that slightly raising the KH helped a lot with the plants. You can go slightly higher without affecting your critters, I think. A KH of 0 gives you no buffering room and with a pH of 6.5 you can raise it a little bit. I used this for that purpose and worked out well.

[Leoaqua]

@eatyourpeasI was thinking of raising my KH with crushed coral. I order some crushed coral and mesh bags to place in my filter. I was also worry about the KH buffer affecting plants and critters, however i was reading around that a low KH it's best for most plants? But that's why I decided to get crushed coral, I'm still waiting for it deliver but should i worry about crushed coral affecting anything negatively. The substrate on my tank i placed over 4-5 years ago, and it's fluval stratum so I'm assuming that's what's keeping the pH low in my tank. 

[Patrick_G]

On 9/20/2021 at 6:18 AM, Hobbit said:

The Easy Green should help get your nitrogen levels up. You may have to dose more often than what it says on the bottle if your plants use nitrogen super fast.

I agree. In George Farmer’s book Aquascaping he advocates using a comprehensive like Easy Green, but in a higher dose than what’s recommended on the bottle.  I have a low light tank with cheap Nicrew lights but find I have best results dosing at the medium light level and even adding a bit extra. The only problem is the higher dose makes it a bit more difficult to keep Nitrates low. 

[Patrick_G]

On 9/20/2021 at 5:30 AM, Leoaqua said:

Bought some  easy green, waiting on shipment. I also order a nitrogen test as I've noticed that my nitrogen can pretty much remain at 0 for weeks. Now i understand that plants eat the nitrogen, but since i already have low nitrogen, wouldn't that mean that adding any fast growing plants, they would struggle to grow because my nitrogen levels are at constant low? I'm adding more plants to my tank, order baby tears, and scarlet temple just to add more.

The plants will be so happy to get the Easy Green, they’ll grow like crazy! The second you add it there will be nitrogen available for the plants. The new fast growers will use some of it, but they’ll also help outcompete the algae. 

I like baby tears and scarlet temple a lot but I’ve found them temperamental. my mistake killed my Scarlet Temple and I finally have thriving Baby Tears but it took a long time. I’m such a plant nerd that I’ll plant anything to see if it’ll grow, some do great and don’t require much maintenance and some struggle. It’s totally ok to stick to the ones that do well in your tank! 

[eatyourpeas]

On 9/20/2021 at 8:13 AM, Leoaqua said:

@eatyourpeasI was thinking of raising my KH with crushed coral. I order some crushed coral and mesh bags to place in my filter. I was also worry about the KH buffer affecting plants and critters, however i was reading around that a low KH it's best for most plants? But that's why I decided to get crushed coral, I'm still waiting for it deliver but should i worry about crushed coral affecting anything negatively. The substrate on my tank i placed over 4-5 years ago, and it's fluval stratum so I'm assuming that's what's keeping the pH low in my tank. 

Stratum is a great substrate for keeping the tank shrimp friendly. I think the crushed coral may work, but I have never done it. Please let us know how it works out. 🙂

[Patrick_G]

On 9/20/2021 at 12:35 PM, eatyourpeas said:

Stratum is a great substrate for keeping the tank shrimp friendly. I think the crushed coral may work, but I have never done it. Please let us know how it works out. 🙂

 

On 9/20/2021 at 8:13 AM, Leoaqua said:

@eatyourpeasI was thinking of raising my KH with crushed coral. I order some crushed coral and mesh bags to place in my filter. I was also worry about the KH buffer affecting plants and critters, however i was reading around that a low KH it's best for most plants? But that's why I decided to get crushed coral, I'm still waiting for it deliver but should i worry about crushed coral affecting anything negatively. The substrate on my tank i placed over 4-5 years ago, and it's fluval stratum so I'm assuming that's what's keeping the pH low in my tank. 

I believe Aquarium Coop has crushed coral in all their tanks to help with similar water conditions. It’s supposed to be a very gentle way to help keep ph stable. 

[Leoaqua]

On 9/20/2021 at 12:46 PM, Patrick_G said:

my mistake killed my Scarlet Temple and I finally have thriving Baby Tears but it took a long time.

May I ask, what was the mistake? these would be my first pink/red plants so just a little nervous. I've only kept  Anubias, cabomba (which used to grow like crazy), Java fern, recently got cryptocoryne parva and Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green. I also got this plant which im not sure what it is. Hornwort? got it at a lfs and they didnt know what it was, used to grow quick but now it grows really slow, the very top of the plant would have a slight hue of redish/pink. but currently is just green. 

 Rotala Wallichii 

[Patrick_G]

On 9/20/2021 at 4:44 PM, Leoaqua said:

May I ask, what was the mistake? these would be my first pink/red plants so just a little nervous.

It was doing well but my Amano Shrimp were munching on it. I moved it to my outside guppy tub and it melted. ☹️
I think it’s generally considered finicky. 
 

 

On 9/20/2021 at 4:44 PM, Leoaqua said:

also got this plant which im not sure what it is. Hornwort? got it at a lfs and they didnt know what it was, used to grow quick but now it grows really slow, the very top of the plant would have a slight hue of redish/pink. but currently is just green. 

It’s hard to tell but it might  Rotal Wallaichii. Mine get red if they’re near the light.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Patrick_G

[Leoaqua]

@Patrick_Gyep that is it. However i never understood why as it grew, the bottom part would become green..and only the very top tips would have the red color. At one point there was some algae on it. I bleach bath for too long and affected the growth. It stop growing fast, and then as you can see in the picture it's just green and no red top anymore 

[Patrick_G]

Mine were red when I bought them from the store where they were kept with co2 and high light. They turned green until they grew close to my light, then the tips turned pinkish. I think the high light is key.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Patrick_G