Can't keep many plants alive...HELP!

[James Griff]

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!

[lefty o]

since you have some plants doing well, and others that die, i would suggest you are like many of us, and just some darned plants will not grow for us.

[Tanked]

On 10/10/2021 at 3:09 PM, James Griff said:

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.

 

Almost all of the above. 

 Like @lefty o said "some darned plants will not grow for us".  I sounds like you also have a lot of plants in a small tank.  I wish my Nitrates would drop to 40ppm.  I would start by cutting back on the water changes, and increase the Easy Green.  The Tiger Lotus is a heavy root feeder and thriving.  The PSO, Water Sprite, Hornwort and Frogbit are heavy feeders, but dead or dying. 

Lighting could be an issue.  I have no experience with siesta lighting, but I can say that some low-med light plants do much better in a medium light setup, or a much longer photoperiod.  

Just remember that the changes usually require weeks to show results.

[Patrick_G]

I’d say just keep at it. PSO, Wisteria, Bacopa, Baby Tears, Ludwigia  and the other stem plants you mentioned are prone it a bit of melt when transitioning from air grown to submerged. I’ve almost killed just about every plant on that  list but in most cases I saved some of the plant and they come back strong. When the lower stems start to get bare and mushy cut the tips off and replant. If the Wisteria is hanging on, put some effort into that. I have best luck floating the base of the plant just above the substrate. A plant weight helps. After a week or two the roots will anchor the plant to the substrate.

[Flumpweesel]

I would take a look at all the stem plants and trim any rot off  and let them start again it will put more roots out and don't push them into the substrate some substrates are to compact for the plant to root in but they will dig in eventually left with just weights

[gardenman]

Some plants just don't want to grow in some tanks. Finding out what likes your conditions and will grow for you is part of the "fun" of keeping plants.