Couple of problems with my plants

[Karen B.]

Greetings!

I have a planted community tank (population is 3 honey gourami, 15 chili Rasboras, 8 false julii corydoras and 3 nerite snails), 20 gallons high. 1 HOB filter, 1 sponge filter. Temp is between 75 and 76, pH is about 6.6 to 6.8 (can’t get it to go up), kh around 40, gh around 300. 0/0/betwwen 25 and 50 (can never tell for sure). I do 1 WC per week (about 25 to 30%), dose thrive S Shrimp from NilocG (sorry, I live in Canada…) once a week, I use Seachem Flourish root tabs every couple of weeks and dose excel but not in a regular basis (I lack discipline/forget). I also have seachem iron and seachem potassium but I never know when to use it. My light is a Nicrew Freshwater Led light, on for 8 hours with the basic settings (Pairs super-bright 6500K white LEDs with 460nm blue, and 660nm red LEDs, high output LED chips with 120° angle).

Here is a picture of my tank

I deal on a somewhat regular (ish) basis with an explosion of BBA, in which case I get fed up, and throw all the plants in a bucket with a double dose of excel (Tropica gave that trick) for a day, then rince and let rest in normal water for a day, then another bath in double dose. It kills the algae effectively but my plants become all wavy and it takes them some times to straighten back up in the aquarium. But I think I could tackle that problem if I can stay on top of dosing my excel. I know the solution would be figuring out what the source is but I am the worst person on the planet to notice/figure things out. If you have test/drop or anything to advive, I will take it. I need a recipe to follow. Am really not good st plants or gauging things.

But lately, my staurogyne repens have been losing all their bottom leaves and I can’t figure out why. New growth are appearing now.

Plus, my (I forgot the name of the plants) grow well, they lack a bit of red at their top but I can deal with that. The problem is always the bottom of the plants. The leaves become a bit brown and develop a lot of holes in them.

 

Finally, and this is new, my anubia has 2-3 leaves that are turning yellow in some spot. I have never seen this before.

So if you have any advice, tips, solution, products to suggest, test to buy, I am all ears!

Thank you in advance 

[JoeQ]

Usually when lower leaves turn brown and fall off its because not enough light is hitting them as the plant grows. When i see this start to happen I either cut them off proactively or turn up the intensity of my light. As for your low ph/kh I'd add crush coral, this will buffer them both up. Im sure there is more I can answer here (your BBA problem could be minimized if you can lower your blue light) but other than that I think a majority of your issues are nutritional related, which im not best suited to answer

[lefty o]

On 3/16/2022 at 4:39 PM, JoeQ said:

Usually when lower leaves turn brown and fall off its because not enough light is hitting them as the plant grows. When i see this start to happen I either cut them off proactively or turn up the intensity of my light. As for your low ph/kh I'd add crush coral, this will buffer them both up. Im sure there is more I can answer here (your BBA problem could be minimized if you can lower your blue light) but other than that I think a majority of your issues are nutritional related, which im not best suited to answer

blue light is definately a grower of BBA.

[Brandon p]

 Don’t think the light is the problem but he right about the blue light. I know that brand but I’m not sure how much can control each color.  I think you stressing the plants by removing a treating them. Oh and get some easy carbon which you may be able to get in Canada via Amazon I have hear Cory talk abuymt the few products that are sold in Canada are on Amazon.  
 

In aquascapes or planted tanks, a well-balanced nutrient supply is vital for the plants. In planted tanks, you often have beard algae when there is an imbalance of micronutrients (trace elements, especially iron). If you already use an iron fertiliser, you ought to reduce the dosage. Measure the iron content of the water with a water test. It ought to be at around 0.05 to 0.1 mg/l. Of course, carbon (CO₂) and macronutrients (NPK) should be added, too. In the following list you can find the target values for the individual nutritional elements:

• A CO₂ content of approximately 20-30 mg/l, measurable by a permanent test with test agent
• 10 to 25 mg/l of nitrate (NO₃)
• 5 to 10 mg/l of potassium (K)
• 0.1 to 1 mg/l of phosphate (PO₄)
• >10 mg/l of magnesium (Mg)

If you have black beard algae in your tank, and the plants show signs of an iron deficiency at the same time (the shoot tips are of a much lighter color than the rest), you might want to consider switching to a less intensely chelated iron fertiliser like for example Aqua Rebell Spezial Flowgrow. Sometimes, adding iron exclusively (without the other trace elements) has been successful. For daily fertilisation we recommend our Aqua Rebell Mikro Spezial Eisen. Only add the standard iron fertiliser with trace elements only once per week, and sparingly. 
 

You have problems with beard algae in your tank? We recommend using Easy Carbo by Easy Life. According to the instructions given by the manufacturer, you should add 1 to 2 ml if the liquid per 50 liters of aquarium water. After a few days, the beard algae should turn whitish or pink. If this has happened, you can stop adding Easy Carbo. The dead algae are eaten by algivores (like for example Amano shrimp and even ramshorn snails) bit by bit. You can find a precise instruction on the use of Easy Carbo here.
Should this treatment not be successful you can try fogging, i. e. you treat the algae locally and in a targeted way with an algicide like Easy Carbo or hydrogen peroxide.

hope this helps some the hydrogen peroxide works well but it’s care and I go to tractor supply which is a farm store and get good size syringe and blue neddles if they have and other wise I use a midsize needle  and squirt a smal amount on each leaf. I normally do half the plant in case I was putting a. Lite to much on. It works but not risk free. I prefer easy carbon, most carbon is algae killer Cory has some videos on it and I’m sure a few other do as well. 
 

Good luck