Temple Plant

[MadMaxi]

During my cleaning today in the fish tank I saw that one of my temple plants uprooted. When looking at the stem portion it appears that is dying off and hollowing out. Everywhere I've looked says you can plant it in your substrate so I did. The next section above still has roots growing out of it and down into the substrate so I am hoping it survives. Just got my Finnex light today so hoping the improved light will help as well. Going to see about dosing 3-4 times a week with Easy Green. At 2-3 my nitrates were down around 50 or so anyways. I do not have C02 in the tank but I did add a SECOND ziss air store in there to help with circulation and surface agitation.

After the tank crash I had due to dust particles from the renovation, if my plants die I fear I may have to drain it and redo the whole thing if it does not recover. Went from having a thriving colony of 70+ Rd Cherry shrimp, two schools of 10x each of Cardinal tetra's and Harlequin Rasboras down to nothing with just plants. Feeling super discouraged right now...

All my other parameters checked out so. Yeah, just frustrated. Going to let the tank settle after skimming the substrate and a small water change. I'll check parameters again and update once I have those.

Edited April 30, 2022 by MadMaxi

[Guppysnail]

Most stem plants I’ve kept do grow roots out of the nodes to the sides. When it gets larger you snip just below the root node at the height you want to replant or to propagate.

[MadMaxi]

Things have been going well. Roots growing like crazy but I've noticed that the leaves on my Temple plant are starting to curl down and look droopy.
I've done my parameters testing everything has been consistent at: 50ppm Nitrates with the occasional spike up to ~100 after dosing more than once every other day, Nitrite - 0ppm, Hardness is around 200+ (live in the midwest and we have pretty hard water), buffer around 100ppm, PH floats around 7 + or - .2, and Chlorine is 0PPM. Lighting is on for about 9hrs.

I rarely do water changes as long as these stay consistent (They have so far). Just topping off water. My best guess is it some sort of nutrient deficiency just not sure what it is. Reading around says it could be Potassium or Magnesium? Any additional input would be greatly appreciated. Other than that things are going well and I have even spotted several baby Red Cherry shrimp floating around grazing!

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 5/11/2022 at 1:00 PM, MadMaxi said:

Things have been going well. Roots growing like crazy but I've noticed that the leaves on my Temple plant are starting to curl down and look droopy.
I've done my parameters testing everything has been consistent at: 50ppm Nitrates with the occasional spike up to ~100 after dosing more than once every other day, Nitrite - 0ppm, Hardness is around 200+ (live in the midwest and we have pretty hard water), buffer around 100ppm, PH floats around 7 + or - .2, and Chlorine is 0PPM. Lighting is on for about 9hrs.

I rarely do water changes as long as these stay consistent (They have so far). Just topping off water. My best guess is it some sort of nutrient deficiency just not sure what it is. Reading around says it could be Potassium or Magnesium? Any additional input would be greatly appreciated. Other than that things are going well and I have even spotted several baby Red Cherry shrimp floating around grazing!

Hi @MadMaxi

I agree, it is likely due to a nutrient issue.  Water changes can be very beneficial for plant health.  When I do a water change not only am I removing dissolved fish waste in am adding a new supply of minerals to the tank that plants need for good growth.  The fish benefit from a healthier environment and grow larger as a result and the plants get more of the nutrients they need.  If you could supply a picture of the new leaves and older leaves of your Temple Plant as well current water parameters (pH. dKH, dGH, nitrates (ppm)) I may be able to give you an idea as to what may be lacking. -Roy

Edited May 11, 2022 by Seattle_Aquarist

[MadMaxi]

On 5/11/2022 at 5:09 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @MadMaxi

I agree, it is likely due to a nutrient issue.  Water changes can be very beneficial for plant health.  When I do a water change not only am I removing dissolved fish waste in am adding a new supply of minerals to the tank that plants need for good growth.  The fish benefit from a healthier environment and grow larger as a result and the plants get more of the nutrients they need.  If you could supply a picture of the new leaves and older leaves of your Temple Plant as well current water parameters (pH. dKH, dGH, nitrates (ppm)) I may be able to give you an idea as to what may be lacking. -Roy

So,

pH is 7 - 7.2. I do not currently have tools to measure dKh and dGh at this time.

Nitrates stay around 50-100ppm per test strips and I dose every other day.

Could this be early signs of like calcium deficiency?

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @MadMaxi

First a question, are the new leaves at the top of the stems really that 'whitish' looking or is that just the camera? 

When you mentioned shrimp now I understand why you didn't do water changes - but even with shrimp a 10% water change per week is acceptable.  As for nitrates, too much is just as bad as not enough.  Too much nitrates can effect uptake of some nutrients.  Try and target 20 ppm nitrates maximum.  I will await answer to the question above. -Roy

[Jawjagrrl]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:53 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @MadMaxi

First a question, are the new leaves at the top of the stems really that 'whitish' looking or is that just the camera? 

When you mentioned shrimp now I understand why you didn't do water changes - but even with shrimp a 10% water change per week is acceptable.  As for nitrates, too much is just as bad as not enough.  Too much nitrates can effect uptake of some nutrients.  Try and target 20 ppm nitrates maximum.  I will await answer to the question above. -Roy

I thought that the nitrates sounded very high as well. I have flourishing plants and never go over 20ppm. I wondered about the silver too, but then saw yellowing on the stems which should narrow down the missing mineral. Perhaps if GH/KH have been a struggle in this tank it's actually an iron issue and he may actually need easy iron. I do less water changes lately because my iron levels are always so high, but I guess there are areas with very little of it.

 

[MadMaxi]

Gotcha I'll keep that in mind and let the Nitrates drop below 50ppm. As for the silver/white sheen its actually a reflection from the Finnex light that I have. Its the same one that is on the Co-op website. I'll do a small water change, throw in some fresh water and let the nitrates settle down some and watch how the plants react with that. Appreciate all the input you two have given its def something to think about. I also yanked a few free floating fast growing Hornwort sections out of the tank as well thinking it could be that they are leeching too much out of the water. So. Lot to take in. Appreciate it.

Recovering from a tank crash so I am super leery of a lot of things right now.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:06 PM, MadMaxi said:

Gotcha I'll keep that in mind and let the Nitrates drop below 50ppm. As for the silver/white sheen its actually a reflection from the Finnex light that I have. Its the same one that is on the Co-op website. I'll do a small water change, throw in some fresh water and let the nitrates settle down some and watch how the plants react with that. Appreciate all the input you two have given its def something to think about. I also yanked a few free floating fast growing Hornwort sections out of the tank as well thinking it could be that they are leeching too much out of the water. So. Lot to take in. Appreciate it.

Recovering from a tank crash so I am super leery of a lot of things right now.

Hi @MadMaxi

It will likely take several water changes to accomplish lowing that nitrate level.  Do one every other day until you get the nitrate level down - then we will start watching how the plants respond.  The drooping leaves and stem rot could be a different issue but one thing at a time.  -Roy

[MadMaxi]

Alright so 10 day update water parameters are chilling out as far as nitrates goes.

Down to the 25ppm Nitrates.
0pp Nitrites.
Hardness (GH) around 300PPM
Buffer(KH) 80
pH dropped from the 7.0 down to about 6.6-6.8
Chlorine 0PPM

Thinks seem to be doing okay I'm seeing some slow growth on plants, even the fast growing ones are making progress (side-eyeing you hornwort). Got my CPDs in for about 1.5 weeks and been feeding them 2 times a day they are coloring up really nicely. Got a second shipment coming. We'll hold there for a while and then hit them with a round of meds after feeding good for a week. Had some parasites on the shrimp horns so I dosed with No Planaria following the directions. Ultimately lost two due to what I believe was 'White Ring' of death. Still see some baby shrimp floating around between the moss and Hornwort though.

I'll keep y'all updated. Thanks for helping me sort through this I appreciate y'all!

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Thank you for the update @MadMaxi, keep us posted - glad to hear there is progress! -Roy