Water sprite seems to be in trouble!

[AngieVaughn]

Hey guys! Just joined this forum this morning because I just found it lol. Been wearing out the you tube videos from Cory the last couple of years. Question for the aquarium gardeners here😀 Check the pics below. The first of the water sprite in my 36 gallon. All plants look like that and growing and flourish and water parameters consistently perfect. That tank has 6 rosey red minnows, 2 guppies, and 3 snails. Tank is well established and cycled and I rarely do much to it. Looks amazing. Like most of you I now have multi tank syndrome. Got a 55 gallon that has pretty much the same set up as the 36. Transplanted several plants from the 36 to the 55. It has 6 baby silver angelfish that are growing and seem fine. pH tends to be 6 which is too low I feel. Same water and in both so not sure why the difference. Both tanks have gravel substrate. The 55 has cool rocks that I feel may be doing something to the water.  I tested them with the acid drip and no reaction. The 36 doesn’t have any rocks. Anyway the plants aren’t doing well in the 55. You can see the difference. I use the root tabs and easy green in both tanks according to directions. I expected the 55 to do as well as the 36 but it’s obviously not and seems to be suffering. Any ideas greatly appreciated and thank you in advance. 😁

[JoeQ]

As per your ph being diffrent I would first consider your tank decor. The rocks may be buffering up while wood (or lack of rocks) could buffering the ph down. Or the heavy bio load from 6 Anglefish could be buffering down as well. This might also be a nutritional problem in your plants, the lack of (or extreamly low) nitrogen source. Do you have any test strips to compare the two tanks? 

Edited June 11, 2022 by JoeQ

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @AngieVaughn

I agree with @JoeQ, I would first suspect a lack of nitrogen which can cause the overall chlorosis (yellowing) we see in the plants in question.  Check the nitrate ppm in that tank and see what level you get. -Roy

[Kurt Brutting]

My Water Sprite definitely enjoys higher nitrates. I try to keep up above 25 or 30ppm to keep it happy. 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Water sprite usually lasts one year before it starts degenerating.

[AngieVaughn]

On 6/11/2022 at 9:50 AM, JoeQ said:

As per your ph being diffrent I would first consider your tank decor. The rocks may be buffering up while wood (or lack of rocks) could buffering the ph down. Or the heavy bio load from 6 Anglefish could be buffering down as well. This might also be a nutritional problem in your plants, the lack of (or extreamly low) nitrogen source. Do you have any test strips to compare the two tanks? 

 

On 6/11/2022 at 12:07 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @AngieVaughn

I agree with @JoeQ, I would first suspect a lack of nitrogen which can cause the overall chlorosis (yellowing) we see in the plants in question.  Check the nitrate ppm in that tank and see what level you get. -Roy

Thanks everyone for the very helpful comments. I agree about the nutrient deficiencies are causing the plants to die which in turn I suspect is lowering the pH. I’m so surprised how different the tanks are😁 I’m not sure why the deficiencies are happening since I’m using the same fertilizer as before even with less plants. Dosing more for the 55 even. Again thanks for the advice. 

[Ken Burke]

@AngieVaughn welcome to the forum!  
 

few things here.  
- How are you testing your water? Can you send a picture?  Descriptors like low, perfect etc are not as useful as the specific results. 
- what kind of lights are you using?  What is the photo period?  
- have you considered adding a little crushed coral to the 55?  It would gently nudge you ph toward 7.  
 

I suspect it’s a nutrition problem, but would need to rule out other factors 

[Corbidorbidoodle]

My experience with water sprite is that pretty much any time I move it to a new tank, most of the existing growth dies away and a bunch of new plants grow from the old plant. Then they grow like crazy. If the water column can support it anyway.