Help Balance My Tank

[CorydorasEthan]

Hey guys,

I have had this problem for a while, but haven't really asked about it.
So I've always had trouble growing plants, especially in my 29 gallon. Embarrassingly enough, I struggle with even the easiest plants. Most always melt away into tiny plants as soon as I get them, and never grow anymore. This was the case with my Cryptocoryne, Vallisneria, Sagittaria, hairgrass, Amazon sword, and cabomba. Those that do grow grow very large and look nice and healthy, only to die off completely within a few months after they reach their peak, as with my dwarf aquarium lily, water sprite, and Java fern.

I understand that sand is not good for plants to grow, but I tried putting gravel in half of the tank instead and it didn't work either.

Here's what the Java fern and water sprite looked like in January this year.

Here is what the tank looks like today (water is cloudy because I just fed the fish)

As you can see, most of the plants have died off or are melting away. Lots of algae growth (primarily black beard algae). The Java ferns in particular seem to be suffering from a potassium deficiency (holes in the leaves).

Here's a list of my equipment:

- 29 gallon tank (30 inch x 12 inch x 18 inch)

- Marineland Penguin Bio-Wheel 150 Power Filter

- Aquarium Co-Op 10 Gallon Sponge Filter

- Interpret Heater 100 W

- Nicrew ClassicLED Aquarium Light 30-36 inch

 

Here's what I do for maintenance:

- Dose Easy Green (three pumps) weekly

- add root tabs rooted plants every few months

- 25% water change weekly

 

Here are my parameters at the moment:

- about 72 degrees Fahrenheit

What can I do to fix my plant problems?

Thanks!

[BradleyH20]

Looks like you might have black hair algae. It feeds off of dissolved Ammonia from excess fish waste and food, as well as C02. I had it pretty bad in one of my tanks and combated it by adding Siamese Algae Eaters. A 29 gallon tank might be a little small or an SAE though. Noticed you have a sponge filter from the Co-op...what size did you go with? You might need more filtration 

[CorydorasEthan]

On 6/21/2022 at 2:04 PM, BradleyH20 said:

Looks like you might have black hair algae. It feeds off of dissolved Ammonia from excess fish waste and food, as well as C02. I had it pretty bad in one of my tanks and combated it by adding Siamese Algae Eaters. A 29 gallon tank might be a little small or an SAE though. Noticed you have a sponge filter from the Co-op...what size did you go with? You might need more filtration 

Yeah I introduced two Siamese algae eaters over a year ago. Though they ate a lot of the algae, they eventually got too big and aggressive for my other fish, so I gave them to my local fish store.

I got the small size sponge filter.

[BradleyH20]

On 6/21/2022 at 12:41 PM, CorydorasEthan said:

Yeah I introduced two Siamese algae eaters over a year ago. Though they ate a lot of the algae, they eventually got too big and aggressive for my other fish, so I gave them to my local fish store.

I got the small size sponge filter.

I'm not an expert by any means, but you may need extra filtration. I'm not sure what the GPH (gallons per hour) are on those sponge filters, but the description for a small sponge filter says it's for tanks 10 gallons and up. If it were me, I'd run 2 of the small sponges at a minimum, but would most likely run it with a small and a medium size or just go with 2 mediums.

I'm a firm believer of filtering my water 7-10 times in an hour. In the case of a 29 gallon tank,  you would be looking at 200-300 gph. More filtration will add more oxygen and clear more debris, which might help combat algae growth. 

I use an Aquaclear 110 on my 40 gallon, which at the highest setting will filter 500 gph. It roughly filters my water 11 times in one hour. 

I missed that you also have a bio-wheel 150 filter. You probably have enough filtration 

[gjcarew]

What's up with the total hardness on your test? Could it be a lack of ca/mg?

[Guppysnail]

Oh I so know the peak beauty that is fleeting. Once plants get to their “peak” they just need so much more nutrients to thrive than they did before it’s very hard to know how much without being to much.  My tanks are low tech and I do not use fertilizer. I can grow a surprisingly wide variety of plants that are supposed to be  high tech tank plants only.  Other than Java fern and anubias I cannot grow the easy plants to save my life…until I discovered guppy grass. That stuff seems to do great no matter what I do to it (or fail to do for it 🤣) To me it has a bit of the look of all the pretty ones I cannot manage to grow.  I use it planted or floating instead of sprite and wisteria now that I can’t grow well. 
I’m not one of the great aquascape folks so can’t really help with how to balance and adjust for issues.  I can share an easy method to give your plants quick relief from the algae that causes zero plant damage and takes little effort until you can figure out the harder stuff so the algae does not make the plants struggles harder. 
I hope this helps.  
Admittedly this is a long read so I can shorten it for you.

Remove your plants and soak them for at least 9 hours in ordinary seltzer water. I use kitchen teaspoons to weight the plant down so it stays submerged. Place it in a dark room or cover your container with a towel. (Don’t put a tight fitting lid on )Then place the plant back into your aquarium.  The algae will die and turn red, white or pale and disintegrate in a few days to a week. 

 

Edited June 22, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Mmiller2001]

Total Hardness and 3 pumps of Easy Green is nowhere near enough fertilizer.

[CorydorasEthan]

On 6/22/2022 at 2:20 AM, gjcarew said:

What's up with the total hardness on your test? Could it be a lack of ca/mg?

Somewhere between 25 and 75 GH.

[gjcarew]

On 6/22/2022 at 9:46 AM, CorydorasEthan said:

Somewhere between 25 and 75 GH.

If I had to guess I'd say you probably live somewhere with very soft water. As the plants are growing they deplete the remaining minerals in the water then starve. This would explain your boom-bust cycle. 

Easy green has most nutrients you plants need, but not Ca and Mg, and not enough K (in my opinion). Try remineralizing your water after every water change with a GH booster like Seachem Equilibrium, GLA or NilocG and I bet you'll see more sustainable growth.  

[Isaac M]

Hi @CorydorasEthan, I am interested in what your water parameters are out of the tap, do you happen to know? It is odd to me that your nitrates are that high with weekly water changes and the aquarium not looking too overstocked. Especially given that you are only getting a little over 3ppm of nitrates from easy green a week. If this were my aquarium, my initial thoughts would be to get the nitrates you have in there lower and replace them with nitrates from easy green (this will help give the plants all the other nutrients it needs other than just nitrogen). I would do this through water changes and/ or the help of some riparian plants.

I do not know much about the nicrew lights however. Assuming it can grow plants decently which I imagine it can, I would go with the above.

Also, I have never had issues growing plants in sand. As long as the plant is being fed where it prefers to be fed at, it should do well.

Keep us updated and good luck! 

[CorydorasEthan]

On 6/24/2022 at 10:01 PM, Isaac M said:

Hi @CorydorasEthan, I am interested in what your water parameters are out of the tap, do you happen to know? It is odd to me that your nitrates are that high with weekly water changes and the aquarium not looking too overstocked. Especially given that you are only getting a little over 3ppm of nitrates from easy green a week. If this were my aquarium, my initial thoughts would be to get the nitrates you have in there lower and replace them with nitrates from easy green (this will help give the plants all the other nutrients it needs other than just nitrogen). I would do this through water changes and/ or the help of some riparian plants.

I do not know much about the nicrew lights however. Assuming it can grow plants decently which I imagine it can, I would go with the above.

Also, I have never had issues growing plants in sand. As long as the plant is being fed where it prefers to be fed at, it should do well.

Keep us updated and good luck! 

I measured the tap and it came out as 0 nitrates.

Perhaps I do have it overstocked (hard to see from photo). I have 4 Corydoras aeneus, 5 corydoras paleatus, 4 corydoras pygmaeus, 4 corydoras habrosus, 3 corydoras trilineatus, 1 pearl gourami and a lone otocinclus.

By coincidence, I happened to pick up this plant for free today (I forgot what it was called, but the name started with a p I think. Maybe a pothos?). The people I got it from said it can grow in water, so would this be a good pick for a riparian plant?

Thanks! 

Edited June 25, 2022 by CorydorasEthan

[Isaac M]

I would not necessarily call that over-stocked but hey, I think that is just the corydoras enthusiast in me loving the choices you made haha For reference my 40 breeder has around 20 pygmy corys, 10 sterbai corys and 5 corydoras eques, along with a large colony of cherry shrimp haha 

But yes, that is pothos! Pothos works really well as a riparian plant. It can grow underwater but if you can get the roots under water and the leaves above water, then it will really take off. I would recommend using a stainless steel wire wrapped around the rim of your aquarium to hold it in place (some people also use the hang on back filter to hold it but I like seeing the roots grow in the aquarium, plus my sterbai corys have spawned on pothos roots before). This should really help bring down those nitrates and potentially reduce your water changes.

However, you will still need to dose more easy green if you want to grow any water column feeding plants (stem plants, floating plants, etc) or use more root tabs to grow plants that feed at the roots (crypts, swords, bulb plants, val, etc). 

[CorydorasEthan]

On 6/25/2022 at 12:07 AM, Isaac M said:

I would not necessarily call that over-stocked but hey, I think that is just the corydoras enthusiast in me loving the choices you made haha For reference my 40 breeder has around 20 pygmy corys, 10 sterbai corys and 5 corydoras eques, along with a large colony of cherry shrimp haha 

But yes, that is pothos! Pothos works really well as a riparian plant. It can grow underwater but if you can get the roots under water and the leaves above water, then it will really take off. I would recommend using a stainless steel wire wrapped around the rim of your aquarium to hold it in place (some people also use the hang on back filter to hold it but I like seeing the roots grow in the aquarium, plus my sterbai corys have spawned on pothos roots before). This should really help bring down those nitrates and potentially reduce your water changes.

However, you will still need to dose more easy green if you want to grow any water column feeding plants (stem plants, floating plants, etc) or use more root tabs to grow plants that feed at the roots (crypts, swords, bulb plants, val, etc). 

Okay thanks! I will keep you all updated!

[CorydorasEthan]

UPDATE:

I had too high of nitrates (100 ppm or so) and my cories got red blotch disease and fin rot. I lost 2 peppered cories, 1 habrosus cory, and 3 pygmy cories to the red blotch. Turns out I hadn't been water changing enough, and as soon as a did a 40 or 50% water change, my nitrates went down to around 25-50 ppm and have stayed there. I added salt to the tank (1 tbsp per 10 gallons) a few days prior and so far the fin rot hasn't continued. After the water change, I also purchased 3 cryptocorynes (2 wendtii, 1 lucens), 1 anubias (actually split into two plantlets) and a wad of java moss, as well as some more root tabs to see if they'll grow a bit better for me.