Nate710 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 I’ve tried putting several different types of beginner plants in my tank and only have luck with anubias. My Amazon swords and Java fern wither away within weeks. I they are always glued to decor and never planted. I use 2hr aquarist liquid fertilizer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradfordAquatics Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 What kind of lighting do you have? Tank size? Water parameters? We need some more info to get an idea of what could be going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate710 Posted July 22, 2022 Author Share Posted July 22, 2022 I have a 55 gallon. Ammonia and nitrites 0 ppm. My nitrates have always been a bit high around 40 ppm. I got a nicrew led light from Amazon that’s on an 8 hour timer. I have pothos in there as well. They aren’t exactly flourishing like everything I’ve read online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) If the pothos are not thriving it most likely is some key nutrient missing/insufficient. If I remember correctly 2hr aquarist does not contain phosphate. (Or is very low I can’t remember which) Plants need a decent amount of phosphate in order to grow and suck up the nitrates. I’m always chronically low on phosphate. Mine shows as green spot algae on the glass and a lot of it. My understanding is GSA appears when phosphate is to low. Api sell phos tests. Edited July 22, 2022 by Guppysnail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 22, 2022 Share Posted July 22, 2022 (edited) On 7/22/2022 at 7:19 AM, Nate710 said: My Amazon swords and Java fern wither away within weeks. I've never had luck with JF, I've never tried swords. I very much love anubias and how easy it is to make it happy. I think the biggest issue here is going to be light power and, equally, your fertilization schedule. Essentially, anubias loves very lean dosing. Something like stems or root feeders will need tabs as well as light as well as dosing to do well. Step 1: Get the plant to acclimate to your water (this is the same issue I'm having) and if you run into issues here it could be care, but it could also just be vast water differences between your water and where the plants are at now. Step 2: Get the plant to beat out the algae. This is where lighting and your ferts come into play. On 7/22/2022 at 9:55 AM, Guppysnail said: If the pothos are not thriving it most likely is some key nutrient missing/insufficient. If I remember correctly 2hr aquarist does not contain phosphate. (Or is very low I can’t remember which) Plants need a decent amount of phosphate in order to grow and suck up the nitrates. I believe even Cory has said it a few times on his farm tours, that phosphate is typically in high qty in the food we feed. If the tank has a high load on it, that's typically where you'd get that from. I can't imagine your tanks not having enough food in them!!!! Very interesting point here. On 7/22/2022 at 9:49 AM, Nate710 said: I have a 55 gallon. Ammonia and nitrites 0 ppm. My nitrates have always been a bit high around 40 ppm. Try to keep nitrites as close to or below 10. If you can keep it lower, it might be an indicator on your dosing being effective. I can't speak to the fert you're using and how it shows up on a nitrate test. I was running mine a bit too high and having similar issues. Lowering it, being able to visually see where my fert levels were, helped me a lot to determine how often to dose. As far as plants, I think a stem plant is a good place to start. Specifically I'd suggest PSO, Vallisneria, or something like bacopa that's pretty easy to get going. Edited July 22, 2022 by nabokovfan87 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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