Miranda Marie Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 Hey guys! I'm wondering if someone can help me identify a problem in my tank. I have a 20g long that I planted back in April/May, and the stem plants in it have been struggling since the beginning. Their leaves are thin, have small black holes, and tend to melt again and again. I trim them, replant, and they do a little better for a while. Then repeat. (I haven't added any new plants. So they're still alive...just not flourishing.) I set it up with everything I could find that online said to have to have a thriving planeted tank, barring Co2 (I am using Easy Carbon instead). Specs are as follows: Light: Beamswork DA 6500K 0.50W Series LED, set at max with a timer so it's always on for 11 hours a day Fertilizer: Easy Green from Aquarium Co-op (twice a week) Carbon: Easy Carbon, dosed at the proper amount, once every day (in the morning). Substrate: UNS Controsoil (black) Plants: I'm honestly unsure. I stuck a whole time of kinds in when I started the tank and just watched to see which would stay alive. Only a few kinds survived the initial melt back. One is a Rotala of some kind (it has bright pink on the undersides of its leaves?) Any advice or thoughts would be welcome. I've been trying everything I can think of for months to help them thrive better. Adjusting the light, the amount it's on for a day, doing more water changes, less water changes, etc. Nothing seems to be working. My next thought is maybe they need more nutrients from the substrate than it is giving them? So maybe adding root tabs would make a difference? It really seems like they're missing something vital but I don't know what, and I don't have the resources to test trace elements. Any and all help is appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 I always refer back to this graphic. The thing about stem plants is that they grow fast and they melt fast. I have been struggling with dialing in my ferts as well after adding some tiger lotus. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James B Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 What I have found to help my stem plants is the root tabs. While Easy Green is great (my java ferns love it) I find it doesn't help my stem plants(root feeders) as much as the tabs. You may want to do a small experiment and put in root tabs (I use the Easy Root Tabs from the Co-Op) in a small section of your tank and see how the plants react. If they react well you know to spread the love to the others, if not you can adjust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefConfit Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 What are your water parameters? Anytime there's a problem in my our tank or your asking for advise you should include them. I don't think I've seen @Cory get through a livestream yet without reminding everyone at least twice that that's the first thing to do when somethings wrong. I'd stop using the easy carbon it's not a fertilizer it's an algae inhibitor and some plants are sensitive to it. Are you running any other additives? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica. Posted October 30, 2020 Share Posted October 30, 2020 (edited) Do you test nitrates? It would be good to know what the tank runs at, nitrate wise. Since your dosing easy green 2x per week, that would tell us if the plants are using it all up (f your ntirates test low). Some of the rotalas respond well to extra iron. If that were my tank, my next step would be adding easy iron and seeing if that perks it up. Easy green contains some iron, but not enough for iron demanding plants. It's also possible you got a particularly difficult/high light demanding rotala, like h'ra, and it's just not getting enough light. The UNS contrasoil is a nutrient rich substrate, and since you just set up the tank this year, I doubt you've depleted the nutrients in the substrate, so I don't think root tabs would solve this. Could we see a picture of the whole tank? Do you know the GH/KH of your water, and what temp is it running at? On a side note- 2 hours ago, Miranda Marie said: it's always on for 11 hours a day That's a long time. I might cut that back to 8-9 hours, you might see a reduction in algae with a shorter light period. Edited October 30, 2020 by Jessica. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 4 hours ago, ChefConfit said: What are your water parameters? Anytime there's a problem in my our tank or your asking for advise you should include them. I don't think I've seen @Cory get through a livestream yet without reminding everyone at least twice that that's the first thing to do when somethings wrong. I'd stop using the easy carbon it's not a fertilizer it's an algae inhibitor and some plants are sensitive to it. Are you running any other additives? I'm not using the easy carbon to inhibit algae, I'm using it in place of Co2 so the plants have carbon (which is what I thought it's purpose was...?) and it's actually helped a *lot* since I started dosing it every day with the ground cover, which is growing like a weed and a very vibrant green. Unfortunately, the stem plants don't seem to have perked up any with its usage, so idk if they're not enjoying it or if it simply didn't help. (They were struggling even before I started using the Easy Carbon in August.) As for parameters: It's been running 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and around 20 ppm or less of nitrates. I did just add 6 additional Endlers (I had 2, so now there are 😎 so perhaps that will help up the nitrates and in turn maybe make the plants happier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, Jessica. said: Could we see a picture of the whole tank? Do you know the GH/KH of your water, and what temp is it running at? Here's the full tank. I don't know the GH/KH unfortunately (I need to find a test for it but money has been tight). My water is rather hard though (7.5) and I've been adding wonder shells once a month religiously because I have nerite snails and shrimp. 2 hours ago, Jessica. said: That's a long time. I might cut that back to 8-9 hours, you might see a reduction in algae with a shorter light period My algae actually hasn't been that bad at all. A bit of string algae but it's easy to remove with my weekly water change. And I have the shrimp/snails that I want to make sure are getting plenty to eat. But I could try dialing it back if it might help the plants thrive better? Also, as you can see, the ground cover is growing wild and is very bright green and happy seeming. It's just the stem plants that seem to be struggling. Edited October 30, 2020 by Miranda Marie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 4 hours ago, ChefConfit said: Are you running any other additives? Just the Easy Green fertilizer and Wondershells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted October 30, 2020 Author Share Posted October 30, 2020 4 hours ago, James B said: What I have found to help my stem plants is the root tabs. While Easy Green is great (my java ferns love it) I find it doesn't help my stem plants(root feeders) as much as the tabs. You may want to do a small experiment and put in root tabs (I use the Easy Root Tabs from the Co-Op) in a small section of your tank and see how the plants react. If they react well you know to spread the love to the others, if not you can adjust. I was wondering if that might help... But then someone else pointed out that my substrate (which is nutrient rich) shouldn't have run out of stuff yet (the tank isn't even a year old yet)... So now I'm a bit confused. 😬 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChefConfit Posted October 31, 2020 Share Posted October 31, 2020 4 hours ago, Miranda Marie said: I'm not using the easy carbon to inhibit algae, I'm using it in place of Co2 so the plants have carbon (which is what I thought it's purpose was...?) Easy Carbon WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM Easy Carbon helps fight off algae. Dose 1 pump per 10 gallons every other day for low to medium light... It says algae inhibitor right on the bottle and in the product description. The active ingredient in easy carbon is glutaraldehyde. It's hotly debated if the carbon it supplies is even capable of being utilized by plants and most agree if it does supply usable carbon it is not a significant source. It is known however to hurt some plants two of which are noted in the product description. You're also dosing twice as often as recommended for the amount of light you have on your tank so that's probably not helping. On the idea of adding root tabs I don't think soil nutrients is the problem because most stem plants are water column feeders and can be grown in inert substrate. Id try stopping the easy carbon and see if it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miranda Marie Posted October 31, 2020 Author Share Posted October 31, 2020 39 minutes ago, ChefConfit said: Id try stopping the easy carbon and see if it helps. The problem was around well before I started the carbon though, so I'm not sure how it's going to help? I've been struggling with stem plants since January (the first set melted back so drastically and didn't really come back almost at all, so I did another set in May, and it's still struggling). I started the carbon in August. I haven't seen any worsening since using it (and the ground cover has acted much, much happier) but also no improvement in the stems either. So I'm not sure the carbon is the problem? I guess I will ease back on the carbon, lower the hours of light per day, and up the fertilizer dosage and see if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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