Why do I this to myself?

[sairving]

Every single time I decide to experiment, things just go wrong. This time I decided to try just fluval stratum and stretch out the time between water changes. 

My fish are fine but my plants melted. Self, why don't you stick to what works? You know plants grow well in your water when you cap aqua soil with pool filter sand. 

After 3 years you think I would learn....

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:28 PM, sairving said:

Every single time I decide to experiment, things just go wrong. This time I decided to try just fluval stratum and stretch out the time between water changes. 

It could just be the plants getting nutrients and melting off to encourage new growth.  Adding in the soil also changes your GH/KH which I have seen cause a lot of stress on the plants and melt back.  Once it's stable, hopefully they all pop back!

What did you mean by "stretch out time between water changes"? What was the old regiment, what was the new regiment?

[sairving]

On 6/19/2023 at 4:40 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

It could just be the plants getting nutrients and melting off to encourage new growth.  Adding in the soil also changes your GH/KH which I have seen cause a lot of stress on the plants and melt back.  Once it's stable, hopefully they all pop back!

What did you mean by "stretch out time between water changes"? What was the old regiment, what was the new regiment?

I was doing weekly water changes but I decided to experiment and do them every three weeks. My nitrates seem to sit around 10 ppm. The stratum was added back in January. I really dislike it. 

Maybe its time to rescape the tank...

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/19/2023 at 2:52 PM, sairving said:

The stratum was added back in January. I really dislike it. 

I understand.  If you don't mind, what does the tank look like?

I am really impressed with contrasoil.  I had stratum before, I went with a smaller grain size stratum and I'm doing ok with it so far.  Capped with seachem flourite black.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

The sand cap works well because the plants can reach their roots down into the nutrients when they are ready to take them up. When placed straight into nutrients and the roots aren’t ready for them, this can result in nutrient burn.

 I’ve been wanting to try different aquasoils but never actually do because I don’t want to deal with parameters. I’ve experimented with organic soil capped with sand, on a small scale.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Lennie]

Same. My high ph and kh from tap is quite limiting for plants. I also have RO, and using it or mixing the two works great but I feel lazy unless it is must for the specific fish. So I also have some plants die on me.

 

That being said, some plants do super good in one tank and the same plant melts and dies on another tank, when they are both literally under same conditions, even same lights! It is sometimes just hard to understand plants. But always fun to try something new. All Anubias and crypts I've tried until this day are basically the only two that always work for me no matter what. Others were all trial and error. Lately I just play safe and order different anubias and crypts mostly, as both have lots of options and pretty

 

[sairving]

On 6/19/2023 at 4:54 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I understand.  If you don't mind, what does the tank look like?

I am really impressed with contrasoil.  I had stratum before, I went with a smaller grain size stratum and I'm doing ok with it so far.  Capped with seachem flourite black.

On 6/19/2023 at 4:54 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

 

 

My tank currently. All of the crypts have melted along with several Amazon sword plants. I trimmed the bacopa today. 

Recently, I bought a fluval panted nano. I'm still playing with the settings. 

 

On 6/19/2023 at 5:00 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

The sand cap works well because the plants can reach their roots down into the nutrients when they are ready to take them up. When placed straight into nutrients and the roots aren’t ready for them, this can result in nutrient burn.

 I’ve been wanting to try different aquasoils but never actually do because I don’t want to deal with parameters. I’ve experimented with organic soil capped with sand, on a small scale.

How much ammonia does the organic soil leech in the begining? I've been thinking about trying sand capped soil at some point.

[sairving]

On 6/19/2023 at 5:31 PM, Lennie said:

Same. My high ph and kh from tap is quite limiting for plants. I also have RO, and using it or mixing the two works great but I feel lazy unless it is must for the specific fish. So I also have some plants die on me.

 

That being said, some plants do super good in one tank and the same plant melts and dies on another tank, when they are both literally under same conditions, even same lights! It is sometimes just hard to understand plants. But always fun to try something new. All Anubias and crypts I've tried until this day are basically the only two that always work for me no matter what. Others were all trial and error. Lately I just play safe and order different anubias and crypts mostly, as both have lots of options and pretty

 

The three plants that always grow for me are jungle vals, anubias, and crypts. My current crop of crypts decided to melt on me. For floating plants, Amazon frogbit and duckweed always do well. Thinking of trying red root floaters again. 

[tolstoy21]

On 6/19/2023 at 7:03 PM, sairving said:

My tank currently. All of the crypts have melted along with several Amazon sword plants. I trimmed the bacopa today. 

Im my experience, crypts melt back if they encounter big Ph changes. I'm guessing the tank with Stratum is running at 6.5. What was the other tank's Ph?

I'm all for experimenting. It's the only way to discover things for yourself.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
"Failure is success in progress."
 --Albert Einstein

[sairving]

On 6/19/2023 at 6:10 PM, tolstoy21 said:

Im my experience, crypts melt back if they encounter big Ph changes. I'm guessing the tank with Stratum is running at 6.5. What was the other tank's Ph?

I'm all for experimenting. It's the only way to discover things for yourself.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
"Failure is success in progress."
 --Albert Einstein

My well water is liquid rock. The stratum buffered the water for two months. It dropped the pH to 7.6 and the gh to 180 ppm. Normally, the gh is 300-350 ppm and pH of 8.2. I have used controsoil. That drops pH to 7.0 and the gh to 140ppm for three months. 

Parameter testing wise, the api master test kit provides the most accurate readings. I have some aquarium co op test strips as well (for quickly checking nitrates and nitrites). When I use them, I look at the pH, gh, and kh results, check the chart and think "that color isn't on the chart."

Edited June 19, 2023 by sairving

[tolstoy21]

On 6/19/2023 at 7:17 PM, sairving said:

My well water is liquid rock. The stratum buffered the water for two months. It dropped the pH to 7.6 and the gh to 180 ppm. Normally, the gh is 300-350 ppm. I have used controsoil. That drops pH to 7.0 and the gh to 140ppm for three months. 

Yeah, the buffering capacity of most of these types of substrates can be exhausted quickly if you put them in super basic water.  They don't touch the Gh (at least Stratum won't), but they will attempt strip Kh from the water until, thus lowering the Ph, until their buffering capacity is exhausted.

I move crypts around all the time, potting them, un-potting and splitting them up, planting them again . . .  rinse, repeat . . . 

They never melt, not even a little bit. That is, until I move them to an aquarium with a large Ph difference from the aquarium they were grown in.

[sairving]

@tolstoy21 what I have noticed is when I buy them from my lfs, they never do well. The store is on city water and we are on well water  But when I buy crypts and anubias online, ship them across the country, they do much better. 

Not sure why these crypts melted.