Plant rotting

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/5/2024 at 12:04 AM, TwoFace99 said:

When you said centralize the filter to provide more water circulation to the right side of the tank is this what you envisioned? I couldn’t go directly into the middle, because of the center bridge support. 

Yep basically! Just have to do the best you can.

The tank looks good.  We'll see how it goes.

[TwoFace99]

On 1/5/2024 at 12:40 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Yep basically! Just have to do the best you can.

The tank looks good.  We'll see how it goes.

Thank you. I tried to isolate the Amazon Sword plants, so their root systems won’t interfere with one another. It was a pain, but I got them to work. They basically have their own territories like my Bolivian Rams. 
The Ammania are more in the spotlight, as well as the remaining Corymbosa plants. The Java Fern, Bucephalandra, and Anubias are still doing well. The Java Ferns’ offspring are starting to break off, so I wedge them in spaces that I don’t need glue to hold them. The Banana plant is still doing banana plant things. The Crypt Tropica’s sensitivity scares me, so I didn’t interfere. Like you said, we’ll see what happens from here. I’ll keep you and everyone updated. 
When I go to my LFS Monday (rainbow fish time), hopefully, they have the panda Garra available, if not, I’ll try to get some more Amano shrimp. Reinforcements are needed for the algae on the plants/surfaces. Lol. 
 

Sidenote: My Apistogramma Cacutoides pair spawned inside my spiderwood, but I lost the eggs last night as I believed the male consumed them, which is a shame, since they were on Day 3 going into 4. 
 

Here are better pictures I took right now. 

Edited January 5 by TwoFace99

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/5/2024 at 9:00 AM, TwoFace99 said:

Are there any products that you know of that can raise my light off the tank ceiling more? 
As for the light intensity, I can put that back at 60%. 
Would you suggest any light or get the Co-Op light again? The Co-Op light did cost me quite a bit. 

There are risers on Etsy. There is also hanging kits that might work as well.

[Andy's Fish Den]

On 1/5/2024 at 12:00 PM, TwoFace99 said:

Are there any products that you know of that can raise my light off the tank ceiling more? 
As for the light intensity, I can put that back at 60%. 
Would you suggest any light or get the Co-Op light again? The Co-Op light did cost me quite a bit. 

There are people selling risers on Etsy for a lot of the different lights available, I am not sure if anyone has started making ones for the co-op lights yet. I even cut a piece of 1x4 to put across my tank to use temporarily until I can order some from Esty. 

[TwoFace99]

Well, it’s been two weeks since I posted an update, and I went by LFS this past Monday to pick up my last crew of tank inhabitants (5 Lake Kamala Rainbowfish and 2 Reticulated Siamese Algae Eaters) to hopefully find a solution to the algae issue with my plants and the RSAEs did not disappoint.
They have cleared out all my hair, BBA, and a little bit of white algae that was growing throughout my aquarium, additionally in spots I didn’t know was algae (Java fern roots were covered in them, I thought it was natural). They are both juveniles so they haven’t grown to their full size (like most of their roommates). I was expecting them to not get job done til week 2 or 3, not within a week. I wish I have gotten them sooner. They also bring a nice shade of tan into tank, while being very active and friendly to everyone else. 
There is still diatom on the glass, but the amount is nowhere near as numerous and consistent as the diatom was before, so the reduced light schedule helped with that. 
Now, my only concerns are that still of my Corymbosa Compacta plants and my Amazon Sword in the far right back of my aquarium. I actually got some more Compacta to replace the ones that were pretty much lost all of their leaves/literally broke off their own stems) from Dustin Fishtanks. However, I can’t help but notice that some of the originals and newbies are losing leaves. The originals still have many of their leaves, but are looking more barren, and the newbies had a few of their stems broke in transit, but I buried them a little deeper than I like, in hope they would be fine. Does anyone know if stem plants can recover despite losing so many leaves and do their stems grow back if they are broken off for whatever reason (they still have their leaves and roots attached to the remaining stem piece)? 
As for my Amazon Sword, it has been in seemingly a state of dormant. It has shown no growth nor decay for about a month now, if not, a little more. Even with my RSAEs eating most, if not all of the algae on them. Should I be worried? 

Edited January 15 by TwoFace99

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/15/2024 at 11:16 AM, TwoFace99 said:

Your question regarding stems. Basically what you would do is called "topping". You cut off the healthy part with the leaves and plunge the base of that into the substrate. You can then remove the section that bare and let the new plants root into that section of the tank. You can also leave the segments that have rooted already and just cut off the bare stalks. (No leaves, and see if they grow). It should, and having that root base will help feed the plant to grow new leaves quickly.

[TwoFace99]

On 1/15/2024 at 3:40 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Your question regarding stems. Basically what you would do is called "topping". You cut off the healthy part with the leaves and plunge the base of that into the substrate. You can then remove the section that bare and let the new plants root into that section of the tank. You can also leave the segments that have rooted already and just cut off the bare stalks. (No leaves, and see if they grow). It should, and having that root base will help feed the plant to grow new leaves quickly.

Thank you very much. However, I’m somewhat confused. When you mention cutting off the bare stalks, does that mean the stem segments that have no roots attached above or below the substrate? Does that mean that Corymbosa plant will eventually emerge with a new stem and leaves out of the substrate?
 

For instance, the Corymbosa plants that are tagged with the blue lines will potentially be fine if they lose all of their leaves, but still have a root presence, despite their barren stalks being cut down to the stubble?

 

Edited January 16 by TwoFace99

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/16/2024 at 3:34 AM, TwoFace99 said:

When you mention cutting off the bare stalks, does that mean the stem segments that have no roots attached above or below the substrate? Does that mean that Corymbosa plant will eventually emerge with a new stem and leaves out of the substrate?

Correct.

So the stem you cut (no roots) will grow new roots when you plant it. Also, the bare stalk should pop new growth as well and grow new stalk sections with leaves.

 

On 1/16/2024 at 3:34 AM, TwoFace99 said:

For instance, the Corymbosa plants that are tagged with the blue lines will potentially be fine if they lose all of their leaves, but still have a root presence, despite their barren stalks being cut down to the stubble?

That's basically the norm yeah. Otherwise all of the tanks look like palm trees. You have to grow the plant so you have a healthy section, then trim that off and plant that into the tank. (I.e. propagate new stems)

 

A lot of times when you buy some stem plants it could be just trimmings without any roots.

[TwoFace99]

Well so far, the Hygrohila Corymbosa Compacta plants haven’t adjusted too well to my tank.
Some of them have grown new leaves, but they look shredded or bitten off by something within my aquarium.

Others have naturally melted, but melted to the point where the stems become barren, and eventually break apart. 

A few were damaged within packaging/transportation that the plants were completely useless and I had to somewhat bury the remaining portions. No luck. 
In conclusion, I did manage to get a full refund of my order from Dustin Fish Tanks (I guess I caught him on a bad day), and I guess Hygrophila species are not adaptable to my tank conditions, and I won’t be trying them again. The remaining plants I’ll let die off naturally like their other siblings whenever they do decide, but I did pull out the ones that were performing badly to save time. However, I did notice the ones I did pull have brown stems, which I didn’t see before.

Water parameters (I performed a water change yesterday at 50%) & tank inhabitants for anyone interested: 

PH: 7.8

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nirite: 0ppm

Nirate: 40ppm (Mainly from Easy Green dosage/12 pumps every Monday and Friday)

KH: 5dKH

GH: 10dGH (Calcium supplement-Wonder shells)

 

Tank inhabitants/how long I had them:

2 Marbled Angelfish (juveniles/been with me for over 2 months)

2 Bolivian Rams (juveniles/been with me for over 2 months)

3 Amano Shrimp (adults, but still growing/over 2 months)

2 Pearl Gourami (juveniles/over 2 months)

Apistogramma Cacatuoides Super Red pair (adults-over 2 months)

9 Harlequin Rasboras (adults- over a month)

2 Reticulated SAEs (juveniles/ a couple of weeks)

5 Lake Kamaka Rainbowfish (adults/ a couple of weeks)

 

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/23/2024 at 12:42 PM, TwoFace99 said:

Water parameters (I performed a water change yesterday at 50%) & tank inhabitants for anyone interested: 

PH: 7.8

Ammonia: 0ppm

Nirite: 0ppm

Nirate: 40ppm (Mainly from Easy Green dosage/12 pumps every Monday and Friday)

KH: 5dKH

GH: 10dGH (Calcium supplement-Wonder shells)

Going off the plant issues I wanted to look up the specs from flowgrow for the Hygrophila species.  I hope that sheds some light on what you experienced.  Maybe it's just a pH/CO2/Lighting thing.

 

[TwoFace99]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:23 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Going off the plant issues I wanted to look up the specs from flowgrow for the Hygrophila species.  I hope that sheds some light on what you experienced.  Maybe it's just a pH/CO2/Lighting thing.

 

Unfortunately, I don’t have test kits for the individual nutrients, so I can’t comment on that.

My Temperature is within the optimum range (25.556’C/78.F).

I guess the pH is too high? I sit consistently at a 7.8, and never had any other reading since I started this tank back in October. 
My lighting is at 60% intensity, which I’m assuming would be medium-high or just medium?

My KH has never dipped below 2dKH, and that was before I knew how important KH and GH were. My KH reading is still currently at 5dKH. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:17 PM, TwoFace99 said:

I guess the pH is too high? I sit consistently at a 7.8, and never had any other reading since I started this tank back in October. 
My lighting is at 60% intensity, which I’m assuming would be medium-high or just medium?

Might be medium, medium-low.  It really just depends. 

PH was the one that stood out to me.  You can look up the Tom Barr CO2 chart and it breaks down CO2-KH-pH relationships.  Basically it's revolving how much co2 is in the water itself. Could be an indication of flow issues, circulation issues, a variety of things.  If your KH is very low and you PH is very high... it purplexes me.  My kh is around 3-4 degrees, my PH is basically 6.8-7.2 at most.  If my KH drops lower, then my PH goes to 6.5 pretty fast.

 

On 1/23/2024 at 4:17 PM, TwoFace99 said:

My KH has never dipped below 2dKH, and that was before I knew how important KH and GH were. My KH reading is still currently at 5dKH. 

GH is your magnesium and calcium, so it's important for plants.  The ratio between GH:KH is also important.  You want GH > KH and preferably GH to be about 2x your KH value.

Edited January 24 by nabokovfan87

[TwoFace99]

On 1/23/2024 at 11:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

GH is your magnesium and calcium, so it's important for plants.  The ratio between GH:KH is also important.  You want GH > KH and preferably GH to be about 2x your KH value.

Yes, I added wonder shells a while back, because my tap water lacked the necessary calcium supplement for my banana plants, which had curling issues. It took a while for the leaves to come out normal again. Not to mention, I have Amano shrimp to take care of.
My GH readings back then were a 6dGH, but after adding the wonder shells it has stayed around 8-10dGH. I’m currently sitting at 10dGH for four weeks straight now. 
I didn’t know about the 2x value of GH to KH. 

 

On 1/23/2024 at 11:48 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

PH was the one that stood out to me.  You can look up the Tom Barr CO2 chart and it breaks down CO2-KH-pH relationships.  Basically it's revolving how much co2 is in the water itself. Could be an indication of flow issues, circulation issues, a variety of things.  If your KH is very low and you PH is very high... it purplexes me.  My kh is around 3-4 degrees, my PH is basically 6.8-7.2 at most.  If my KH drops lower, then my PH goes to 6.5 pretty fast.

Thanks, I’ll look into that. Yea, I can’t explain it either. It must be me living in Chicago, since our water is naturally hard. 

[TwoFace99]

Additionally, I just left out of my LFS (one of my Lake Kamaka Rainbowfish died today from bloating), and they suggested for my Hygrophila plants to gradually increase the light intensity to 100%, and dial back down the intensity, as needed, if the algae becomes too much of a hassle for my cleaner crew to handle. They suggested my other plants like Anubias, Amazon Sword, Java Fern, Bucephalandra, etc would be fine as long as the change is not all at once to stress the plants. 
The owner shown me some Hygrophila plants with 100% light intensity in smaller tanks as well. Since my tank is a 55gal with more height away from the plants.
 

Edited January 24 by TwoFace99