Plants mysteriously died super fast?!

[EricksonAquatics]

Hi all,

I’m still fairly new to the hobby so any advice is appreciated.

This past week a ton of my plants mysteriously kicked the bucket. I seriously don’t know what happened! One day they were looking wonderful and literally two days later my bolbitis, a ton of my crypts and my tiny pogo octopus (which weirdly has never done well for me) all melted away. My dwarf lily and Amazon sword are just fine. The only thing I changed last week was adding a bunch of floating plants. I thought that surely the floating plants had just sucked up all the nutrients and the crypts freaked out, but I tested my water and nitrate was still at 20ppm. Low, but not that low! 
Anybody have any clue what happened? Some kind of crazy fast hitting deficiency? My favorite bolbitis is completely gone😭

Thank you!

[nabokovfan87]

Can you check KH, GH, and PH in the tank?  I had a similar thing happen to me and it took me a while to realize the GH vs. KH ratio as an issue as well as my co2 crashing causing everything to "go haywire."
 

 

[EricksonAquatics]

I tested my water yesterday and the results are below. These are the parameters I've had for a while. My plants have done well, but none have necessarily thrived. I think the tank is not yet fully balanced, but I'm not sure how to proceed there since the algae is much better than it ever has been. By the way, it's a 10g with one betta and a nerite snail. The tank has an Easy Plant LED at 20% (seems so low to me, too, but there are pretty much only low light plants at the moment and I'm afraid the algae will kick in if I turn it up😅).

Even the floating plants have started melting back a bit.  

@nabokovfan87thanks for the video. I only watched a tiny part of it but I gathered that KH should be lower than GH? Does that sound right?

I don't run co2 so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

 

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[nabokovfan87]

@EricksonAquatics the photos aren't showing up on this side.

Yes, GH should be about 2x your KH if possible.  As far as the intensity, I have a low demand tank also with epiphytes which I can use as a comparison point.  10-20% wouldn't be a bad way to run that light on that tank at all.

With the floating plants in there, that may be the base of a few issues. Essentially, we should focus on fert dosing method and frequency. Things like too many floaters could also choke out the gas exchange at the surface. The photo shows a good amount of water at the surface, so I'm not concerned with gas exchange if that's the amount of floating plants maintained in the tank.

Edited January 27 by nabokovfan87

[EricksonAquatics]

Oh sorry, I’ll try them again. That’s good to know about the ratio between GH and KH. I thought the floating plants were taking all the ferts from the water column but my test strip isn’t showing that. Also, I’m terrible at reading test strips but it seems my GH is either pretty high or pretty low? But KH has always been around 80ppm.

Do you think my water parameters could be causing all this plant melt?

thank you so much for your help!

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/27/2024 at 9:22 AM, EricksonAquatics said:

Also, I’m terrible at reading test strips but it seems my GH is either pretty high or pretty low? But KH has always been around 80ppm.

KH is good. GH is harder to tell and it might be a bit low. I had the same issue so I got some of the liquid test kits just to sanity check the results. Very glad I did.

I would recommend double checking those if you can or take the water in to a local store to have it checked that way.

As far as fertilizer and filter, what are you using and how much, how often? For stuff like the bolbitus (ferns) I have heard that iron helps them out, but that's not the issue you're seeing so let's wait to add that at all.

Edited January 28 by nabokovfan87

[EricksonAquatics]

The test strips can definitely be a pain to read. I’ve been meaning to try the test kits to see if it’s any easier to tell what’s going on.
I’ve been dosing Easy Green the regular dose, one pump once a week. Sometimes a little extra depending on if I test the water and nitrate is lower than 20ppm. Seems to be keeping the tank around 30ish ppm Nitrate. 
For filtration I’ve got a sponge filter.

If the GH is low, is that the problem? I’m just confused as to how the plants could die so fast just from that. I don’t think my GH drastically changed recently? Do you think this just some sort of nutrient deficiency and the low GH is only part of it?

Edited January 27 by EricksonAquatics

[SC Fish]

many plants are actually grown immersed, these plants maty have just melted back and will likely sprout back up

[EricksonAquatics]

Yes, however these plants are not new to me. They should all be converted by now.

[EricksonAquatics]

I think I have a black thumb. The plants can not seem to thrive in my tank. The new Val and Hydrocotyle Tripartita is already slowly melting away. Even my anubias is starting to get tiny holes! I feel like there is a simple issue/deficiency going on that I can't see!

Nitrate is at around 40ppm, Nitrite 0. I think my GH is pretty high, around 100ppm. KH is about 80. As @nabokovfan87mentioned, maybe my GH is just way too low if it needs to be double my KH. I'm now wondering if my lack of Wonder Shells has been causing my GH to go down? Even though it doesn't seem low?

Does anybody find they like Equilibrium better than Wonder Shell? It seems more boujee but I don't know if that makes it any better😂

I feel like such a newb haha. I've had this tank a little over a year and the plants decided they hate me.🤪 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:36 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

Does anybody find they like Equilibrium better than Wonder Shell? It seems more boujee but I don't know if that makes it any better😂

basically similar product.  One is plaster of paris with some stuff mixed in and the other is just powder form of a few items.  I prefer equilibrium because it's cheap(ish) and it's easy to use.

[Tanked]

On 1/27/2024 at 5:43 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

I’ve been dosing Easy Green the regular dose, one pump once a week. Sometimes a little extra depending on if I test the water and nitrate is lower than 20ppm.

For now at least, I would stop chasing numbers.  Assuming your EG pump is actually putting out 1ml. each time, your plants have grown, and you have added more plants.  Different plants have different requirements.  It is time to up the dosage.   For me at least, I think the new holes in the Anubia are confirmation. You might try adding one pump every three or four days. The idea is to have a steady nutrient supply all week, not a feast on Saturday and a famine on Friday.  I hope this helps.

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 2/9/2024 at 1:36 AM, EricksonAquatics said:

I think I have a black thumb. The plants can not seem to thrive in my tank. The new Val and Hydrocotyle Tripartita is already slowly melting away. Even my anubias is starting to get tiny holes! I feel like there is a simple issue/deficiency going on that I can't see!

Nitrate is at around 40ppm, Nitrite 0. I think my GH is pretty high, around 100ppm. KH is about 80. As @nabokovfan87mentioned, maybe my GH is just way too low if it needs to be double my KH. I'm now wondering if my lack of Wonder Shells has been causing my GH to go down? Even though it doesn't seem low?

Does anybody find they like Equilibrium better than Wonder Shell? It seems more boujee but I don't know if that makes it any better😂

I feel like such a newb haha. I've had this tank a little over a year and the plants decided they hate me.🤪 

You can try to match up the not-healthy looking leaves to ACO's nutrient deficiency chart and guide, but for now, I think @Tanked has the right idea.

 

Edited February 12 by Rube_Goldfish
Fixed image link to embed chart

[EricksonAquatics]

Plants seem to be doing alright. If anyone has any tips on how to balance a tank, bring them on😂I think that’s going to be my first priority for the time being. I’m still getting hair algae and a tiny bit of diatom, the Val and pogo aren’t doing as well as I’d like. The Easy LED is at 20% for about 6hrs a day. I’ve been following @Tanked suggestions and dosing five drops a day (except on weekends) with my small bottle of easy green. I picked up the liquid test kit but it’s my first time using it so I’d like verification haha. From what I can tell, is pH 7.4ish or closer to 8? I can try the high range pH kit too. And Nitrate looks to be about 40ppm (third from bottom). Thoughts? Am I reading these totally wrong? Thanks for everyone’s help 🙂

Ok, looks like I have pretty high pH. Dang it!😂looks like I’ll have to go to plan B if I ever want to keep chili Rasboras haha. Someday!

test looks to be between 8.2-8.4. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/19/2024 at 6:57 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

I picked up the liquid test kit but it’s my first time using it so I’d like verification haha. From what I can tell, is pH 7.4ish or closer to 8? I can try the high range pH kit too. And Nitrate looks to be about 40ppm (third from bottom). Thoughts? Am I reading these totally wrong? Thanks for everyone’s help 🙂

I would run the high end PH test and see the color.  It also looks like a small amount of ammonia might be there (could be lighting).

Based on the higher PH test, you're at the 8.2 range. Nitrates are around 40 it looks like. Just tied to water changes to decrease that if the waste is too high.