Need help because my plants are not growing and sometimes even dying.

[Mark Knutson]

I have a 29-gallon community aquarium that doesn't grow plants well. Some are dying, and the rest aren't growing. I have mostly Anubias and Java fern.  It has been set up for a couple of years without plant growth.  I tested the water today, and the results are: Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0,  GH 50, KH 60, PH 7.8, Chlorine 0, Ammonia .25 (my best guess because the color wasn't clear), Phosphate 1, Potassium 35. Are any of these parameters out of line for plant growth? I should also add that we have a water softener. 

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,  Mark

[lefty o]

do you feed the plants (fertilizer) at all? water softener is no issue, especially for java ferns and anubias.

[EricksonAquatics]

^^^this

Usually if you're dosing fertilizer you want to keep the nitrates above 0 so the plants have something to eat.

[johnnyxxl]

On 5/17/2024 at 9:45 PM, Mark Knutson said:

I have a 29-gallon community aquarium that doesn't grow plants well. Some are dying, and the rest aren't growing. I have mostly Anubias and Java fern.  It has been set up for a couple of years without plant growth.  I tested the water today, and the results are: Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0,  GH 50, KH 60, PH 7.8, Chlorine 0, Ammonia .25 (my best guess because the color wasn't clear), Phosphate 1, Potassium 35. Are any of these parameters out of line for plant growth? I should also add that we have a water softener. 

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,  Mark

You don't have any nitrogen, normally for plants you want to keep the nitrate showing something, so that you have food for your plants.  I have to dose my tank in order to have nitrogen.  I am using easy green 2x per week.  I just also added fluvial trace for iron in my soft water and acidic water.

[Mark Knutson]

On 5/17/2024 at 10:08 PM, lefty o said:

do you feed the plants (fertilizer) at all? water softener is no issue, especially for java ferns and anubias.

I put in three squirts of easy green once a week. It sounds like from my replys I should start adding more.

On 5/18/2024 at 6:47 AM, johnnyxxl said:

You don't have any nitrogen, normally for plants you want to keep the nitrate showing something, so that you have food for your plants.  I have to dose my tank in order to have nitrogen.  I am using easy green 2x per week.  I just also added fluvial trace for iron in my soft water and acidic water.

I will start dosing easy green a second time each week. I will look for the fluvial trace iron hoping that helps.

[Mark Knutson]

On 5/17/2024 at 10:53 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

^^^this

Usually if you're dosing fertilizer you want to keep the nitrates above 0 so the plants have something to eat.

At one point, my nitrates were higher, which I attributed to too much driftwood. I removed most of it. I will start adding more fertilizer.

[johnnyxxl]

The driftwood wouldn't hurt the tank 

[Pepere]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:00 AM, Mark Knutson said:

I put in three squirts of easy green once a week. It sounds like from my replys I should start adding more.

I dose 20 pumps of Easy Green in my 29 gallon aquariums after I do a weekly 50% water change.this raises nitrates to about 25-30 ppm after water change..  it drops to around 20 ppm before water change in my heavily planted tanks with fast growing stemp plants high lighting and injected CO2.

1 pump Easy Green raises nitrates 1 ppm in a 30 gallon tank.

 

 

In my 17 gallon fish bowl with mostly easy plants such as java fern, crypts,Bacopa, rotala, ludwigia repens, water lettuce and hornwort dimmer lighting, and no added CO2, I do a weekly 50% water change and dose 5 pumps of Easy Green to raise nitrates to roughly 15-20 ppm.

 

The Ludwigia Repens in this bowl is seriously slower growing than my high tech tanks.  The High tech tanks see 3-4 inches of growth per week and gets shortened weekly. In the low tech bowl, I might shorten it every 5-6 weeks.  The Hornwort and water lettuce gets culled every week though….

 

 

[EricksonAquatics]

@Mark Knutson what light are you using? And how long do you have it on?

Getting plants to grow well is all about fine tuning the balance between fertilizer, light, and CO2 (which you don’t need to worry about if you aren’t injecting it).

[Mark Knutson]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:14 AM, EricksonAquatics said:

@Mark Knutson what light are you using? And how long do you have it on?

Getting plants to grow well is all about fine tuning the balance between fertilizer, light, and CO2 (which you don’t need to worry about if you aren’t injecting it).

I have an aquarium coop light turned down to less than half intensity.  I am also fighting algae. The light is on probably six or seven hours a day.

[Mark Knutson]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:05 AM, Pepere said:

I dose 20 pumps of Easy Green in my 29 gallon aquariums after I do a weekly 50% water change.this raises nitrates to about 25-30 ppm after water change..  it drops to around 20 ppm before water change in my heavily planted tanks with fast growing stemp plants high lighting and injected CO2.

1 pump Easy Green raises nitrates 1 ppm in a 30 gallon tank.

 

 

In my 17 gallon fish bowl with mostly easy plants such as java fern, crypts,Bacopa, rotala, ludwigia repens, water lettuce and hornwort dimmer lighting, and no added CO2, I do a weekly 50% water change and dose 5 pumps of Easy Green to raise nitrates to roughly 15-20 ppm.

 

The Ludwigia Repens in this bowl is seriously slower growing than my high tech tanks.  The High tech tanks see 3-4 inches of growth per week and gets shortened weekly. In the low tech bowl, I might shorten it every 5-6 weeks.  The Hornwort and water lettuce gets culled every week though….

 

 

Your tanks look impressive.  How often do you have to scrape algae off the sides?

[Pepere]

I use a co op melamine sponge on all of the glass every week right before waterchange so that around half of what gets released into the water column gets siphoned out.  The top tank in the photos does not have any noticeable algae on tank sides when I scrub.  I have never scrubbed the sides of the fish bowl.  Just hasnt been a need…  i am guessing because of the rounded sides affecting like exposure on them, but never seen any buildup of growth on them.

 

I do have another 29 gallon tank I did a major redo to replacing substrate a few months ago that I have an ongoing issue with brown diatom algae. At weeks end the glass noticeably improves after scrubbing..,  with time I hope that it settles down.  O am giving it a few more months before I resort to a heavy whole tank hydrogen peroxide shock and water change followed by a 24 hour liquid carbon shock followed by a deep waterchange to try to knock it down.  I have had success with that before but I try time and consistency first.  The diatoms do seem to be lessening…

Edited May 18 by Pepere

[johnnyxxl]

I would turn the light up pump one pump per gallon twice a week monitor your nitrate level, fluvial 3+ is the trace elements additive I dose 5 mil per week I have an 80 gallon tank..  I run light 10 hours my plants grow an inch or more per week once established.