Plants dying, even with fertilizer

[sparklymoonshrimp]

Hello Everyone, 

I purchased a Banana Plant here from Aquarium Co Op a few months ago, though I can't say exactly when. The plant seemed to be doing fine: I had it sitting on a sand substrate, with root tabs and liquid fertilizer, so it's been sprouting new leaves and roots. 

Unfortunately in the past few weeks it appears to be getting sickly. One of the "bananas" (if you will) has turned yellow, but the biggest problem is that the leaves are turning brownish-red and are disintegrating. I'm quite exasperated by this. I had attempted a planted aquarium over a year ago and had the same issue: the leaves would slowly turn translucent and disintegrate, despite using liquid all-in-one liquid fertilizer and having appropriate plant lighting. 

Picture:

http://imgur.com/a/xQ4rOAQ

I'm not sure what could be causing this issue. I've tried researching it, but can't find anything describing what's happening with my plants. I really want to have a planted aquarium, but I can't keep spending money on plants only to have them die... 

 

Please help! 

[Kirsten]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! What are your water parameters?

Planted aquariums are like any garden where some plants will thrive and others not so much depending on too many factors to control for. Like any plants, sometimes a couple leaves will die from time to time, but that doesn't mean the whole plant is dying. It's hard to tell from your picture, but I think that's the case here.

If you want to have the best chance of success with a planted aquarium as a whole, I'd recommend getting a bunch of different, low-care, inexpensive plants like java ferns, anubias or hornwort so that you have a good chance of some of them surviving even if they don't all make it. I love the co-op's plants, especially for special, individual plants, but they're not the only game in town. You may be able to find some of those easy plants with buy 2, get 1 free sales on ebay or etsy.

Having a bunch of plants will also make it easier to take a step back and look at how the plants are doing as a whole, even if there are a couple holes here or a melting leaf there.

Edited March 31, 2021 by Kirsten

[sparklymoonshrimp]

13 minutes ago, Kirsten said:

Sorry to hear you're having trouble! What are your water parameters?

Planted aquariums are like any garden where some plants will thrive and others not so much depending on too many factors to control for. Like any plants, sometimes a couple leaves will die from time to time, but that doesn't mean the whole plant is dying. It's hard to tell from your picture, but I think that's the case here.

If you want to have the best chance of success with a planted aquarium as a whole, I'd recommend getting a bunch of different, low-care, inexpensive plants like java ferns, anubias or hornwort so that you have a good chance of some of them surviving even if they don't all make it. I love the co-op's plants, especially for special, individual plants, but they're not the only game in town. You may be able to find some of those easy plants with buy 2, get 1 free sales on ebay or etsy.

Having a bunch of plants will also make it easier to take a step back and look at how the plants are doing as a whole, even if there are a couple holes here or a melting leaf there.

Hi! I really appreciate your informative response. I'm at work atm, but can get water parameters later.

 

Quick question-- I live in an area with VERY hard water, like mineral build-up appears on everything, like in the toilet and anything with standing water in it. Do you think that could be linked to the issues I have with my planted tanks? 

So far, the only plant I've had long-term success with is Java moss. 😐 beautiful, but even my anubias plants looked poor shortly after I got them. It's hard to tell by this picture (I know, I should've taken more) but the leaves on these seem to get.. tough or stiff looking? Similar thing happened with the anubias plants..Eventually looking kind of crimped with brown speckles on it, slowly losing its green vividness? 

I just can't believe how poor my results with planted tanks are. 😐

Edited March 31, 2021 by sparklymoonshrimp

[Biotope Biologist]

Depends like @Kirsten said heavily on your overall water parameters. A lot of the plants we see commonly in the aquarium trade come from slow moving streams or rivers with lots of bioload. Often times they require softer lower pH water. Based on your water parameters we can make recommendations on what species will tolerate or thrive in those conditions. 

[JDCNY]

I had similar issues a few months back which forum folks were able help me figure out: 

My water is also extremely hard with a pH well over 8 out of the tap. I get crust on everything. I even have to take my heaters out and scrape off build up every so often. At first, I thought this was why I couldn't keep plants, but it really turned out to be a nutrient thing in my case. In that water and without CO2 I am now growing anubias, swords, val, sag, salvinias, java ferns, guppy grass, ludwigia, and rotala. Based on advice from the forums, I started dosing with Easy Green and also Flourish Potassium and that combo has made all the difference for me. For the swords and other rooted plants, I also use the Easy root tabs. 

[sparklymoonshrimp]

22 minutes ago, JDCNY said:

I had similar issues a few months back which forum folks were able help me figure out: 

My water is also extremely hard with a pH well over 8 out of the tap. I get crust on everything. I even have to take my heaters out and scrape off build up every so often. At first, I thought this was why I couldn't keep plants, but it really turned out to be a nutrient thing in my case. In that water and without CO2 I am now growing anubias, swords, val, sag, salvinias, java ferns, guppy grass, ludwigia, and rotala. Based on advice from the forums, I started dosing with Easy Green and also Flourish Potassium and that combo has made all the difference for me. For the swords and other rooted plants, I also use the Easy root tabs. 

Thanks so much for your comment and the reference to your previous forum post; I'll have to look through it when I get some time. 

Your issue sounds like mine; out of curiosity, have you ever considered doing RO water for your planted tank? I don't know too much about how that works, and I don't have the means to do all of that now (in a 1 br apt atm) but one day I'd like to do different planted tanks with a lot of diversity, I don't really want to be limited by my area's natural water parameters. 

[JDCNY]

9 minutes ago, sparklymoonshrimp said:

, have you ever considered doing RO water for your planted tank? 

I thought about it briefly, but with the 120 gallon tank, that's a lot of RO to deal with. And then you have to add stuff back into it. It gets very time consuming and very expensive very quickly. I decided I don't have the patience (or money) to deal with it and so I do my best to research plants and livestock that are more likely to survive in harder water. My water does have it's advantages though. It's great for shrimp and snails and livebearers and it's incredibly stable since the hardness acts as a buffer preventing pH changes. Once you find stuff that thrives in it, you'll have it forever. (To be fair, I can only speak to the animals as I haven't been focused on plants for that long). 

[Frank]

My limited experience is that, when plants aren't getting or able to utilize enough nutrients, they will sacrifice a leaf. They will suck the nutrition, needed to support new growth, from that leaf. This makes the leaf translucent; like you describe.

How long are your lights on? How bright are they? I'm just guessing here, but maybe with reduced lighting the plants would grow slower and wouldn't demand as much from their environment. 

Edited March 31, 2021 by Frank

[Cory]

I see in the picture, what looks like fine sand. This can make it hard for things like that lily to get nutrients through the roots like they want. You'd want extra root tabs, and possibly coarser substrate to get that specific plant to thrive. Without more pictures and parameters, that's the only observations I have currently.