Plants Dying

by **msawdey** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:15 pm

My plants are dying and i cant figure out why. The tank is not overstocked... i do a 10 gallon water change every 3 weeks.. its 40 gallons. All levels stay consistent and relatively low.. I have fish in the tank that wouldnt do well in poor conditions and they look great!. But i cant figure out what is going on.. The substrate is Eco Complete base then eco complete mixed with gravel. I dose twice weekly with flourish and excel. I also just put root tabs in 4 days ago..I also have a DIY CO2 with a reactor on a powerhead for CO2 injection. The plants are looking worse and worse everyday. HELP! I dont want to lose my plants...

by **msawdey** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:17 pm

i also have plenty of light from my GLO TO H5 with 2x24 watts plus another light off an old tank that is 20 watts and the bulb is specifically for plants ...plants are crypts and swords and anubis

by **dizzcat** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 1:09 am

Any chance they started dying when you started using excel? When I used it, almost all of mine started to literally melt! I lost a lot of plants to that stuff, will never use it again.

That is the only thing I can think of. Plus, its a good idea to do weekly water changes, not every 3 weeks.

by **msawdey** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:25 am

well.. its mostly every week and a half. that was a mistype.. i check the ammonia and nitrate and nitrite levels twice a week... all are nil to low... once i start seeing a small spike.. i usually change the water.. i keep rams, apistos and angelfish so they need the water to be well kept.. like i said above.. the fish are great.. all are colored very nicely

by **CedricAndCandy7566** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:20 am

Have you got any carbon based products in your filter??? ...if so, that'll be killing your plants. Carbon strips everything from the water, including the good things that plants need to survive.

by **msawdey** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:21 am

ive never heard of that happening.. im kinda baffled as to why... anyone else have any ideas?

by **CedricAndCandy7566** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 1:27 pm

So does that mean you do use carbon in your filter? If you google "carbon in planted tanks" or a similar search you will see hundreds of articles or forum topics which will back up what I am saying.

I also have before & after photos of my 130g planted tank when I briefly added carbon to my filter. I tried it on 2 separate occasions with the same result.

Carbon removes minerals and organics from the water and does not release them back into the tank, so basically you may as well not fertilise your tank as the filter is removing it instantly.

by **dizzcat** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 5:51 pm

My plants really started to take off after I stopped putting carbon in my filters. It basically just took out all the fertilizers I was putting in the tank for the plants. You read on medication packages to remove the carbon while dosing a tank because the carbon will strip the medication out of the water. Same concept with liquid fertilizers.

Carbon is actually not needed in a filter, it is only used to polish the water.

by **TigerTaylor8906** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:12 pm

My plants also have done much better since removing carbon from my filter setup. If you are using filter pads from the store with carbon in it for a HOB filter, the carbon doesnt last very long(from what ive been told). What I did is left them in for a while since it has BB colonies built up on the pad, while I started other biological media behind the pad and eventually removed the premade pads. My filters are just mechanical and biological. Ive been very happy with the filtration and plant growth ever since.

Plants Dying

9 posts

Plants Dying

Plants Dying

9 posts