# Please help! Plants dying..



## Jason Burk (11 Oct 2014)

Hi all you lovely people

For months and months all I've tried hasn't worked, I just don't understand why my plants keep dying.. All my plants, Eleocharis acicularis, Staurogyne repens, Lilaeopsis novea-zeelandiae, and Pogostomon erectus - all either turn brown, yellow, or get bombarded by algae. I carry out weekly plant maintenance on them, I also do a 30% water change every week. 

Here's a little spec of my aquarium

Volume: 94Litre
Lighting: 36W, 9 hours a day 
Water: 1/4 tap, 3/4 mineralised RO
Co2: Ten bubbles a minute, for 10 hours a day, half an hour before and half an hour after lights come on and go off
Substrate: Flora Base 

KH2 PO4: 3/4 Teaspoon 
KNO3: 9/4 Teaspoon 
- Both in 600ml of RO
- 50ml of mixture 3 times a week 

CSM+B Trace Elements: 1/2 Teaspoon
- In a separate 600ml of RO 
- 20ml of mixture 3 times a week 

I also have 2 powerheads to evenly disperse the nutrients around. 

However, nothing I do seems to work, its so frustrating

- I do have to be careful with dosing CSM+B however, as the tank is home to 40+ SSS Crystal Shrimp. With the current dosing, all shrimp are fine and reproducing, so at least I have some good news to come from my aquarium haha. 

If anyone has any solutions or ideas to solve to the mess I'm in, I would be so grateful, thanks everyone! 

- Jason


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## Henry (11 Oct 2014)

It's likely you need to turn your CO2 up, and get it started earlier than 30 minutes before lights on. Do you have a drop checker?


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## JayZH (11 Oct 2014)

its your trace killing the plant. CSMB is toxic if overdose, Below link will have exact symptons as yours. 

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=503585

Your CO2 is way under, turn it up for at least 2bps for your dosing amt, the plant is not using all the nurts, and you are overdosing. I suggest you switch to another trace for the timebeing to get your balance right.


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## John S (11 Oct 2014)

Like Henry said, you either need a drop checker or PH pen. That will give you an indication of how much Co2 is in your tank and when its reaching the best levels.


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## Vazkez (11 Oct 2014)

Hi there and welcome ,

two things...
As mentioned before 10 bubbles per min is way too low for 94l tank.
Also what about Mg? Do you dose any Epson salt or anything like that?
Mg is very important for plants and they will dei if they not gonna get it.

Vaz


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## Jason Burk (11 Oct 2014)

Henry said:


> It's likely you need to turn your CO2 up, and get it started earlier than 30 minutes before lights on. Do you have a drop checker?



Okay, thanks Henry, I don't have a drop checker no.. Thats a good idea



JayZH said:


> its your trace killing the plant. CSMB is toxic if overdose, Below link will have exact symptons as yours.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=503585
> 
> Your CO2 is way under, turn it up for at least 2bps for your dosing amt, the plant is not using all the nurts, and you are overdosing. I suggest you switch to another trace for the timebeing to get your balance right.





JayZH said:


> its your trace killing the plant. CSMB is toxic if overdose, Below link will have exact symptons as yours.
> 
> http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=503585
> 
> Your CO2 is way under, turn it up for at least 2bps for your dosing amt, the plant is not using all the nurts, and you are overdosing. I suggest you switch to another trace for the timebeing to get your balance right.



Okay thankyou very much, thats interesting. See what Im doing is dosing half of the recommended dose for the trace elements I have, because I was worried it might harm my shrimp. But that link does describe all the problems ive been having, maybe its because I don't have huge quantities of plants in there, the levels I'm adding are most likely for much more heavily planted tanks. 

Okay, ill turn the co2 up also

Thanks so much!



John S said:


> Like Henry said, you either need a drop checker or PH pen. That will give you an indication of how much Co2 is in your tank and when its reaching the best levels.



Perfect, thanks!



Vazkez said:


> Hi there and welcome ,
> 
> two things...
> As mentioned before 10 bubbles per min is way too low for 94l tank.
> ...



Thanks Vazkez, the csm+b im using has manganese but no magnesium  

I don't dose epson no, hmm I'll have to have a look into it

So, in terms to the csm+b, rather than 20ml 3 times a week, how much do you all think I should be dosing?


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## ceg4048 (11 Oct 2014)

JayZH said:


> its your trace killing the plant. CSMB is toxic if overdose, Below link will have exact symptons as yours.


This is not true at all. It's not even close to being true. Did you read post number 2 of the link you referenced? The truth is all in T. Barr's post.
This is how rubbish information programs people to be silly. The OP in that link clearly drew an invalid conclusion. So everyone runs around in a hysteria about iron toxicity just because of the first post while ignoring the truth of the second post.

The OP in THIS thread is suffering poor CO2 and most likely poor flow and distribution. Improve those items FIRST and the plants will stop dying. There is no need to worry about Magnesium or any other nutrient right now. Fix CO2. Poor CO2 kills plants.

Cheers,


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## Jason Burk (11 Oct 2014)

ceg4048 said:


> This is not true at all. It's not even close to being true. Did you read post number 2 of the link you referenced? The truth is all in T. Barr's post.
> This is how rubbish information programs people to be silly. The OP in that link clearly drew an invalid conclusion. So everyone runs around in a hysteria about iron toxicity just because of the first post while ignoring the truth of the second post.
> 
> The OP in THIS thread is suffering poor CO2 and most likely poor flow and distribution. Improve those items FIRST and the plants will stop dying. There is no need to worry about Magnesium or any other nutrient right now. Fix CO2. Poor CO2 kills plants.
> ...




Okay thanks, how much co2 do you think I should be adding?


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## Martin in Holland (11 Oct 2014)

Jason Burk said:


> Okay thanks, how much co2 do you think I should be adding?


It's not a simple matter of how many bubbles per second, it's best to do a pH / KH chart for a day to see if what you are adding is enough.


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## GHNelson (11 Oct 2014)

Hi Jason
Reduce your lighting to 6 hours per day have your Co2 come on at least one and a half hours before your lighting turns on!
Get some floating plants....and a drop checker!
Cheers
hoggie


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## Jason Burk (11 Oct 2014)

Okay, thankyou very much everyone! 

Think I should add that the diffuser I have is a JBL, so its got the 'built in' bubble counter so to speak. So I was getting ten of those bigger bubbles per minute that you see before they are diffused through the ceramic diffuser and into the water. I was told I need 1 bubble per ten litres, mines a 94litre so I was doing 10 bubbles per minute, but it would seem by your responses that, that can't be enough co2. I'll definitely get myself a drop checker


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## Vazkez (11 Oct 2014)

Jason Burk said:


> Okay, thankyou very much everyone!
> 
> Think I should add that the diffuser I have is a JBL, so its got the 'built in' bubble counter so to speak. So I was getting ten of those bigger bubbles per minute that you see before they are diffused through the ceramic diffuser and into the water. I was told I need 1 bubble per ten litres, mines a 94litre so I was doing 10 bubbles per minute, but it would seem by your responses that, that can't be enough co2. I'll definitely get myself a drop checker




The best way you can do is forgot about bubbles per s/min.

Just get cheap PH pen from Ebay and do PH profile during whole day. However as you have live stock in your tank go slow and wach how your fish react. Plants do not care about high level of CO2, however you could gass out your fish. 

If I will be you I will do the following:

Get PH pen
Take glass of water from tank and leav it for 24 hours to get all CO2 out from it. Then do a PH test on that water.
Now set your CO2 to start 2 hour before lights go on.
Every half an hour do PH test of the tank water and adjust as need.

You basically trying to achieve 30ppm (only number) of CO2 on the time your lights go on and keep it stable for all the light period.

You can look here but this is just a guide. All the numbers should just point you on the right direction nothing more. You will have to wach the plants and live stock.




 

Good luck...


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## Jason Burk (12 Oct 2014)

hogan53 said:


> Hi Jason
> Reduce your lighting to 6 hours per day have your Co2 come on at least one and a half hours before your lighting turns on!
> Get some floating plants....and a drop checker!
> Cheers
> hoggie





Vazkez said:


> The best way you can do is forgot about bubbles per s/min.
> 
> Just get cheap PH pen from Ebay and do PH profile during whole day. However as you have live stock in your tank go slow and wach how your fish react. Plants do not care about high level of CO2, however you could gass out your fish.
> 
> ...




Brilliant, thanks for the help!


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