My plants are clearly unhappy and I'm not sure what to do?

[corymbosa]

How do you guys make your low-tech tanks work? This is my 10 gal with about 30L of water that has been established for around 4 months.

My background and midground plants are ok, but my Staurogyne repens have their leaves slowly turn yellow/brown from their tips and some have their stems detached from their roots? My Lobelia cardinalis are also slowly melting away. The Helanthium tenellum plants have some yellowed leaves.

PLANTS
Background
Hygrophila corymbosa
Alternanthera/Ludwigia (Not sure about this ID)
Midground
Anubias nana
Cryptocoryne undulatus
Amazon sword
Foreground
Helanthium bolivianum
Helanthium tenellum
Lobelia cardinalis Mini
Staurogyne repens

TAP WATER PARAMETERS
pH - 7.2 fresh out of tap, but stabilizes at 7.4-7.6 after gassing out
GH - 3
KH - 2
You can view the chemical constituents here - https://www.pub.gov.sg/.../Singapore_Drinking_Water...
I usually add seachem equilibrium to up my GH as I have a molly and guppies in this tank. The eventual GH will be around 7.

TANK WATER PARAMETERS
pH - 7.4-7.6
KH - 4
GH - 9
Nitrates - 10-20ppm

LIGHTING
A cheap 10W LED that is on 8 hours a day

FERTILIZER DOSING
Daily - 0.75ml of excel, 0.2ml of flourish, 0.2ml of potassium
Every two days - 0.1ml of iron

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi
Seachem Flourish is low in NPK!

Seachem - Flourish

www.seachem.com

hoggie

 

[corymbosa]

Hi
Seachem Flourish is low in NPK!

Seachem - Flourish

www.seachem.com

hoggie

My substrate is tropica aquasoil and it's only 4 months old.

Since my tank has pretty high bioload and a constant supply of nitrates and phosphorous, I only dose extra potassium.

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi
A bit more information would be helpful....Filtration/inhabitants!
Your not actually running a Low Energy tank when dosing Liquid Carbon.

Probably a Co2 issue.....plus low NPK.
Some of your plants have various Algae issues GSA, I can see!
That's usually down to low Phosphate levels and poor Co2 implementation with too long a lighting period!
hoggie

 

[corymbosa]

Hi
A bit more information would be helpful....Filtration/inhabitants!

Probably a Co2 issue.....plus low NPK.
Some of your plants have various Algae issues GSA, I can see!
That's usually down to low Phosphate levels and poor Co2 implementation with too long a lighting period!
hoggie

1 molly, 1 endler and 10 neons. Filtration is a fluval U2 and fluval C3.

Ahh, I never noticed the GSA. Now that you mentioned it I see it on my anubias. I was under the impression that the relatively high bioload from the fishes would supplement enough nitrates and phosphates for plant growth. I actually have tropica premium nutrition (green one) that I use for other tanks with low bioload. I am afraid that my nitrates will spike up to unhealthy levels if I use it on this tank.

 

[G H Nelson]

I'm not sure about that....could be an old Urban Myth?
Yes use the Tropica!
You don't need to worry about Nitrate levels once your plants start growing healthily these will stabilise.
Purchase some floating plants these will tell you a lot about your water parameters!
Remove some of those S Repens and leave them floating on the surface if they develop roots after a few weeks that's a good sign.
hoggie

 

[corymbosa]

I'm not sure about that....could be an old Urban Myth?
Yes use the Tropica!
You don't need to worry about Nitrate levels once your plants start growing healthily these will stabilise.
Purchase some floating plants these will tell you a lot about your water parameters!
Remove some of those S Repens and leave them floating on the surface if they develop roots after a few weeks that's a good sign.
hoggie

Thank you so much! I will try dosing tropica! I will try ripping out some of the repens, but I can already see that some are very shaky and are about to detach from their roots for some reason..

Do you think 0.2ml of tropica for 30L of water daily would be too much?

 

[G H Nelson]

Ive always found S Repens a tad tricky without decent Co2 levels!
Just dose what it recommends for the tank size.
Don't worry too much about displaced water due to hardscape/soil etc.

 

[corymbosa]

Ive always found S Repens a tad tricky without decent Co2 levels!
Just dose what it recommends for the tank size.
Don't worry too much about displaced water due to hardscape/soil etc.

I tried dosing what tropica recommends in another tank. After a week the nitrate levels were sky high and my galaxy rasboras were showing signs of illness, now I'm scared to go anywhere near that dosage again especially when this tank has way more bioload.

I guess my next upgrade would be CO2?

 

[G H Nelson]

Nitrate would really need to be well in the hundreds I think!
Could just be a coincidence....maybe something else going on like a Nitrite spike.

 

[corymbosa]

Nitrate would really need to be well in the hundreds I think!
Could just be a coincidence....maybe something else going on like a Nitrite spike.

After reducing the dosage the nitrates stopped spiking, so I think the manufacturer's instructions are more for high-tech tanks.

Wait... it's optimal for nitrates to be in the hundreds for plant growth? Won't that harm the livestock?

 

[hypnogogia]

Wait... it's optimal for nitrates to be in the hundreds for plant growth? Won't that harm the livestock?

No. However, measuring nitrate is unreliable as @dw1305 can explain. Knowing what you’re putting in on a daily basis is a more accurate way of determining your nitrates. Make sure you carry out regular water changes though.

 

[G H Nelson]

Well you are running a High Energy tank if your dosing Liquid Carbon.
If you have low plant mass...and don't do water changes the Nitrate levels will creep up!
Nitrate levels are usually adequate between 20/30 ppm!
My tap water is 40ppm at times...never had a problem even with dosing extra Nitrate!

 

[erwin123]

Instead of floating plants, you can try planting your hang on back filter! All those plants will suck out the nitrates from the tank in no time. Monsteras seem to be currently very popular, so you should have no problem giving away cuttings to your friends!

 

[G H Nelson]

If your still worried about Nitrate just dose Phosphate/Potassium and Micro....if your leaves start going light green on the floating plants you know you need to add nitrate!
Keep us posted...hope you can resolve your issues soon.
hoggie

 

[corymbosa]

Instead of floating plants, you can try planting your hang on back filter! All those plants will suck out the nitrates from the tank in no time. Monsteras seem to be currently very popular, so you should have no problem giving away cuttings to your friends!

Wow that's beautiful! My side hobby is gardening so it would be a great complement. But... then I will need to get lights for the monstera 😵

If your still worried about Nitrate just dose Phosphate/Potassium and Micro....if your leaves start going light green on the floating plants you know you need to add nitrate!
Keep us posted...hope you can resolve your issues soon.
hoggie

I will try dosing a little bit of the tropica for a week and see if things improve. I'm planning to get some tropica root tabs as well so supplement their roots. And maybe.. a light upgrade

 

[Hufsa]

Well you are running a High Energy tank if your dosing Liquid Carbon.

I dont really agree with this, so called "liquid carbon" isnt a very good source of carbon, its main effect is as a biocide, so it will help with algae if you are comfortable using it.
I and I think a fair percentage of others would still classify this as low tech.

Other than that I support the other posters who say dose a complete fertilizer

 

[G H Nelson]

I dont really agree with this, so called "liquid carbon" isnt a very good source of carbon, its main effect is as a biocide, so it will help with algae if you are comfortable using it.
I and I think a fair percentage of others would still classify this as low tech.

Other than that I support the other posters who say dose a complete fertilizer

Well as an algae inhibitor doesn't seem to work either because there is GSA and Fuzz in this aquarium!
Think you will find that any tank given a Carbon source will be classed as High Tech on this forum.
Cheers!

 

[arcturus]

I dont really agree with this, so called "liquid carbon" isnt a very good source of carbon, its main effect is as a biocide, so it will help with algae if you are comfortable using it.
I and I think a fair percentage of others would still classify this as low tech.

+1
I would stop adding Excel, especially on a daily basis. <It will not provide any relevant amount of CO2 and it may detrimental to sensitive livestock and plants>.

FERTILIZER DOSING
Daily - 0.75ml of excel, 0.2ml of flourish, 0.2ml of potassium
Every two days - 0.1ml of iron

As others suggested, replace all of these by an all-in-one fertilizer. I would suggest <APT Complete> because it is an excellent fertilizer and you can it at a good price since you are based in Singapore. And stop dosing Excel.

LIGHTING
A cheap 10W LED that is on 8 hours a day

Your tank is small (30l), but this LED might be providing insufficient light. I would first replace the fertilizers, wait a couple of weeks, and then try increasing the light period to see how the plants react and if the extra light does not promote algae.

 

[Hufsa]

Well as an algae inhibitor doesn't seem to work either because there is GSA and Fuzz in this aquarium!

Inhibitor, so it could be that it would be worse without it. We dont really know

Think you will find that any tank given a Carbon source will be classed as High Tech on this forum.

I dont know man, thats not the impression I have. Maybe we can agree to disagree