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Is my vallisneria dead or melting?

Seditro

Seditro

Member
Joined
17 Mar 2015
Messages
48
So i have no idea what is going on in my tank at the moment i just tested my water and my ammonia level is off the charts even after a 50% water changes

so heres what i have done..

Juwel rio 125 standard filter t5 lights (one bulb coverd up so just 1 28w t5) with a fire extinguisher as co2
after reading a few of the threads online i thought i would give that westland aquatic compost ago it seemed cheap and many people reported it being a ok compost to use
so i set up my tank i only used a very small ammount of this less than a inch worth across the base of the tank
i then capped it with pets at home black fine gravel about 2inchs thick i also added a few clay balls only a few where i would plant my echinodorus ozelot green (i believe the make to be das clay) only used about 5-6 small alls about the size of a 5p

i then added my scape used wood and rocks and tied anbuias and java fern to the wood
i then planted some saggitaria subulata along the front and some vallisneria along the back
inbetween i planted the echinodorus in between and i was happy with how it looked

that was the 4th of october
i was ei dosing the tank and come across a problem with some anbuias leaves curling
i was advised it was because my light was to strong so i changed that they seem ok now and even uncurled

i expected my plants to melt abit with them changing enviroments but my vallisneria seemed to have sufferd alot compared to the other plants that seem ok but no new growth on them ethier

so i thought surely they could not of depleted the nutrients already? and with ei dosing everyday? i saw no signs of new growth just slow decayin vallisneria

i decided i would add some root tablets

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Pla...hash=item4d26bba71f:m:mFff087oL97BYzGv_q9Vmlw

i bought some of these as they seemed cheap and the guy had no bad reviews about them

each tablet contains a NPK fertiliser blend 17-9-11 (2) with micro nutrient

  • 17% nitrogen (N)
  • 9% phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5)
  • 11% Potassium oxide (K2O)
  • 2% Magnesium oxide (MgO)
  • 0.01% Boron (B) 0.006% soluble in water
  • 0.025% Copper (Cu) 0.017% soluble in water ** see note below **
  • 0.22% Iron (Fe) of which soluble in water , chelated by EDTA 0.033%
  • 0.03% Manganesebr />0.01% Molybdenum 0.008% soluble in water
  • 0.008% Zinc
Although these tablets contain copper which is usually harmful to shrimp and snails, it is in such low levels and as it is in the substrate, will not enter the water column and harm your delicate livestock. These tablets are used in planted tanks worldwide and are proven shrimp and snail safe

Directions.

Place a single root tab under the root or close to the root of any nutrient hungry plants, or 1 tab for each 30cm sq of tank base for carpeting plants..

The root tab shell is made from 100% natural products and will dissolve straight away releasing the micro granules right where they are needed.

These tabs are completely safe to put in your aquarium and will not destabilise the chemistry of your water in any way.

These root tab are shrimp and snail safe and are harmless to your delicate fish.

so i added about 4 tablets and darted them around my tank and thought maybe these will give it a kick start

(i never tested my water before i added the tablets so i dont know if its the soil or a combination of things)

i left it for about a week and i decided i would test the water ( i have no fish in the tank ) my ammonia was off the charts so i did a large water change and it dropped to 4ppm i did another today and its at 1ppm



so.... thats where i am at and now i have no idea what to do now

if anyone could help me out id really appericate it

Cheers
 

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Hi
U have recently started your tank.It is still cycling so is normal to get high ammonia.
The thing about using soul is that it goes through a process called mineralisation during wich the soil will give off ammonia and other chemical compounds.It may take 2 month to complete the process but that is dependent on how much plants U have and the oxygen levels that reach the soil.
Keep on top of your water changes.Try to increase oxygen levels especially during lights off(surface agitation, air stone ...)
Do not worry too much about your test results.Tests are influenced by many things and not always accurate.Just keep good tank maintenance.Remove dead plant material and be patient.
Regards Konsa
 
Hi all,
AndreiD said:
Cut the meted plants , the will not recover , they will create more ammonia in the tank if you are not removing the dead plants
Click to expand...
I agree with <"@AndreID">, trim the dead leaves and keep up the water changes.
Seditro said:
so i thought surely they could not of depleted the nutrients already? and with ei dosing everyday? i saw no signs of new growth just slow decayin vallisneria
Click to expand...
I'm not an EI user, but I think you have too many nutrients, not too few.
Seditro said:
i decided i would add some root tablets. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Pla...hash=item4d26bba71f:m:mFff087oL97BYzGv_q9Vmlw. I bought some of these as they seemed cheap and the guy had no bad reviews about them. Each tablet contains a NPK fertiliser blend 17-9-11......
Click to expand...
Because of the relative levels of potassium (K) and nitrogen (N) these root tabs are almost certain to contain an ammonial (NH3) nitrogen source, either as ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), ammonium sulphate ((NH4)2SO4) or urea (CO(NH2)2).

You know this because to convert from K2O to K you multiply by 0.81, so 11 x 0.81 ~ 9. Potassium nitrate (KNO3) is 13:0:45 (K as K2O, 36.5 as K), so even if KNO3 is used it is a minor constituent.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
I'm not an EI user, but I think you have too many nutrients, not too few.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same, hardly likely not having enough. Don't know about the soil and the tabs are in there now so if anything just still wants some magnesium and possibly traces at a guess.

Where are these Vallis at the back? hard to tell if also at the front as these look healthy enough. just wondering how you're exiting the built in filter in the corner? A friend of mine had one of these and it just had a round outflow which you could direct. Just wondering if you have the outflow facing up to the surface and then the Koralia appears to be pushing water back along the front? Looks like there maybe a dead spot of poor flow low down at the back of the tank. If that's where these dying Vallis are I would take a look at pointing some flow down there. The built in filters in those Juwel tanks are quite good IMO, they actually sit in the water column so get plenty of oxygen even if they are a bit in your face aesthetically. Don't think there's a good enough reason to throw a £ton at a filter yet, maybe you could fit a spray bay to the Juwel.
 
Hi guys thanks for your help I ripped out all the vallis it just broke up in my hand so had to dig to find the roots
Ended up stripping the whole tank down to get it all out ended up doing a 100% water change aswell because I made one heck of a mess lol

Yes it was vallis along the back and at the front saggitaria which seems healthy both been in tank same amount if time

The filter doesn’t have anything where i can point at surface but what I did was change the powerhead inside with one from a vision 180 thinking it would give more flow I guess that didn’t work lol

I think I may have some spray bar bits kicking around somewhere

So while i was redoing my tank I accidentally pulled out my echinodorus and I looked at the roots and they seem to have turned black and very soft as if they was dead I looked at the vallis and that was same so I looked at the ones ar front

Cryptocoryne becketti and wenditii also the saggitaria there roots are white

So does that mean anything

Sorry im still relatively new to all this

Cheers for all the help
 
No i don’t dose that i read it can melt vallis
Its all dead now anyway
 
Hi hogan so do think that’s what’s going on here because I guess even though its sold as gravel the grain size is only slightly larger than sand

So how would I resolve this

This planted tank stuff is so hard why can’t it be as easy as those YouTube videos say! :lol:

Thinking about stripping out all that compost and just doing the fine gravel and ei dose :(
 
I would leave the compost be,and cap it with the fine gravel.
 
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