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Dragon's Grove

Things aren't entirely going to plan-

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There has been considerable growth however significant melting as well. I am afraid it seems that new and old leaves are melting, but only on the monte carlo. My flow is as close to perfect as possible (2x 1400lph with full length spraybars and minimal media). I am dosing ei. Light is 2x 39w T5 15cm from surface. 2 hours into my photoperiod and drop checker looks like this:

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My tank did suffer an accidental 2 day blackout after just being planted but all other plants except hairgrass which is also in very bad shape, are fine, and that was 2 weeks ago.

Any advice (other than more CO2 and patience which is my best guess)
 
Since everything except the dwarf haigrass and monte carlo are fine I am considering just buying more and potentially replace what is there with healthy plants. Although I would expect that in a high tech they would recover quickly, unless params are off, in which case why is everything else healthy...
 
On a more positive note I finally got some very good pogostemon helferi and some pogostemon stellatus from my local Maidenhead Aquatics.

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Crossocheilus said:
So update on the Rooibos teabags:
I have just made some concentrate and here is how the tank now looks. I'm afraid my phone camera can't really see the tannins (?) But this is what I got:

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Pic number 1 actually shows the tannins the best, it looks very similar to what I am seeing.
Click to expand...
Hi, sorry to hijack the thread, is the light unit in the second picture above an Arcadia Stretch LED? If so how did you find it from a lighting point of view?
 
No problem steve,

I only use it for the floating plants, it has individually switched white and pink leds and with both channels on the colour is a little too pink but its still a perfectly nice colour rendition, if a little on the pink side. On a larger tank you may need two in order to get medium to high light and penetration through the depth of water.

Not sure about price as I got mine with a pfk subscription so was free/cheap.

They are basic compared to some (no dimming or built in timers) but for a basic led light it is slim and effective.
 
Melt is normally a sign co2 isn't optimum, trim of the melted parts and anything healthy will bounce back as long as conditions are favourable. I would be tempted to shorten the spray bars so each filter covers half the tank, the way you have them setup one could be disrupting the other or the filters could be lacking due to the length of the bars, you can also dim the lighting or raise it further from the tank whilst you get on top of the issues.
 
Hmm obviously something is wrong but I can clearly see the co2 mist being pushed right down to the substrate. Just did a pH profile and got a 1 point drop even with 170ppm KH (CaCO3) however I have been tinkering around with co2 so levels are changing quite a bit. Got it set at a good rate now so will leave it and hope things start to improve. Could the plant still be reeling from 2 day blackout during the vital change form emmersed to submerged?
 
The odd thing is that everything else is growing well. Perhaps some are more resilient than others and some thus are still greatly weakened from a blackout and then low co2 for the first vital week in the tank? Sound reasonable?
 
Monte carlo btw ;)

Perhaps. What troubled me that with my rotala sp green I can see that old emmersed growth die back and new healthy shoot quickly replace it. However with my monte carlo it seemed to start spreading well then started to melt and now it seems to be growing and melting at an equal rate :banghead: seeing as everything else is happy it is tempting to remove the monte carlo and dwarf haigrass and just replace with fresh tropica 12 grow :mad: but I'm probably just being impatient.
 
I guess I'll give it another few weeks at a higher and more stable co2 level, if I see no improvement and everything else continues to flourish I will have to just buy more I suppose. It's frustrating because I tried to do it all by the book.
I've also just noticed a tiny amount of algae on the front glass but tbh the first 3 weeks and no algae is quite an achievement.
 
Lighting intensity and flow/distribution should be investigated. This is a CO2 fault...obviously...

Cheers,
 
I knew you'd say that ;)

So what I'm hoping is that it WAS a co2 issue that is now fixed and hopefully the affected plants will begin to recover.

Now fixed=
Lime-yellow drop checker
1 point pH drop
Overkill flow through 2x full length spraybars (2800lph total in 180 litre tank)
Normal EI dosing
2x 39W T5 with reflectors, 15cm from water and 60cm from substrate
 
If this was a tissue MC (as far as i know this plant is mainly available in this form) the melting could be also because of the washing preparation.
This typically visible after 2 weeks like in your tank. Sometimes it happens if we plant in a rush. The first 2 weeks went really smoothly plant looked awesome on your photo.
 
I thought I prepared it ok, washed jelly off with lukewarm tap water then separated into smaller clumps and planted into wet substrate with pinsettes. I didn't do anything unusually violent to it, but if it is a very fragile plant that could be at least part of the explanation.
 
:mad: My drop checker is in three pieces right now after I tried to change the indicator

*Sigh*

Anyway mine was getting to that colour by the end of the photoperiod but at lights on its lime, is that okay or should I extend the time before lights on with co2 from 2 to 3 hours?
 
After having broken numerous glass drop checkers, including quite thick glass expensive ones (£12) and numerous Ebay cheapies (3 for £7 from Hong Kong), I have now settled in the JBL one, as in the definitive CO2 drop checker article by Ceg. My JBL one has been dropped and generally abused and doesn't break. Other advantage is the white strip in it, enabling the drop checker to be easily read.
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Ceg's drop checker.
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My drop checker :)
 
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