Hc starting to melt again and smaller repens too.

[Something Fishy]

1bps co2 on the go and pretty high lighting I had to turn it down as algae went mad, Chihoros one. Drop checker lime green and some plants are acing it other not so much. Added a pump in there to circulate to see if that helps, not sure what I'm doing wrong? Growing Hc like crazy emersed just can't seem to get it under water.

Can see the darker smaller repens melting and the hc too. Cheers

 

[Mick.Dk]

As you can clearly see on your pic. 4 - there is quite big difference in light-level right under your light-bar and front/back of your tank. This will ofcourse affect plants. Different plants have different needs to thrive.
That said, I see bright green on bits of your HC and Staurogyne, indicating new growth - so your plants are trying to adapt.Dark parts are the oldest parts, least capable of adaptation. This is why those are dismissed first, by the plants.
I think you need patience, letting the plants adapt to specific conditions at the specific point, they're planted. You will defenitely notice difference in growth-speed at different locations in your tank because of diffeent light-levels, once plants get going. There might be locations, where conditions just do not meet needs of the plant used. Time will tell. In that case you must either try to change conditions (=the difficult solution) or find a plant, that like the conditions given at that specific place (=the easy solution).
- it is a learning process, how your specific tank works, and what specific plants require to thrive in it. Reading up on needs of each plant will help a lot.

 

[Something Fishy]

Thanks for reply mate. Actually you are so right yet that seems to be how the pics have come out as that Light is pretty much even all around. Tried before with other lights and had the same problem. Could it be flow do you think? Odd as all other plants growing well and some of the repens are doing very well other just fully melted and they are scattered! Not even in a different place.

I notice black brown slime algae appearing on some leaves too, any real cause or cure for that? I read scrub it and remove affected leaves but wonder if it comes for a reason.

I like to think I researched the HC a lot first just not sure what I'm doing wrong, light I directly above and co2 decent and flow is better now but perhaps not enough still!

Anybody else had problems with co2 can being on its side and fluctuating flow? I am using solenoid and had to remove inline as the pressure from letting the gas out from solenoid kept blowing seals on them but not found anybody else have that issue


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[Mick.Dk]

Be aware, that your eye is unreliable in judging light-level. It will compensate for low/high intensity by opening/shutting the inlet (much like you do on a camera)- thereby "even-out" your perception of light intensity. Plants do not do that; they just relate to actual amount of light.
Most plants can adapt to light levels - some are more adaptable than others, though, and it will allways take time and energy from the plant, before it is adapted. If light is too poor for the specific plant to adapt to, it will ofcourse not survive. Too much light for a specific plant will damage or kill, too - Anubias (named after the egyptian god of death, living in the dark of underworld) is the classic example.
Any adaptation of a plant - be it to life submerse or light levels or anything else - will enevitably cause stress and this will often induce algae attacking the leaves stressed; usually oldest ones. This is why you are often advised to manually remove those as soon as they do not look "perfect" anymore, focusing the plants energy on the new, hopefully adapted leaves. In your case the brighter green, newest ones on both HC and Staurogyne. If conditions are acveptable for the plant, it will adapt and adapted leaves will not be attacked by algae anymore.

 

[Something Fishy]

Makes sense Mick thanks. Just baffled me most that certain plants suddenly completely melted whilst others are fine. They've been alright since I put them in but recently dimmed the lights a little due to lots of algae and co2 been little more inconsistent which could be a problem as canister is on its side so flow seems uneven from the gas. The new green I think is actually old green from when I added them the top and new growth is melting yet a few weeks ago there was new growth so not sure what I've changed.

Could also be too many water changes perhaps? I have been doing a lot.


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[Mick.Dk]

Unless your (tap)watet contain poisonous elements (to plants, that is), waterchanges will not damage your plants. It might remove too much fertiliser from water-column, though. The easiest way to recognise this is by "Duckweed index" (see description of this elsewhere).
HC is in my experience not very tolerant/adaptable to low values of neither light or fertiliser. Roots are not very strong, so it probaply take a lot of nutrients from water-column. Good flow to bring nutrients to the plant (and remove waste-products) is therefore vital. CO2 is just a nutrient, but HC need quite high addition of this, to thrive. If new growth tends to go upright, light-level is too low for this plant.
Staurogyne, on the other hand, will over time develop a quite strong, widespread root-system, capable of collecting nutrients from large area of substrate. It can actually grow acceptable without added CO2, but will perform much better with addition. This plant can adapt to relatively low light-levels......but that will generate a more upright and less dense growth.

 

[Something Fishy]

Thanks Mick really good info as always. Growing up is a nice touch, should I therefore in your opinion start by bumping up light to see if it recovers over changing co2 or flow first? I like to do one at a time otherwise it's hard to know what was the problem, sure you understand that. The flow I think is adequate but could move the pump over the top temporarily to make the point certain! Staurogyne I don't tend to have issues with. There is a larger and smaller type I have and both thrive normally, just recently odd ones melting has thrown me as they had quite a solid root system when I took them out. Something must have upset them. Tomorrow I will clean the filter and do the water params too and see what they are at now. Light I will up one notch too as I have the Chihiros one with the dimmer.


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[Mick.Dk]

P.S.
Be aware, that every time you change some parametre, plants have to adjust/adapt to this. This will cause stress to some degree. It is therefore not really advisable to do several changes with short intervals. If needed, do one change and observe effect for some time. Sometimes it is more relevant to let plants finish adaptation to current parametres - assuming those are within tolerated spand.
- this is a "hunch"thing, though, that experience will make a lot less problematic..........

 

[Something Fishy]

P.S.
Be aware, that every time you change some parametre, plants have to adjust/adapt to this. This will cause stress to some degree. It is therefore not really advisable to do several changes with short intervals. If needed, do one change and observe effect for some time. Sometimes it is more relevant to let plants finish adaptation to current parametres - assuming those are within tolerated spand.
- this is a "hunch"thing, though, that experience will make a lot less problematic..........

I see what you are saying. Perhaps it was a bad idea to dim the light too if the plants started to adapt to that lumen range? Just read often recently that dimmer is alright and if you have algae it's likely too bright as to why i did that as well as the changes. I'm only running 4 hour light cycles but it's summer so daylight is also much longer!


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[Mick.Dk]

For HC (and most other plants) light-intensity and consumption of fertilisers (incl. CO2) are connected. More light will speed up growth, calling for more nutrients to build plant-mass

 

[Something Fishy]

I had read that actually and considered it could be that cheers Mick. Feasible in that case that light intensity causing new growth followed by lowering it could cause the new growth to melt? I did have success with Hc at one time but I had a pump blasting over it, could be that my filter flow isn't enough for it.

Still puzzled by the random Stauro melts though Hmm... annoying when You can't put your finger on things. Would be alright if they all melted as would make sense! Substrate is over a year old now, Amazonia, could that possibly be lacking nutrients in certain spots?


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[Mick.Dk]

Like said; too intensive light can damage leaves too, inducing algae attack on leaves stressed or beginning to die. In general high light-levels will often benefit algae, yes, but stressed or decaying leaves certainly will.

 

[Mick.Dk]

If you use liquid fertiliser, the CEC capability of Amazonia should make lacking of nutrients in "spots" unlikely. And even if - the plants take nutrients from water-column anyway......

 

[Something Fishy]

Like said; too intensive light can damage leaves too, inducing algae attack on leaves stressed or beginning to die. In general high light-levels will often benefit algae, yes, but stressed or decaying leaves certainly will.

Makes sense Mick yeah. Some Stauros are showing algae on lower leaves but then HC growing up suggests light is too low from what you said, plus that was the major change I made; the light intensity. 4 hours isn't that long is it for a cycle really is it? Not sure I can lower the light in the circumstance even though they are showing signs of algae on the leaves they are close to substrate too though and other plants are alright. I have loads of Hc I have grown emersed so maybe I should try to get that to adapt if this fails again.


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[Mick.Dk]

Leaves decaying from too less light and leaves decaying from unability to adapt to submerse is two different caurses - they will both induce algae-attack, though.
Your lower leaves are likely a third cause; old age. Any leaf has a life-time and then dies. This decaying will ofcourse also atract algae to feast on it.

 

[Something Fishy]

Cheers for all your great help Mick you're a star. Will do some tests and tweaks and report back


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[Mick.Dk]

We're all here to share and help..........
- good luck!

 

[Progen]

That light definitely can't cover the whole tank evenly. That's why I'm not keen on them. They're nice and sleek no doubt but I'd rather get two cheaper ones for better coverage.

 

[Something Fishy]

Yeah I hear you. It does seem to do a good job but as a central strip it can't be even. Damn site better than the one it shipped with though haha! I had one with two rows that was decent but I think it gives enough light for sure and my problem is with something else or that I dimmed it during HC adaption :/


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[Coys]

Are you sure you've got enough CO2 in there at 1bps? From those pictures the drop checker liquid looks more like dark green than lime green to me.