Hello From West Sussex

[DoubleL]

Hi everyone,

Been a while since I owned an aquarium. Last time I had a tank I was in my early teens & now i'm old.

Decided to re-immerse myself into the hobby earlier this year. My initial plan was to try to create my tank of my younger years. Then some youtube videos later I realised the hobby has taken leaps & bounds over what I remembered. I've since tried my hand at a 240L high tech set up, which has so far been way harder to get working than I thought. I'm about 4 weeks in now & I've had plant death after plant death. I thought I had everything down, but there is something, or lots of things wrong that I can't figure out.

Hopefully by browsing your forum I can get it working!

Looking forward to seeing all your creations & chatting.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Welcome 🙂

 

[sparkyweasel]

Welcome!

 

[The grumpy one]

Welcome
Any pics?

 

[strayllama]

Hi,
I am new to this also, but if you are only 4 weeks in I wonder if your plant death is just the newly added plants removing their “in air” leaves to then regrow their “under water” leaves. (Made these terms up just then)

Only a thought, because while getting my plants recently I was advised some will look like they are failing at first - do not remove - as they just die back at first because the are all cultivated in shallow water with leaves growing in to air.

Just a thought.

 

[DoubleL]

Welcome
Any pics?

 

[DoubleL]

Welcome
Any pics?

A bunch of the cultures died a few days after planting. All the guyuna's turned to mush first, followed by a lot of the rotalas (a few survived & have grown several inches). Also the grasses melted away.

4 weeks in & In general most of the plants are not looking in top form. A lot of leaves that looked healthy are melting, or showing dark spots or discolouration. Even the ferns which were on the bogwood, which were doing well, have started to turn black from the centre. About the only thing starting to grow consistently is the algae!

Here's my set up & what I have done:
Jewel 240 L
Jewel HeliaLux Spectrum 1200 60 Watt - Running 6 hours at 75%
CO2 with Inline Diffuser - Running 3 hours before lights at 4 bubbles per second. Drop checker a nice green
Fluval 407 with spray bar
Eheim Surface Skimmer
Substrate Lower layer of akadema with a top layer of fluval stratum
Temperature 23c

First 2 weeks I did 75% water changes daily
Last 2 weeks I've done 3 50% water changes a week
I use 2hr Aquarist APT 3 Complete daily
I use seachem prime & stability for water changes

Water from the tap is moderately soft.

----------------------------------------
I've been reading the forum trying to see where I've gone wrong. I think the first thing was I was likely a bit too heavy handed with the cultures. I ripped them apart rather than being delicate or using scissors. Probably killed a few that way.

I'm concerned maybe my substrate isn't good enough. But that doesn't explain why even the plants not planted in it at are also suffering.

Any ideas?

 

[DoubleL]

Hi,
I am new to this also, but if you are only 4 weeks in I wonder if your plant death is just the newly added plants removing their “in air” leaves to then regrow their “under water” leaves. (Made these terms up just then)

Only a thought, because while getting my plants recently I was advised some will look like they are failing at first - do not remove - as they just die back at first because the are all cultivated in shallow water with leaves growing in to air.

Just a thought.

I think a few maybe melting that could come back, the cryptocornes are possibly in that camp.

The cultures on the other hand seemed to be absolute mush even to the roots

 

[DoubleL]

Here are the reports from the water company on the tap water

 

[FrozenShivers]

Welcome