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Issues with hi-tech tank

J

Jason2191

New Member
Joined
14 Mar 2024
Messages
10
Location
Barnsley
Hi all, I started this hobby around 3 years ago so I’ve been lurking around this forum for a while now and the information I’ve picked up has been a massive help in my last few tanks, up until now I’ve never really had any real issues were I’ve not found a solution just by reading the comments on this forum.

I recently decided to rescape my 125l tank and upgrade the stock lighting to a Chihiros wrgb2, by doing this I thought I’d make things a lot easier but I’ve had nothing but problems with this tank since setup, tanks around 3 months old now
To begin with the first 2-3 weeks everything was going as planned until I noticed small clumps of melt appearing in Monte Carlo and hairgrass carpets this eventually spread around the whole tank and everything other than hardy stem species had totally deteriorated after around 5-6 weeks, I put this down to ammonia spikes from the tropica soil powder I used. I am using an established oase biomaster 250 from my old tank so I thought the ammonia wouldn’t have been an issue to begin with but I was mistaken as the readings were high for a good 2-3 weeks.
So after the good start and the chaos what followed I decided to wait until ammonia levels had bottomed out and replant everything I’d lost and try again, almost immediately after planting I was having issues all around the tank again. Lower leaves falling off stem plants, brown edging on leaves(not diatoms) stunted leggy growth on most plants, now I’ve tried a few minor tweaks here and there but I’m reluctant to make any major changes without knowing the issue as I could end up doing more harm than good.
I have suspected co2/flow problem but I’m using inline diffusion with a filter flow of 900lph plus a power head at 1800lph located at opposite side of tank so as to create a constant circle motion of flow around the tank, also use a eheim skim as well adding another 600lph of flow, drop checker lime green.

I originally started using APT 1 for the first couple of months but I changed this last week to APT EI as I suspected the zero nitrates in APT 1 and the fact I had very few fish in at this point probably wasn’t helping.

This leaves me to think could it be a lighting issue? As I mentioned earlier I have a Chihiros wrgb2, now I know this is a seriously powerful light at full power but I’ve only been running it between 30%-40% and the tank does look quite dim compared to my old light. I have no algae issues other than a little spot algae on a few rocks so it can’t be too much light I’m using can it? I’m really confused with this light as I’m really not sure if I’m using too much/little light

List of plants:
Limnophila aromatica
Ludwigia palustris
Hygrophila Rosanervig
Alternanthera ‘mini’
Rotala indica bonsai
Cyprus helferi
Buchephalandra (from old tank, completely fell to bits)
Anubias
S repens
Crypt wendtii green
Helanthium tenellum green
The only plant I’ve had no issues at all with from the start is the Helanthium tenellum
I will upload some photos. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks
 

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Jason2191 said:
I originally started using APT 1 for the first couple of months but I changed this last week to APT EI as I suspected the zero nitrates in APT 1 and the fact I had very few fish in at this point probably wasn’t helping.
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HI,
I would give it a few more weeks of using your complete fert first and note the results before making any other changes as you appear to have everything else covered. Are you doing plenty of water changes?
 
Hi bazz, thank you for your reply. ok I will try that I have around half a bottle left so I’ll finish that and see how things are then. Yes I do 50% once a week and give the substrate a good clean as well. What are you thoughts with regards to the lighting? I’ve read somewhere on this forum before about lower leaves falling off can be caused by lack of light? But I just can’t see how that would be possible with the Chihiros wrgb2 light I have, unless having it at 30%-40% isn’t cutting it and maybe it needs increasing? I’m just a little cautious when it comes to high lighting after reading about what it can do if all other factors are not perfect and I’m worried if I did increase it I could be opening up a can of worms
 
Here’s a photo comparison between January and now, a few plants what didn’t make it I’ve swapped out but the Monte Carlo still remains as you can but barely, and I’ve replanted an extra two pots which have also gone the same as the first batch
 

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A couple of ways CO2 aquariums are set up these days, the dark start so ammonia is minimal at planting or waterchange 50% for the first week ,then a week 50% every other day and so on till after around week three or four waterchange once a week. If, ADA comes to mind,you use a rich substrate liquid fertilisation may not be needed at all initially
 
Jason2191 said:
Hi bazz, thank you for your reply. ok I will try that I have around half a bottle left so I’ll finish that and see how things are then. Yes I do 50% once a week and give the substrate a good clean as well. What are you thoughts with regards to the lighting? I’ve read somewhere on this forum before about lower leaves falling off can be caused by lack of light? But I just can’t see how that would be possible with the Chihiros wrgb2 light I have, unless having it at 30%-40% isn’t cutting it and maybe it needs increasing? I’m just a little cautious when it comes to high lighting after reading about what it can do if all other factors are not perfect and I’m worried if I did increase it I could be opening up a can of worms
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Yes, one week is not enough time for everything to get back on track even if just one element has been missing so give it at least a couple more weeks and look out for any improvement.
Your tank appears from the photos to be bright enough but if you think it's dim try increasing the intensity by 1%/week up to about 50% and see where it goes from there.
I personally think you are still experiencing the minor problems of starting up a new tank and with a little time and stability it will all come together as you appear to be doing everything correctly. I lost a few species at start-up while others thrived and now think I could practically grow anything in my substrate/environment.
Jason2191 said:
Here’s a photo comparison between January and now, a few plants what didn’t make it I’ve swapped out but the Monte Carlo still remains as you can but barely, and I’ve replanted an extra two pots which have also gone the same as the first batch
Click to expand...
Plants do not always immediately appreciate large changes in their environment and take a while to adapt/settle especially those little carpet plants which are usually partially buried in the substrate, even more so if the substrate is relatively new and still leaching ammonia.
For now I personally would either temporarily or permanently plant a couple of bunches of Limnophila Sessiflora to help get the biorhythmic processes stabilized and and leave the more finicky plants for a couple of months. Of course it can be done but not without meticulous maintenance and hard work.
Have you by any chance been using tissue culture plants?
 
Hi Paraguay, yes I read up about the dark start method a few weeks after I’d set the tank up already, in hindsight if I was to restart again I would definitely try this. Yes I think there is different views when it comes to liquid fertilisation, ADA approach been one but I’ve tried following 2hr aquarists Dennis Wongs approach of dosing fertiliser from day 1 and root tabs combined with large water changes
 
bazz said:
Have you by any chance been using tissue culture
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Yes, all the ones what have been thrown out have been tissue culture, only the Helanthium tenellum has done well from the beginning, the puzzling thing is I’ve used tissue culture plants in other tanks before and had good results from them, granted weaker light though
bazz said:
For now I personally would either temporarily or permanently plant a couple of bunches of Limnophila Sessiflora to help get the biorhythmic processes stabilized
Click to expand...
Yes, I planted a bunch of hygrophila polysperma rosanervig a few weeks ago in a void left from melted dwarf hairgrass for this reason, was meant to be temporary but I actually like the plant so may keep it 😀
 
Jason2191 said:
Yes, all the ones what have been thrown out have been tissue culture, only the Helanthium tenellum has done well from the beginning, the puzzling thing is I’ve used tissue culture plants in other tanks before and had good results from them, granted weaker light though

Yes, I planted a bunch of hygrophila polysperma rosanervig a few weeks ago in a void left from melted dwarf hairgrass for this reason, was meant to be temporary but I actually like the plant so may keep it 😀
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A lot of people struggle to get certain species of TC plants growing including myself. They can be a bit hit and miss.
 
Plus one on this. Despite a long dark start of 10 weeks, my tissue culture plants still melted in high energy tank. Seems a gamble.
 
I am a REALLY new person to planted tanks, so my view certainly does not come from any experience. But I have found that potted variety tends to work and the tissue culture seems to do very badly - even the hardy/easy ones.

Perhaps there is some trick that is needed to get them to take and stick?
 
Perhaps someone who grows carpets could advise better than me, but ,only as l understand it, when taking tissue culture out of their world in which they are looked after they are healthy but delicate and ,require feeding from day one ,they also have delicate root structures ,so ammonia rich substrates are harmful and the soil itself needs to be fine and delicate eg tropica soil powder and then all the other obvious things lighting, CO2 etc
 
bazz said:
Jason2191 said:
Yes, all the ones what have been thrown out have been tissue culture, only the Helanthium tenellum has done well from the beginning, the puzzling thing is I’ve used tissue culture plants in other tanks before and had good results from them, granted weaker light though
Click to expand...

A lot of people struggle to get certain species of TC plants growing including myself. They can be a bit hit and miss.
Click to expand...
I watched the George Farmer video from their headquarters last night about the update of Tropica's display Aquaria for the Interzoo exhibition



and was surprised to learn of the amount that even they have trouble with of which I think all were TC.
 
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dw1305 said:
Hi all,

Fair play to @George Farmer and <"Tropica">, it is an interesting "warts and all" video. I see that we <"share the same opinion"> about <"variegated plants"> like "Anubias barteri "Pinto""

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

I watched that video last night, I'm glad that they show the issues they go through. Makes me feel a bit more human if a pro with a specialist company that specialises in propagating plants for the aquarium hobby also have issues with plants from time to time :D
 
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