Melting Plants

[Ömer Karaahmet]

Hi guys,

About a month ago I set up a 60P aquarium. I added Dennerle Bacterial Culture so that the filter bacteria mature immediately. I do 50% water changes every day for the first week, every other day for the second week, twice a week for the third week, and now once a week. As a liquid fertilizer, I dose 3ml with ADA Minerals and Bright K every day. I have been dosing with Seachem Flourish Excel in addition to liquid fertilizer for about 3 days (approximately 6-7ml per day). I use pressurized CO2 and mostly Drop Checker is light green. I did not have much algae problems and from the 3rd week I added Amano shrimps and Ottocinclus. The lighting time was 6 hours a day for the first three weeks and now it's 7 hours a day. As seen in the photos I have uploaded, especially Eleocharis sp. mini , Marsilea Hirsuta and Hygrophila pinnatifida are also melting. There have been meltdowns before and I removed the melted ones and threw them away. What could be the cause of these plants melting and how can I deal with it. Since the weather is getting warmer, I removed the heater and generally the aquarium water temperature is 23 degrees Celsius (+-1). Two of my Amano shrimp jumped out of the aquarium. I thought they jumped out because they were hungry because there wasn't much algae and I bought Tetra Bottom Tablets for food. Why do you think they jump out of the water?

Thanks in advance for all the replies.

 

[Wookii]

The tank looks great for a month in!

With regards to the plants, neither of your fertilizers contain phosphorus or nitrogen - both are essential macro nutrients. It could be that the soil leached enough of those nutrients into the water column in the first few weeks to keep the plants going, but now after a month of plant uptake, combined with significant water changes, there might be insufficient remaining in the water column. It also appears that it is those plants that don't have direct access to soil that seem to be struggling. I suggest you switch to an all in one fertilizer - APT EI might be available in Germany.

How are you monitoring CO2 levels, as I don't see a drop checker in your tank? It could be you need to review CO2 levels and distribution as your plant mass has increased.

With regards to the shrimp, Amano's have a habit of attempting to escape sometimes for no good reason, but again, knowing your CO2 levels would help rule that out as being a cause.

 

[Ömer Karaahmet]

The tank looks great for a month in!

With regards to the plants, neither of your fertilizers contain phosphorus or nitrogen - both are essential macro nutrients. It could be that the soil leached enough of those nutrients into the water column in the first few weeks to keep the plants going, but now after a month of plant uptake, combined with significant water changes, there might be insufficient remaining in the water column. It also appears that it is those plants that don't have direct access to soil that seem to be struggling. I suggest you switch to an all in one fertilizer - APT EI might be available in Germany.

How are you monitoring CO2 levels, as I don't see a drop checker in your tank? It could be you need to review CO2 levels and distribution as your plant mass has increased.

With regards to the shrimp, Amano's have a habit of attempting to escape sometimes for no good reason, but again, knowing your CO2 levels would help rule that out as being a cause.

Hi again,

First of all, thank you very much for your nice words and reply. Drop Checker is in the back and hardly visible. But 2.5 hours before the lights are turned on, Co2 is given to the aquarium with an inline diffuser and the co2 level is appropriate when the lights are turned on.


I wanted to use lean type fertilization because I learned that more beautiful red colors are obtained. That's why I use ADA liquid fertilizers. Would it work if I used ADA Nitrogen instead of the APT to fix the problem?

 

[Wookii]

I wanted to use lean type fertilization because I learned that more beautiful red colors are obtained. That's why I use ADA liquid fertilizers. Would it work if I used ADA Nitrogen instead of the APT to fix the problem?

Dosing lean is fine, but you need to dose something of those nutrients otherwise you risk the water column being completely devoid of them, and at the minute you are dosing none. You can use any ferts you like, though with pre-made ferts you will be paying for largely expensive water - ADA being the most expensive water of all. You can still lean dose with the APT EI mix (EI in the name doesn't mean it has to be used on an EI basis), just dose a percentage of the recommend amount, and then it will last even longer.

ADA don't to a phosphate based fertilizer as far as I am aware, and presumably rely in livestock feeding to provide a very low level of phosphate.

The other thing is there is also the possibility that the issue on some of the plants, particularly the Hygrophila Pinnatifida, could be a CO2 deficiency, and/or a reaction to the Excel - it is a fickle plant sometimes ,and will drop leaves willingly. For the former, check you are getting some leaf movement down where that plant is to ensure sufficient distribution, and try placing your drop checker in the bottom front right hand corner of the tank to ensure the drop checker colour is the same. For the latter, I personally wouldn't recommend dosing Excel unless you have a specific algae issue to treat, and even then I would spot dose when needed, rather dose tank wide.

 

[Ömer Karaahmet]

Dosing lean is fine, but you need to dose something of those nutrients otherwise you risk the water column being completely devoid of them, and at the minute you are dosing none. You can use any ferts you like, though with pre-made ferts you will be paying for largely expensive water - ADA being the most expensive water of all. You can still lean dose with the APT EI mix (EI in the name doesn't mean it has to be used on an EI basis), just dose a percentage of the recommend amount, and then it will last even longer.

ADA don't to a phosphate based fertilizer as far as I am aware, and presumably rely in livestock feeding to provide a very low level of phosphate.

The other thing is there is also the possibility that the issue on some of the plants, particularly the Hygrophila Pinnatifida, could be a CO2 deficiency, and/or a reaction to the Excel - it is a fickle plant sometimes ,and will drop leaves willingly. For the former, check you are getting some leaf movement down where that plant is to ensure sufficient distribution, and try placing your drop checker in the bottom front right hand corner of the tank to ensure the drop checker colour is the same. For the latter, I personally wouldn't recommend dosing Excel unless you have a specific algae issue to treat, and even then I would spot dose when needed, rather dose tank wide.

Thank you very much for your valuable information and comments. But the interesting thing is that; only one of the two plants next to each other is melting and the other is wonderful. I put two sample photos, you can see it there.



Therefore, it seems unlikely that Co2 will reach one and not the other. I also think that there is enough water current in the aquarium because almost all the leaves are waving. There aren't many fish in it right now, I'll add the fish and see what's going on. Should I also add ADA Iron and Nitrogen. I can't decide on this. Because normally I have to add iron after the second month. Fertilizing can be really confusing.😧