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Need urgent help my dwarf hair grass is dying (turning brown)

Couple of suggestions for you.

1. The tank looks a little dirty in general so perhaps it’s a water quality issue.
Get a plastic card (or whatever) and clean the glass then use a toothbrush (or whatever) and clean up the hardscape. Lastly do a big water change to remove all the debris you loosened into the water column. You may need to do this a few times. New aquascape style tanks need to be kept very clean. Your co2, high lighting and aqua soil is like pressing the accelerator down so everything is faster hence more maintenance needed.

2. I noticed your posts about changing filtration and flow. Changes almost always put stress on plants* so it’s expected for them to struggle while they try and re programme their leaves to the new environment. Just follow point 1 about maintenance and things should be fine.

*I just changed my outflow nozzle last weekend and a few of my buce dropped a couple of leaves. I know they will grow back, it’s the price of changing pretty much anything in the tank.
 
The roots look to be good, so hopefully it's just some initial melt and they will get back to full health in the near future.

I lost all of my Tenellam Green (6 pots) on a new scape and I know that's generally thought of an easy plant. I suspect it was the initial ammonia spike from the Tropica soil, that it didn't like.
 
Yes they established their roots well during DSM stage. The hardscape is dirty because the driftwood always has this bio slug wood snot at the initial stage.
 
I think you are first of all experiencing the transition from emersed to submerged growth.

However, inadequate lighting, perhaps an iron shortage and over acidic conditions may also be part of the phenomenon.

If you are using glutaraldehyde (so-called liquid CO2) the water may be quite unbalanced. I never use pool disinfectant in my tanks.

With a commercial soil substrate there will be enough Nitrate and Phosphate available for many weeks if not months.

I would test your KH and pH before and some hours after a big water change and make sure you are using the appropriate amount of CO2 for the KH of your water, and stop all other chemical and nutrient additions. It is ill advised to take a mix of human vitamin supplements if on prescribed medication, a chemical mix rarely does anything, plant or human, any good. Not easy, but try to change one thing at a time, and wait for days if not weeks before changing something else.
 
Thank you for the advice.

They were submerged for past 2 weeks and were still growing, I noticed those grass drying recently. Yes I gave those plants time to adjust after flooding. First week I kept CO2 and lights on for more than 12 hours and gradually decreased the photo period to 8 hours. So I don't think the lightening is inadequate. I use smart switch for CO2 and lights. These switches can be controlled using my smartphone and I have set scheduler. At 12:30 PM CO2 injector turns on automatically, at 13:30 the lights automatically turns on, at 20:30 CO2 turns off and the lights turns off at 21:30.

Yes I am on budget light which has fix brightness, color and height. I think that light is too bright that might have caused algae issues.

Right now I am not in a position to spend $$ on premium Chirios WRGB 2 lights. But next month when I get my paycheck I will replace the lights and set the brightness to 40% to deal with algae issue.

I used glutaraldehyde in very small quantity to suppress algae. not for CO2. I am not using any chemicals, glutaraldehyde was something sold to me by fish owner with fertilizer, micro nutrients macro nutrients, and bacteria

1736613842292.png

But now I that I have live stock I will not use it any more. I use RO water in all my aquariums so I presume the water is soft.
 
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Ok I tested the water and found that ammonia was bit on higher side between 0.25 - 0.50, and I think the reason ammonia level went up was because I changed the filter 24 hours ago. Now I have a brand new filter which isn't cycled. So I changed 50% water and I will change water again in next 24 hours.
 
maverick786us said:
Right now I am not in a position to spend $$ on premium Chirios WRGB 2 lights. But next month when I get my paycheck I will replace the lights and set the brightness to 40% to deal with algae issue.
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In my opinion, you should rather invest in understanding the biological processes in an aquarium. Technology alone does not make biology. If I had a well-functioning aquarium, it would be easy to get another tank up and running on this basis. But you need a bit of time in any case. Too many new plants switching to submersed grow can bring down any new tank.
 
Teleos said:
In my opinion, you should rather invest in understanding the biological processes in an aquarium. Technology alone does not make biology. If I had a well-functioning aquarium, it would be easy to get another tank up and running on this basis. But you need a bit of time in any case. Too many new plants switching to submersed grow can bring down any new tank.
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Thank you

I didn't plant anything new after flooding, except Glossostigma, Anubias, Java Fern and duckweed which I planted a couple of days after flooding. All the grass, background plants and mosses that you see in the picture were there before flooding. I flooded the tank 2 weeks ago, I thought those plants would have adjusted themselves within a week. I saw those grasses turning brown now, which made me think that there was something wrong and one possibility was diatom out break caused from bright light, whose brightness cannot be adjusted.
 
maverick786us said:
... I thought those plants would have adjusted themselves within a week. I saw those grasses turning brown now, which made me think that there was something wrong and one possibility was diatom out break caused from bright light, whose brightness cannot be adjusted.
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Hello @maverick786us
in real life diatoms grow under any light. Even very low light is sufficient for diatoms to thrive. It is therefore not a good idea to reduce the light because of the diatoms. The diatoms are there because there is no biofilm. As soon as a biofilm has formed, the diatoms disappear by themselves. Every water change influences the formation of a biofilm. Too many and too large water changes slow down the formation of biofilm. The biofilm is on all surfaces. Also on the plants. A healthy biofilm prevents the growth of diatoms and algae! But it takes a certain amount of time for this to build up. 3 to 4 weeks is not enough.
You will get completely different advice from aquascapers. But this does not necessarily have to include any biology. Understanding biology is the key to algae-free, problem-free aquariums.
But it can be a long way to get there. I myself have been reading scientific reports in almost all areas that have something to do with water for over 5 years. And I can tell you that there is no end in sight.
 
Hey, good looking scape and fairly easy to get back on track in my mind.
Im pretty sure what you are seeing is as @Connswater stated , the transition from emmersed to immersed growth. Generally every leaf that was emersed will eventually die and new immersed growth will appear.
I yet to be sold on any benefit of dry starts apart from the interest and experience of growing aquatic plants above water. As soon as you flood, you start a process that creates a lot of die back and as such invites algae issues.

My general experience and that of many is that when you first fill a planted tank, large significant water changes are a must. 50% daily first week, then every other day for a week, then every 3 days for a week or two then you can probably settle into weekly changes. I believe this is even more critical when dry starting due to the extra die back.
Your tank during those first weeks should be shining and any dead, dieing or damaged leaved removed as soon as you see them.

I can't see you mention any livestock yet so don't be shy with the co2, you can be a bit heavy handed and then wind it back for stocking if needed, this will also save tweaking too much, which should be avoided. (The snails you mention won't care about high co2, I'd be sucking them out at water change anyway before they establish!)

Don't buy a new light, wait and see how you go in 8 weeks, probably isn't necessary. Of course, if you want a shiny new WRGB then fill ya boots 😜 generally 6 hours is plenty and makes life easier when you are establishing a tank, 8 is the end goal once settled and grown in a bit.

You will get a lot more die off from all the plants, get scrubbing, be consistent and it will turn around. 👍
 
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maverick786us said:
RO water
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That may be an issue, RO water is just water without any 'salts', just aim for a sensible KH, sensible pH, sensible Nitrate and Phosphate level, adequate CO2 and good light and mother nature will work her magic. Good luck, many of us have lovely planted tanks with very little intervention, I use ordinary flood lights, tap water and rain water and garden centre fertiliser, with some CO2 but always dirty mature filters, always dirty mature filters, the more brown gunk the better. Bacteria are our friends when it comes to a fish tank. I never need to cycle a tank, the filter is full of aerobic bacteria from day one.
 
The reason I use RO water.
1. its soft water
2. it has low PH
I believe these 2 factors are very important for plants and live stocks
 
Fertilizer, micro nutrients, macro nutrients, twice a week. I have dechlorinator if I use water softener with tap water, will it be better?
 
maverick786us said:
Fertilizer, micro nutrients, macro nutrients, twice a week.
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What are you adding?
maverick786us said:
I have dechlorinator if I use water softener with tap water, will it be better
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Do not use water that has been through a water softener. Because of the ion exchange, the water will be high in sodium which is not good for plants or fish. As @Teleos said, mix RO with straight tap water to partially remineralise it, and add your dechlorinator.
 
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