dontdeletethreadz
New Member
so i have had a 30 gallon planted tank setup since august. the substrate was originally all UNS xs controsoil with a sand path. I had it on the lowest light setting out of 9 and started dosing 1/3 EI low light towards the end because my plants were dying. i had some BBA but used hydrogen peroxide and liquid co2 and never let it get out of control. I concluded that although there are so many good reviews there is probably something wrong with that aquasoil. so i decided to redo my tank only because my boyfriends 10 gal dirted tank had been doing better than mine and he set it up a while after me. so i redid the tank doing a dirted tank with a sand cap and a container inside that had aquasoil to try again because this is supposed to be a farm tank. I left all the plants i had in the old setup in a tub for like a week while redoing the tank and unfortunately some melted and died. Now i have had this redone tank setup since beginning of November as a high tech tank. i put about 4 homemade root tabs in spread out. dosing dry ferts 1/3 EI because of plant mass. i turned my light up to the 3rd setting out of 9 and have had co2 running with a ceramic diffuser. My plants are not doing well, they are all deficient and/or melting and not growing so i turned my light back down. But my co2 up. It was a 0.6 pH drop with 4 dkh, now it is a 0.8 drop at 3dkh. I probably shouldn't have increased co2 while i was deficient in potentially multiple nutes. There is brown algae on the substrate surface. The new growth has wholes in it, also some of the growth is curled down. I am aware of csmb having edta. My ph is 7.2 offgassed and is like 6.4 at peak co2. does it matter the kh or do you always go for a 1 ph drop? could any of this be caused by iron deficiency or csmb issues? i dont know what to do. i just want everything to thrive but it is all doing the opposite. I didnt immediately take out all dying plants but ammonia never spiked. my carpet of baby tears slowly died from the bottom after it was looking okay for a bit. i developed brown string algae after i turned up the light so i turned it back down to the lowest setting. im still dealing with it all over. i have a JC&P aquarium light and an eheim cannister filter.
first setup
freshly redone
plants in sand doing okay before everything melted
plants same day as above. after about a day of looking like this they would just completely melt and whisp away to nothing.
this was shortly after melting started occuring mainly with the alternanthera reneikii mini and rosanervig tissue cultures along with the crypt axelrodi, and some of the yujii tissue cultures.
my stem plants that were from previous setup that died a little while redoing this one havent been doing the best either. the hygrophilas and ludwgia repens are hardly growing and they are a bit light colored. the old leaves are just developing a bit of algae, yellowing and/or the tips and holes are melting.
none of my plants are really growing besides one of my mystery crypts. which is odd considering im dosing and have co2 running. i would think everything would at least be doing better than it previously was.
heres pic of brown string algae and white string algae like stuff? oh yeah and u can see my carpet is dying. it was doing okay and looked decent for a bit when i put it in. then just slowly started fading and developing BSA.
my second time having erio in aquasoil and killing it. it even lived in my lfs tanks and they arent dosing and dont have co2.
this is the anubias changing colors.. its only been in my tank for like 2 weeks. this is about the most recent thing happening in my tank besides the erio dying.
i appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this.
first setup
freshly redone
plants in sand doing okay before everything melted
plants same day as above. after about a day of looking like this they would just completely melt and whisp away to nothing.
this was shortly after melting started occuring mainly with the alternanthera reneikii mini and rosanervig tissue cultures along with the crypt axelrodi, and some of the yujii tissue cultures.
my stem plants that were from previous setup that died a little while redoing this one havent been doing the best either. the hygrophilas and ludwgia repens are hardly growing and they are a bit light colored. the old leaves are just developing a bit of algae, yellowing and/or the tips and holes are melting.
none of my plants are really growing besides one of my mystery crypts. which is odd considering im dosing and have co2 running. i would think everything would at least be doing better than it previously was.
heres pic of brown string algae and white string algae like stuff? oh yeah and u can see my carpet is dying. it was doing okay and looked decent for a bit when i put it in. then just slowly started fading and developing BSA.
my second time having erio in aquasoil and killing it. it even lived in my lfs tanks and they arent dosing and dont have co2.
this is the anubias changing colors.. its only been in my tank for like 2 weeks. this is about the most recent thing happening in my tank besides the erio dying.
i appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this.
