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The Root - 02/02/2016 (pics)

I have an advice for the people that will use ADA Amazonia in the future. Create your hardscape, add your Amazonia and DO NOT plant. Allow the tank to work for 2 weeks. This will help you in two ways. You don't have to make daily water changes just weekly ones since there will be no need with no plants and no lights. Also, I have experience alot of amazonia dust on the leaves and its kind of stuck on them. You will not have such a problem since the dust will have resided and removed with water changes.

Now back to the journal. I have spotted some melting of 1-2-Grow Rotala Bonsai and Monte Carlo. I am guessing that this is due to the emersed submerged transition. If this continues I will decrease the light even more since I have already decreased light intensity from 65% to 55%.

Any other suggestions for the melting of these two plants?

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UPDATE

So there is more melting...not much but it is more than before. I have also observed some algae of the plants closer to the light so I decreased light intensity from 55% to 45%.

All and all I am unsure of my light intensity. I am positive everything else is just fine except my light intensity.

The plants are either deteriorating in health due to too much light which is not helping with their transition from emersed to submerged OR the light isn't strong enough t promote good health.

The plants closer to the light have some algae on them. The lower plants e.g. staurogyne repens are doing fine but they were submerged unlike the lowest plants which is the monte carlo which was 1-2-Grow. So its a bit confusing on whether I have too much light at the moment or too little.

Any thoughts??
 
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Jaap said:
I have an advice for the people that will use ADA Amazonia in the future. Create your hardscape, add your Amazonia and DO NOT plant. Allow the tank to work for 2 weeks. This will help you in two ways. You don't have to make daily water changes just weekly ones since there will be no need with no plants and no lights. Also, I have experience alot of amazonia dust on the leaves and its kind of stuck on them. You will not have such a problem since the dust will have resided and removed with water changes.
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Jaap, I don't agree with you here. Planting should be done since day one. You're using a good soil so that plants have lots os "food" and planting some weeks later is like wasting food where there is no one to eat. Do you make dinner if you know that you'll not eat it? 🙂
And then there is the cycle... how do you help your aquarium/filter without making the necessary water changes, with or without plants?

Regarding plant melting, 1-2-grow needs fertilisation since day one - smaller plants, less nutrients on the plants when you plant them (Mick might help here). Are you fertilising your aquarium? If so, with what and how much?

Pedro.
 
I am fertilizing daily with one squish of Tropica Plant Growth Special Fertiliser.

Don't you think this is a light issue though?

Pedro Rosa said:
Jaap, I don't agree with you here. Planting should be done since day one. You're using a good soil so that plants have lots os "food" and planting some weeks later is like wasting food where there is no one to eat. Do you make dinner if you know that you'll not eat it? 🙂
And then there is the cycle... how do you help your aquarium/filter without making the necessary water changes, with or without plants?

Regarding plant melting, 1-2-grow needs fertilisation since day one - smaller plants, less nutrients on the plants when you plant them (Mick might help here). Are you fertilising your aquarium? If so, with what and how much?

Pedro.
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One squish daily for 100l? So you're giving less then Tropica says on the bottle? Plants are dying for some food. Start by something like 3 times that amount and evaluate after one week and a half or two weeks. For the first day you can give even more.

Pedro.
 
My tank is 60x40x40 which gives 96L. However with the substrate, the lower water level, the rocks and the driftwood I am guessing I have around 70 litres. The recommended dosage of Tropica is 10 pumps per 100L a week and I am dosing a pump a day which gives 7 pumps a week. Please also take into account that currently my biomass is low. Am I doing something wrong?

Also if this was a deficiency wouldn't this appear as something different apart from melting?

I still think its the light...no? 🙂

I'm just throwing ideas out there...

Pedro Rosa said:
One squish daily for 100l? So you're giving less then Tropica says on the bottle? Plants are dying for some food. Start by something like 3 times that amount and evaluate after one week and a half or two weeks. For the first day you can give even more.

Pedro.
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Good morning,

As Pedro Rosa and many other UKAPS members pointed out, I am starving my plants. So The first correctional move was to add daily 8 pumps (10 ml) of Tropica Plant Growth Specialised Fertilizer instead of 1 pump.

The second correctional action was to decrease the lights as I have mentioned previously and now lights are at 45%. The light intensity might be decreased even more if I see the melting continuing. On top of this, a good friend will donate some monte carlo so as to supplement my aquarium. The reasons behind my decision to decrease light intensity were the partial melting and the fact that I have spotted algae in a few places. You can see from the pictures bellow that leaves, rocks and wood have started to develop algae on their surface.

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Hello guys

After talking with George Farmer where he advised me to increase light intensity to 100%, I am now at 80% where a few days ago I was at 40%. I have planted some pogostemon helferi on the right and some fresh monte carlo from a friend. All of my rotala bonsai is now gone but I have a new plant at the back right side of the tank.

I have carried out a 70% water change and will do another one in a few days but this time will scrape off the algae from the rocks. I think plants look a bit better. In a week or so we will find out. Photoperiod also changed. 1 hour ramping up 5 hours full light and 1 hour ramping down.

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Thanks
 
So things are not looking so good! I have plenty of brown algae, some BBA, some green thread algae and God know s what else!

I believe things went south when I decreased light intensity in the beginning from 65% to 40%. The light is now on at 100% and 45cm from the substrate. I didn't have much growth and thus I have lowered the light closer to the substrate. I have also started to aerate the tank during the night when lights and CO2 are off.

I have now added 3 red cherry shrimp. Later on I will add more and a few Ottos hoping they will clear up some of the algae.

I believe I have everything setup correctly (circulation, fertilization, lights and CO2) but once I made the mistake of lowering light intensity and everything started to melt, algae started to grow on the suffering plants and now I am fighting to bounce back.

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Did you manage to get Otos in there? Otos will make short work of brown diatoms. Plants are not in good health too, what sorta CO2 and fertilisers are you dosing?
 
Hi there.

Yes I added Ottos a week ago and they are doing a good job.

Plants were in worse health than now but for the past couple of weeks I have managed to balance everything and now I am getting good and healthy growth. Things are better than before.

Fertilisers are EI and CO2 goes into the filter via inline diffuser.

Thanks

flygja said:
Did you manage to get Otos in there? Otos will make short work of brown diatoms. Plants are not in good health too, what sorta CO2 and fertilisers are you dosing?
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Jaap said:
I am fertilizing daily with one squish of Tropica Plant Growth Special Fertiliser
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I use it too 🙂 great stuff.. But it's a little on the heavy side, especialy for immature tanks.. As complete micro macro fertilizer it contains also nitrogene and a bit amonia. When i starter using in i noticed a bit of amonia rise (not much but still) and also some extra beard algae growth. I reduced the use off Tropica and cocktailed it with Easylife Profito 50 - 50. Profito is only Micro. 1 day a few squirts TPG the other day a few squirts of Profito. Since my little tank is fully packet with many different plant species with different needs (it's extra difficult) i still wasn't satisfied with the results. Added some HSaqua clay cones (roottabs) for some root feeders, like Nymphea, enchinodorus and crypts. And this did the trick.. Next to that it took over a half a year for the tank to start maturing and balance out, in that half year there was always something melting a bit. Using to much macros on plants in distress will actualy only distress them more, all they can't use will only burn (melt) them even more.. 😉

No matter what i tried to push down their troath, Downoi and Staurogyne R. do not want to grow in this tank. This is something that happens to many of us, time will tell, have patience, don't panic and don't think to quick "i'm in trouble) it's often a combination (and a learning curve) of which sp. go well together and stay happy with the same regime. To many (little) factors can play a role in why not so we can't say in general if it works for me it should work for you to. 🙂
 
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Things are looking good. Not in the best shape but better. One my concerns is that plants in the corners of the tank don't grow well and thus some have some BBA while other struggle to grow.

My current light fixture is at 45cm from the substrate and at 100% intensity. Now I can lower it but will this decrease the spread of the light thus making things worse?

The other choice that I have is either to change light fixture (which would be a pity considering the amount of money I invested in the controller and 1500 tile) or to add in some way my GroBeam 600.

Any suggestions?
 
AndreiD said:
What have you done that you improved plant grow except increasing the light ?
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The light and an air pump that comes on at night....but I dont think that played a major role since I had surface agitation before with my filter. The filamentous algae left by itself but it wouldnt have had if I did not treat the water with dechlorinator each water change.

The major change was light! More light!
 
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