Unhappy plants

[David marsh]

Hi All sorry about the long question i just want to get every thing in.

I hope someone can help my plants seem to stop growing a few month ago leaves also dropping off, now in the last couple of weeks i have had an explosion of what i think is black beard algae. The fish seem happy as we have had two baby peppered corys and three baby Mollys. the only change was i swapped to an Oase Biomaster Thermo 250 about 5 moths ago. I have tried different plant feeds and also added a Tropica Plant Growth System 60 with no difference . Also what look like roots growing half way up stems.

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Tank is a Fluval Roma 125
PH - 7.1 / 7.2
Nitrite & Ammonia - 0
Nitrates never go above 15
temperature 23.5 C
water change approx 35% one a week
no soil just gravel but put root tabs as instructed on box

 

[X3NiTH]

With just a gravel substrate adding root tabs mean that they will break down far quicker and release more uncontrolled amounts of fertilisation than if they were contained within a finer aquatic soil that had some Cation/Anion exchange as they hold onto nutrients longer term, you may be bottoming out on some micro elements likely Iron to the sufferage of the plants and benefit of BBA, dosing a complete liquid feed gives you far more control over having the correct amount of fertilisation present at any given time.

 

[David marsh]

Thanks for that i was thinking of putting some soil in bags under the gravel, what soil would you recommend if this is a good idea.

 

[John q]

You'll get loads of help here but we need a few more details to target that help.
A full tank shot would be useful and details of your light is important. Ie make of light, duration and intensity.

Cheers.

 

[David marsh]

Hi John q

My light came with the tank setup, it is on from 1.30pm till 10.00pm red, green & blue 100% and white only 50% as this is in our front room and a little too distracting on 100% white.

 

[X3NiTH]

At a minimum any standard pond soil would do but if you are looking at something like Tropica then I like their Plant Soil Powder as a base layer followed by the prilled Plant Soil on top of which there are many equivalents such as Fluval Stratum, Colombo Florabase Pro, JBL Plant Soil etc, I especially like the JBL Soil because the grains are way denser and hold newly planted roots firmer than say Fluval Stratum which is very light to plant in. Using Tropica Plant Soil Powder in a mesh bag will be nearly impossible and you’ll cloud the aquarium considerably, all the others can be enclosed in mesh bags (pond soil may be somewhat like the Tropica Powder but may be more forgiving, this part you need to experiment).

If it were me I would take the opportunity to do a complete rescape to get a centimetre or so of powder soil base down then a few centimetres of plant substrate on top, your going to be majorly disturbing the current substrate, plant roots and large amounts of organic detritus (it will fuel BBA growth), if you don’t want to scape the entire aquarium with soil then you can use pond planters (I cut them down to only a few centimetres so easier to hide) to contain your soils and plant into them so if you can have other types of substrate in the tank if you want like sand for the Corys, you just got to get good at disguising the planters if you hate the aesthetic.

 

[John q]

@X3NiTH are we reading the same thread?

All sorry about the long question i just want to get every thing in

If it were me I would take the opportunity to do a complete rescape

Utter nonsense , reduce the light intensity, I'll even give figure's. Red 50% green 40% blue 34% and white 34%. Your problems are light related. Dose a decent, adequate amount of fertiliser and all will be well. Adding a raised sand bank, adding richer substrate, singing God save the Queen won't help.... just my thoughts.

 

[Ajm200]

If you go down the soil route there’s an article on here showing how to go about it. I’m sure someone will link for you. Make sure you cap the soil well with gravel or you’ll still have nutrient problems causing algae

 

[X3NiTH]

@X3NiTH are we reading the same thread?

We sure are!

plants seem to stop growing a few month ago leaves also dropping off, now in the last couple of weeks i have had an explosion of what i think is black beard algae

Symptoms of poor or erratic nutrition over time and recurring plant tissue degradation and loss contributing to dissolved organic matter in the water column.

The light unit that comes with Roma is not really that bright it’s a single bank of LEDs and nothing like the dedicated Fluval plant grow light strip which has three banks of LEDs. Cutting light level isn’t going to help to rid the tank of BBA it’s happily growing with whatever nutrients there are in the water column and would be just as happy in lower light whereas the plants are not getting consistent enough nutrition and struggling.

Also what look like roots growing half way up stems.

Whilst this is generally normal behaviour the Plants are actively reaching for nutrition further up the water column than what’s available from the substrate.

 

[John q]

Lol I'm going to agree to disagree with you on this one mate; because, I think you are one of the good guys.
Night night .

 

[erwin123]

X3Nith has mentioned the issue about root tabs and gravel. I have read that it is bad to put root tabs into gravel because the gravel has low CEC so all the nutrients (including ammonia) from the tabs are dumped into the water column in the first few weeks?