# Desperate for Plant Advice...pretty please :o)



## Abayomi (Aug 9, 2011)

Hi There,

Our family has a beautiful 90 gallon bowfront tank. we purchased it about 4 years ago from someone on the 21st floor of an apartment. Fish... plants... everything! We moved everything including 80 % of the water as not to shock the fish or plants. It's our pride and joy!! Last summer we had to move the tank for a reno and for two weeks fish and plants went into a smaller tank (again saved water to put back in 90). Once plants and fish were put back we started having plants die... I purchased MANY plants several times over the past 9 months and all but one type seem to be dyeing off!! We are sick as our poor tank just doesn't look like it used to!!

Here is some info... We have not gotten any new fish so don't think it was the fish. We have 3 balas, 3 lemon tetra, 16 cardnal tetras, 2 angles, 3 rosbaras, 8 platties, 3 albino spinenosed pecos, 4 catfish and about 12 armano shrimp.

We have a rena xP3 filter
sera floredepot for subtrate (from germany)
Coralife 6700k lighting... it is a 4 foot light with 2 blubs that each go half way across, but are double. Not sure what they are called?
I feed with Flourish... although probably not as often as I should as i am PETRIFIED of getting algae!!!
The tank temp is 80
Water is hard... always seems to be that way!!
PH was 7.8 this evening so put some decreaser in.
Nitrate and Amonia is fine.

We had LOTS of BEAUTIFUL long plants that grow from a bulb. They helped hide the tubes... sadly we only have two left. Would LOVE to know what they are but haven't seen them anywhere!! Any ideas? The leaves are long (grow very tall and fairly fast ) and are just less than 1/2" wide. Green with a bulb.

we are desperate to get some plants growing nicely in the tank again! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Any plants that would be easier to grow? Any ideas why we werent having problems, but now are?

Thanks so much!!

Tracy


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

judging by the lack of any algae complaints, i'd say the issue is too little lighting, leading me to believe you have t8 bulbs (they are 1 inch across diameter). Do me a favour and take a measurement from the substrate surface to the bottom of the light bulbs. With this sort of information i can give you a pretty good ball park on what sort of lights you may need to upgrade to (theres cheap sources don't worry). When its a lack of lighting, normally plants slowly wither/melt into nothing, and no new growth comes to replace it, or the new growth comes no where near enough to replace whats died.

if the lights are fine, ie they worked great before, have you tried replacing the bulbs, all of them. they do lose their output with age, most people change out bulbs 10-12 months of usage


----------



## Abayomi (Aug 9, 2011)

Thanks SO MUCH for your reply...

The lighting I have is 6700K Coralife 65W Compact Flourescent 21 or 22" The 2 x bulbs are about 1 1/2 years old.

The depth from the top of the water to the top of the subtrate is 22" as well as i have about 4 to 4 1/2 inches of substrate.

Please let me know if you need any other information. I would love to have someone come out and help us solve the problem and replant the tank but have no idea who to call. Its very upsetting as we just adore the tank/fish and it is looking so bare. We do still have some plants but they are small and once one type seems to me flourishing.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The first thing I would do is try changing your bulbs. In my experience the PC bulbs go off (lose most of the spectrum) at most at a year. If you were able to grow plants in the 90 before and you can't now, I think that's the only thing that's changed. You have plenty of fauna to produce waste to feed the plants. Flourish is only a trace so I wouldn't worry too much about that, whether you dose more or less is not going to make much difference. With 2x65w you got plenty of light in there.

A number of other items:

1. How often and how much water are you changing? And has that routine changed since you moved?
2. Did you cleanse the substrate in either of the moves?
3. Have you considered putting some root tabs in the substrate?
4. I wouldn't try to adjust the pH and hardness at all as your plants will naturally uptake minerals and soften and drop the pH for you anyway.


----------



## Abayomi (Aug 9, 2011)

Thanks for your reply! I will try getting some new bulbs, although they sure seem strong and bright.
Here are some answers to your questions...

*1. How often and how much water are you changing? And has that routine changed since you moved?* I do water changes (about a 1/4 of the water) every 4 to 6 weeks or so. I know it should be more often. This is the same as I was doing before. I do add water each time I change the rena Filstar filter as I always dump what is in the canister which is quite large.

* 2. Did you cleanse the substrate in either of the moves?* Yes, i did wash the substrate (which I knew i probably should have) although I always seem to have particles floating all around the tank all the time, except in the morning when the fish have been quite. Another hobbiest told me it was the sera floredepot that was causing this. its worst when the fish have been fed as they stir up the water even more. I have been thinking of changing my substrate... not sure what to change it to and IF this would help the particles floating around. Plus if i do change it.... would probably want someone who we can pay that is experienced to come out and redo the tank with substrate and new plants. We have been considering this for some time but just have no idea who to call that is good.

* 3. Have you considered putting some root tabs in the substrate? *Yes, did this when i put the tank back together last fall. Probably should add more. The tank is so deep so its difficult to get them in. I do have some Flourish tabs as well as the liquid.

*4. I wouldn't try to adjust the pH and hardness at all as your plants will naturally uptake minerals and soften and drop the pH for you anyway.* Thanks... sounds good. I just find it odd why my tank has always been around the 7.2 rage and now always seems to be around 7.8?

Anythings else you can add would be wonderful... Thank you!!

Tracy


----------



## jcgd (Feb 4, 2011)

Try new bulbs. More water changes, more like 25-30% per week. Remove some fish starting with the bala sharks. Youre pretty overstocked. They get big and a 29 is way too small. I would consider a 120 the minimum for adult balas. 

Algae is caused by too much light which causes ferts or co2 to be the factor limiting plant growth. So you should be fertilizing.


----------



## Abayomi (Aug 9, 2011)

My tank is a 90 gallon... not sure where you thought it was a 29? 2 of my balas are small, one is about 4 inches.
I use the Flourish liquid... just only about every couple of months. i dont have algae, yet anyways. smile.

Thanks for your reply


----------



## jcgd (Feb 4, 2011)

Oh, my bad. I dunno where I got 29. 

About the flourish, if your only using it every couple months, you might as well not use it at all. You're water changes would be supplying more nutrients. Flourish is very dilute solution, and you should be using it more like 2-3 times per week. Like I said, it isnt the cause of algae. .smile.

The increase of ph is likely due to the few and far between water changes. As the water evaporates, the minerals stay behind and then you add more with top offs.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

If he does not buffer his water, than the water changes are doing nothing nutrient wise, vancouver water is normally 10-15 tds out of tap, so crap all in it. I would dose your flourish weekly, just to maintain trace elements since it helps the fish aswell as the plants.

Now that you said your Power compacts are 1.5 years, i'd put my money on them being the issue. There's a lot of arguments on how often you are supposed to to change PC bulbs, the consensus falls between 6-9 months for new bulbs. Some stretch it a year, but by that time you lost much of the output in the spectrum plants respond to. If you wish to go for the year i'd offset the bulb change out days by atleast a few months. You often times only notice the difference in light output only when you change out the bulbs for new ones, its insane how much the difference can be. On a side note. i usually keep a couple spare old bulbs for unexpected burn outs just to maintain lighting until i find the time (and take the $$$ risk) to visit a fish shop


----------



## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

Have you changed the length of the photoperiod? for how many hours are the lights on?
From the reading I gather your setup is low-tech (no active fertilizing..flourish once in a while is ok like once a week or something like that). You don't artificially provide Co2 or carbon for your plants.
You can change the bulbs but I am not so sure it is the reason of the plants dying off but I do agree that you would benefit from changing them in ways that growing conditions would be better optimized. 
Somewhere amidst the move and the re-introduction, something has gone imbalanced.. for the given light energy provided to the plants there should be x amounts of nutrients and x amounts of carbon source..whether you provide that naturally or artificially.
Without knowing the full details of your setup and the types of plants you have, it's difficult to troubleshoot. Maybe backtrack and find out what changes may have occured since the beginning.
It could be the substrate has been used up and doesn't contain enough nutrients anymore or there is not enough carbon. provide circulation and good oxygenation to introduce available carbon to your plants.


----------

