# Plants melting (PMDD dose)



## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Hi all,

I am very new to planted tank. I have just started Fluval Ebi Shrimp 8g planted tank with 2 stock lights almost 2 months ago. I also have DIY CO2 up and runnning. The plants just added a week ago. I am dosing PMDD as per the stated instruction adding 4 drops daily. Don't get me wrong on the title as the plants aren't melting because of PMDD dosing. Only some of the plants are melting before I dose PMDD. I am not sure if it is because of the transition of the plant in the new water or I didn't dose enough fertilizer. I heard PMDD is lack of PO4. I also heard the plants melting may because of the lack of Fe. Some of my friends told me to add more fertilizer. Do I need to buy extra fertilizer like Flourish and Iron? I have no clue what is going on.

Would any of you pointing me a direction to build a good planted tank, please? This is my first planted tank. Here are some photos of the melting plants FYI.

















(Not sure how to rotate the pictures in here)

Thanks in advance.

~bbqwing~


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

I think the biggest thing you can do to help your plants grow right now is to make sure you have enough water hardness, at least 4-8 gH. I recommend before getting flourish, iron, etc., to get Seachem equilibrium and use that to achieve 4-8 gH. On top of making your water harder it contains a ton of other nutrients as per the label (lots of potassium! K2O?).


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for your input. I will give equilibrium a try.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

bbqwing said:


> Thanks for your input. I will give equilibrium a try.


Just a word of caution, if you fertilize a lot you have to make sure you do water changes diligently or else certain nutrients build up and that can cause problems. Don't forget to test the gH so you know you're using an appropriate amount!


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks a lot.. I appreciate it.

I just did a water test. 
Tds 127
Ph 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate ~40-60
Gh 2-3

Is Nitrate a bit too high? I think I dosed too much yesterday. That means I need water change?


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

bbqwing said:


> Thanks a lot.. I appreciate it.
> 
> I just did a water test.
> Tds 127
> ...


Everything actually looks alright. Add enough equilibrium to hit 4-8 gH and it should help a bit.

The thing that pops most to me is the pH - plants root better in acidic environments. I've always had all my tanks at 6.4-6.8 pH without issues and I don't have much experience with higher pH (so perhaps this might be the culprit?). May I ask what substrate you're using? Roots are where they take in nutrients, if your substrate is not nutrient rich enough and it's not rooting well then that could explain why some of them are melting.


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

I am using Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum. I also added Flourish Tabs in the substrate before I planted.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

Ahh, that would explain it. That is a good substrate for raising shrimp but it might not be so effective in creating a planted tank (it's not nutrient rich, and root tabs will only take you so far from what I've experienced/read online/friend's experiences).

I actually just uploaded a video of my 10G ADA 45P planted shrimp tank (below). I'm using ADA Amazonia and it seems to be going alright - although most of my plants feed off of the water column. If I were you, I would switch to column feeders like java fern, bolbitis, anubias, etc. and moss and ditch the stem plants. That will allow you to have a full look and match your dosing regime without uprooting the entire setup.


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Great vid.

What other fertilizers would you recommend to be used in my case while I am dosing PMDD? Thanks again.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

bbqwing said:


> Great vid.
> 
> What other fertilizers would you recommend to be used in my case while I am dosing PMDD? Thanks again.


I don't use anything in this tank other than the green tropica fertilizer every 2-3 weeks when I do a small WC just FYI. In your case, I would try equilibrium first and see how that goes. Hope to see an updated photo after a couple weeks and a full tank shot!


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for your input. Really appreciate it..


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks, just added Seachum Equilibrium to the tank. I believe GH must raise a bit. I have the GH drop tester but its really hard to read. 

Yah, hopefully it will be better in couple weeks. Thanks again Dou.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

bbqwing said:


> Thanks, just added Seachum Equilibrium to the tank. I believe GH must raise a bit. I have the GH drop tester but its really hard to read.
> 
> Yah, hopefully it will be better in couple weeks. Thanks again Dou.


Assuming you have the API GH Test Kit, the first drop it should read orange. The next drop should be orange.. and the next will be orange or start turning green. The amount of drops it takes to go from orange (including the first one) to green is roughly what your gH is.


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

I use stratum. It runs out of nutrients pretty fast. My tds out of the tap is around 56 with a gh of 5 and almost 1 kh, but I still use equilibrium. My ph is about the same as yours, stratum _should_ be buffering that down to around 6.5


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks guys. 


I went to the local pet store yesterday. Those guys told me to dose fluval advance to stimulate the plant growth more. I hope it can help a bit too. By the way, I saw the plants shoot out some roots in the middle of the stem. Hopefully it’s a good sign.


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## Dou (Dec 4, 2015)

Eh... which LFS did you go to? Fluval advance won't stimulate growth, what he/she is basically getting at is that he/she thinks it's a nutrient issue. If you don't have algae then it might be one. But if you do, I would caution against it. Good lighting, adequate CO2 and a nutrient rich substrate are the keys to success when growing stem plants. If you look at Ray's old tank journal (rkwong88) - you'll see that he used to have a huge tank and he had tons of success using just Amazonia and CO2. Anyway, I hope it didn't cost too much!


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## bbqwing (Mar 18, 2015)

I say its a pretty big local pet store in the town. 

Well, yah, there are some hair algae starting to grow in my tank.. I immediately cut down the photoperiod and less Flourish Advance. 

P.S. Its not very easy to have a good balance planted tank.


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## troutsniffer (Dec 10, 2015)

It isn't sometimes but you're doing fine. You're right about that, it can be hard. Just have patience and don't over think, when you start changing things around in your tank is when imbalances occur. I've found the easiest way to treat algae is to just increase plant load.


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

A little late, but the 2 picture looks like emersed growth (plants grown out of water - easier to grow and transport) transitioning to submersed.

Like the other people said, give them time to switch which is plenty by now. been close to 3 months


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