# Plant problems



## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

Started a planted tank at Christmas time but pants are not growing well at all.
At first my vals rotted at the top figured new tank syndrom, my swords also went through that phase.

I am using flourite black sand as the substrate, marinland doublebright led.
Current water conditions are
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 6-6.5
Gh 3 dh
Kh 1
Temp 76

Currently dose equilibrium on my weekly water change, use florish twice a week have excel but not using it. My lights were on for only 8 hours uped it to 9 now.

Starting to get brown hair algea, leaves on plants also seem to be turning brown. My wiesteria is dying my swords grow new leaves but quickly die, vals arent doing anything, only thing that seems okay is my crypts...

What am i doing wrong? The lfs said i should be able to grow low med light plants with this light so hopefully you dont tell me its my light but i am afraid thats what your going to tell me.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

need more gh kh? seem a bit low for those plants to me?


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## ibbica (Nov 20, 2012)

I'll fully admit my naivete with planted tanks, but what sort of light *do* you have? (spectrum or 'temperature' if you know it, fluorescent or spiral CFL or incandescent or LED etc., wattage...?). And how tall is your tank? (or more precisely, how far from the light are your plants?) 

Equipment is typically labelled to paint it in the best light (haha), tested under ideal conditions, so if a light is labelled/sold as "for low to med light plants" I'd figure it would be alright for low-light plants 

Also, agree that the GH and KH are a bit low... how much equilibrium are you adding? Are you dosing full strength? (I use it too, but I do underdose because at full strength it raises the pH in my tank. But I also have a cuttlefish 'bone' and a piece of 'dead' coral in the tank.)

I'm not sure if it will help with brown algae, but somewhere (probably on this forum, I'm just too lazy to check ) that algae doesn't do well if you split the light cycle up, e.g. 4 hours on, 2-3 hours off, 4 hours on again, but that the plants will be fine with it. Might be worth a shot if you have a timer handy.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I agree low KH. GH is okay could be 1 or more higher. Sadly that light might not be bright enough. Marineland came out with a new version that is for planted tanks and Its not cheap.

Brown algea usually means the tank is finishing its cycle. Brown hair algea im not sure??? 

Lights on for 9 hours is good. I dont agree with the on for 4 hours off for 4 hours but thats my opinion. Tank size might help as mentioned its depth can be a factor. 

Vals can be a pain to grow for some people. If you dont want to change your light I would suggest trying other plants that are possibly easier to grow like a type Hygrophila or more crypts.


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

What do you recommend to increase the PH / KH. Working on my GH didn't want to raise it to quickly with the equilibrium. It should be around 5-6DH now. Will measure it again and if not that's what I am aiming for...or should it be higher?


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

what light are you using??


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

Using a marine land double bright led


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

Tank size is 30" wide 12"deep and 18" height


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## Tommy72a (Jan 6, 2013)

I was looking at Marineland double light for my 75g but after lot of research, I've concluded this was not an ideal light for me. Main reason being the light temperature. However they recently introduced LED lights specially designed for plants. Comes with (46) 6,500K White & (8) 3 Watt RGB (460nm, 660nm & green) 4480 total lumens at $500. Little too steep for my wallet and very little reviews out there. I also came to conclusion that 1 strip for marine land plant LED, will not give me the par value i was looking for through out the tank. (Sorry I can't remember the exact figures) In the end I went with t5H0 54wx4 bulbs for half the price and the plants are growing well.. I really wanted the LED set up but I don't think the technology is there yet.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

If you are hoping to see if you need extra light why don't you just setup a computer desk lamp with a CFL bulb next to the tank? You'll get a bunch more wattage for minimal cost.


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

What color cfl bulb should i look at? Do they rate them in kelvin as well? Ie can i find a 6500 k bulb

On another note do dry ferts or dry buffers ie ph up or down go bad?


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

*some pics*

Here are some pics of the tank


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## Tommy72a (Jan 6, 2013)

Judging from the pictures, leaves look very pale to me. From my experience, lack of lights, lack iron and not enough NO3 cause the leaves go pale. I read this excellent write up on the Marine double bright here, LED Lighting Compendium

I still think the light is the root cause but perhaps just enough for a low light set up. More questions for you. 1. What kind of fert dosing do you do? 2. Your tank looks super clean. Do you have any algies?


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## tylerv (Jul 11, 2011)

I clean my tank weekly around 20-25% water change.
During water change i add seachem equilibrum.

I dose flourish twice a week and have started dosing excel every other day.

I have some algea on the rock and thats about it.


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