# Help identify and troubleshoot pls



## Jacksmom (Apr 11, 2016)

I'm very new to aquariums and I'm looking for confirmation that I've identified my plants correctly and would like some input on what they need to get healthier.

I think the first one is bacopa myriophiloid? This one keeps growing and getting shoots of the main stem but the new growth is very tiny and pale. 

I think the second is amazon sword plant. It was really dying till we bought our new light and it's stopped dying more but some of its leaves are almost translucent and in the third pic you can see it's very pale except for the veins. 

The third plant is hygrophilia corymbosa, I think. It's done the best for us so far and we've propagated it twice already. 

Lastly, we have a dwarf grass I've had the hardest time identifying and keeping alive because it feels like so many look the same. I think it's either dwarf sagittaria or amazon chain sword. This plant has been a struggle since the beginning. The new light helped but so far it's only just stopped dying. It sends out new shoots but just isn't thriving.

We have a 26g with a fluval full spectrum LED 7500K/32W light which is on for 7 hours daily. We dose 2.5 ml of flourish comprehensive twice weekly and 2.5 ml of flourish excel 6 days a week. We do plan to run co2 sooner than later but our hobby fund is not prepared to get it right now
My feeling is that we have to much light for the nutrients we are currently dosing. Any opinions or advice would be appreciated.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 24, 2015)

I'm not good with identifying plants, so I can't help you with that.
I'm guessing you have the Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 Full Spectrum Performance LED? Are you getting any algae?
What fish do you have?

Edit: I just saw your introduction. So what you have currently is a betta and 4 cherry shrimp? They probably wouldn't produce enough ammonia which would be converted to nitrate for your plants. (This is unrelated, but do you know about the nitrogen cycle?)

There are too types of fertilizers, micros and macros. Flourish Comp covers the micros (it does have some macros, but it's insignificant), and usually a stocked tank would have enough macros (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) to support a low tech tank. Since bettas and shrimps have a rather low bioload, you're plants probably are not getting enough macros.


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## Jacksmom (Apr 11, 2016)

I do know about the nitrogen cycle. My husband definitely understands a lot more in depth than I do but I understand the basic concept He is an "all in" personality and we have been testing our PH, nitrites and nitrates, weekly since we started the tank up about 2 months ago. Jack had a bad day and I panicked and we have also tested for ammonia twice to date. We believe our tank is past the worst of it. 
Yes our light is the Fluval Fresh and Plant and YES we had algae!. It was an awful mess there for a couple weeks, lol. Along with the light, we did not realize the space we picked out and sized this tank for would get so much natural light as well. We thought it was going to be a lot more filtered than it actually is:/ So between the artificial and the sun we had a MAJOR algae bloom. We do not have another spot for this tank so we bought an aquatop cf400uv external filter. It's a bit over-kill for our current tank but we're currently diy'ing new windows in our house and with some research found some cellular blinds that we can pull up instead of down. We did a little test with some cardboard and this will resolve the natural light that's directly hitting our tank. Since we're definitely going to start up a larger aquarium in the future we thought this filter would carry us over till we get the blinds up and then we can move it to the larger aquarium.

We've been taking it slow since our tank is cycling and Jack is a betta but I've been scouting the lfs for 2 african dwarf frogs to join Jack and the 4 shrimp as they are listed on many sites and forums as highly probable tank mates for a betta. Since the introduction of the shrimp last week, it's looking pretty positive regarding the frogs Do you happen to know if they will help raise the bioload reasonably?

I forgot until now that we added 3 Flourish Tabs to the gravel about 1.5 weeks ago. We placed them near the base of where each type of plant is. Should we try something like Seachem - Plant Pack: Enhancer NPK?

Ty for responding, I appreciate the input.


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## Geoffrey (Jun 24, 2015)

I'm sure you've found out by now, but in general (not just for planted tanks) it's best to keep tanks out of direct sunlight or even close to open windows since the fluctuating amounts of sunlight (cloudy or sunny days) can cause algae growth. Closing the blinds or putting up a background (like you're doing with cardboard) will help.

The Fluval 2.0 is also a very strong light; however, I believe it has dimming capabilities. I think you could also get other fancy features if you buy the controller (although I'm not sure if it's worth it. I think it's about another $85 USD)

The Seachem line is good, but you could DIY for the same results. These are basically the dry form of the Seachem ferts:
Dry
CANADIAN AQUATICS
(for the second website, the dry ferts are somewhere in the middle. Ships from Vancouver)

You'd want potassium nitrate and mono potassium phosphate for the NPK/macros and CSM+B for the micros.
You could use
Rotala Butterfly | Planted Aquarium Calculators & Information
to calculate how much of each you need to dose dry or to make a solution.

For root tabs, you could put Osmocote+ into size 00 gel capsules.

If the tank is still cycling, make sure you constantly monitor the ammonia or nitrite and keep them under 0.5ppm, preferably at 0ppm.
If you use the water conditioners Prime (most economical), Tetra Aquasafe, or Amquel+, these can detoxify ammonia and nitrite for 48 hours.

As for the bioload for the frogs, I don't have any experience with frogs so I wouldn't be able to say, but I wouldn't worry about it if you dose ferts.


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## Jacksmom (Apr 11, 2016)

Sorry for the late response. It was busy week. I appreciate your advice have been looking into the things you mentioned. My husband really loves rotala butterfly! We have read up on osmocote plus and wanted to try it out but we can't seem to find any in town, I've been everywhere! Amazon sells it but they want triple the item cost for shipping which makes the cost effectiveness almost disappear lol! We have family in Vancouver area if you happen to know specifically where it could be purchased in person or online. What you said about the lack of basic nutrients because of our low bioload makes perfect sense as well. We did some more reading and you may have solved that problem for us We've ordered some dry ferts and are waiting for them to arrive. Thanks so much for you time.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Jacksmom said:


> I'm very new to aquariums and I'm looking for confirmation that I've identified my plants correctly and would like some input on what they need to get healthier.
> 
> I think the first one is bacopa myriophiloid? This one keeps growing and getting shoots of the main stem but the new growth is very tiny and pale.
> 
> ...


I'm not sure which plants you are referring to since your pictures don't line up with your guesses.
Did you buy these plants from a Petland store or something similar?

1) Plant with big leaves may not be an Amazon sword but rather it may be a marsh plant - unfortunately some of these are sold in big box pet store but are NOT fully aquatic plants and will die over time when submerged.

2) Pygmy chain sword - either Helanthium Tenellum or Saggitaria Subulata. The former turns reddish but only when it is flourishing so for the moment it's hard to tell.

3) Bacopa Myriophiloid or Rotala Wallichi - hard to tell right now as the plant isn't doing too great but it'll be the latter if it turns pinkish.

What size is your tank?

I agree with Geoffrey in that you probably don't have enough 'poop' in the tank for the plants to use as food.


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