Hi all!
I planted my tank (my very first) on Saturday, and the water wisteria (which I had planted specifically to soak up nutrients, since most of the other plants are slow growing) immediately began to waste away. Each leaf is turning transparent, one by one, and today stalks detached themselves from the bottom and floated to the top of the tank (they came rooted, but the roots have turned brown and mushy). The only things which are really doing well are amazon frogbit and rotala wallichi (which I thought was supposed to be difficult
). I also have dwarf hairgrass, anubias nana, taiwan moss and weeping moss in there; they seem to be holding their own and neither growing nor dying.
What did I do wrong with the wisteria? Should I yank it out or hang in there and hope it recovers? Replace it with something else fast growing?
Without the wisteria, the tank is pretty full but not exactly densely planted--everything except the frogbit is small and slow-growing. I've already got hefty amounts of brown algae on the driftwood, and some on the moss and the anubias. Can I safely add some otos to eat it, or should I wait till the plants are really growing well? If I just wait, will the plants ultimately use up the nutrients in the water and get the upper hand, or will the algae get out of control?
Sorry for the long post, but I'm brand-new at this and trying really hard to get it right.
Specs:
24 gal. aquapod, 64W on for 10 hours
ecocomplete
DIY CO2
No fish yet, no ferts yet
Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, GH 75, KH 40, pH 6.5
I think the high pH is from the driftwood, which is still leaching tannins even though I soaked it for a long time. I had read that that wouldn't do any harm, but now I think I should have waited. Should I try to make the water more alkaline?
Any ideas would be really, really helpful.
Thanks!
Anne
I planted my tank (my very first) on Saturday, and the water wisteria (which I had planted specifically to soak up nutrients, since most of the other plants are slow growing) immediately began to waste away. Each leaf is turning transparent, one by one, and today stalks detached themselves from the bottom and floated to the top of the tank (they came rooted, but the roots have turned brown and mushy). The only things which are really doing well are amazon frogbit and rotala wallichi (which I thought was supposed to be difficult
). I also have dwarf hairgrass, anubias nana, taiwan moss and weeping moss in there; they seem to be holding their own and neither growing nor dying.What did I do wrong with the wisteria? Should I yank it out or hang in there and hope it recovers? Replace it with something else fast growing?
Without the wisteria, the tank is pretty full but not exactly densely planted--everything except the frogbit is small and slow-growing. I've already got hefty amounts of brown algae on the driftwood, and some on the moss and the anubias. Can I safely add some otos to eat it, or should I wait till the plants are really growing well? If I just wait, will the plants ultimately use up the nutrients in the water and get the upper hand, or will the algae get out of control?
Sorry for the long post, but I'm brand-new at this and trying really hard to get it right.
Specs:
24 gal. aquapod, 64W on for 10 hours
ecocomplete
DIY CO2
No fish yet, no ferts yet
Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, GH 75, KH 40, pH 6.5
I think the high pH is from the driftwood, which is still leaching tannins even though I soaked it for a long time. I had read that that wouldn't do any harm, but now I think I should have waited. Should I try to make the water more alkaline?
Any ideas would be really, really helpful.
Thanks!
Anne
