Plants all dying in cycling tank, please view stats to tell me what can be done

[Deliverme314]

All right so I think I figured out why my plants always die. Apparently my water is rock hard.

Anywho... these are my stats for my tank in its 4th day of cycling... what can I do to save my plants?

3 w/g in a 90 gal no Co2 yet... in about a week or two there will be...

PH 8.0 at least... I have no idea why its so high. I mean I stopped using PH 7.0 adjuster because I was told that could screw with my plants.

Ammonia 2.5
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 15
phosphate .75
GH 143.2
Kh 71.6

Which of these factors are killing my plants? And what can I do?

Oh yeah... and on a random note... long finned zebra danio's are **** hardy... they are a live and thriving in the cycling tank.

[TKOS]

Well the one thing that I would say is to do some water changes to get that ammonia down as it is killing those danios. As hardy as they seem it is sure shortening their life.

Otherwise how much light are the plants getting? In a tank that big you will need lots of light.

[Deliverme314]

Originally posted by TKOS
Well the one thing that I would say is to do some water changes to get that ammonia down as it is killing those danios. As hardy as they seem it is sure shortening their life.

Otherwise how much light are the plants getting? In a tank that big you will need lots of light.

It is still cycling... I dont think I should change the water when the tank is 4 days old. I will this weekend once I have at least some beneficial bacteria built up.

3 watts per gallon.

[kveeti]

As long as there is any ammonia or nitrite reading, your bacteria will multiply… having readings higher is of no benefit – it will definitely hurt your fish. You need to do a partial water change to help your fish. If you wait a few more days, the water conditions could become lethal.

[Faramir]

That water is not rock hard. Rock hard is GH of 600ppm, like I had in Watford.

I wonder what's making the pH so high? I smell some kind of water treatment by the water company.

The other question I'd ask is what plants you have got.

[Tempest]

If the tank is only 4 days old then the plants haven't had time to adjust at all yet. :) It took the plants I ordered online a good long while to adjust. Many plants are grown emmersed(leaves out of water) and then they will lose the emmerse grown leaves and grow new ones as they adjust to being submerged. It can be a real problem when you first start out in planted tanks. The rotting leaves will decompose to give you high ammonia and/or nitrites and a mess if ya aren't careful. You have to get any rotting leaves on out of there and do water changes... This is one reason it is suggested to have the plants actually growing before you add fish. If it is at all possible, lower the light to 2 watts per gallon until you get your CO2 hooked up. There shouldn't be a problem with water hardness though for your info. If you keep the lights up so high, you will most likely develop a great case of algae before they can start growing well since they will be quite lacking in CO2.

[djlen]

I agree with Tempest completely with regard to the plants. New plants are prone to shock from transplanting and new conditions. I also agree with removing any decaying material as it will serve no useful purpose and is a cause for added ammonia.
Water changes are important at this stage to make things less traumatic for both fish and plants. Nothing is going to stop the cycle so 1/3 water changes are beneficial IMO.
I suggest you keep loading it up with plants, particularly nutrient eating stem plants(Egeria is great for this, and cheap too) and my favorite for this situation(high light/new tank) is floaters like Water Sprite and Water Lettuce/Salvinia. They will suck out a bunch of nutrients as well, AND shade the tank to some degree.
Another thing I did with too much light was put a layer of toilet paper over the glass cover between the glass and the light. This has a great light cutting affect and in a few weeks can be removed when the plants start to catch up with the light.
If you have access to an established tank, take some filter media from it and put it into your new filter. It will help seed the new one with nutrifying bacteria.
Len

[plantbrain]

Planted tanks don't "cycle".
Get the NH4 out now.
Water changes, lots of them till you do not have any readings.
Planted tanks should never have _any_ NH4 readings.

You are growing plants here, bacteria will adjust to the input and leftovers which are not much if the plants are well tended.

Plants use and consume both NO3 and NH4.
NO3 is fine, NH4 is nasty and causes algae.

Adding KNO3 for the K and NO3 is fine.

If you want to "cycle", don't don't it with plants or light.

If you are a really "smart" chicken, you will get some mulm from an old established tank and vacuum this mulm and add this "dirt" into the filter intake and to the very bottom of the gravel when you set up a new tank.

This instantly "cycles" your tank.

Before all this cockamainey fishless cycle mumbo ever came around, we old timers suffered and wallowed in despair worse than Dante's fifth level of Hell:)

Why folks like waiting 2-3 weeks is beyond me.
Fishless cycling or additions of NH4 have no place in a planted tank or when fish are present.

The tap is fine, the lack of CO2 is not.
Don't turn on the light till you remove the NH4/add CO2.
Plants are not going to grow well till you do this. The pH will jump up everyday(Afternoon/eve) and then drop at night/right before the lights come on.

Regards,
Tom Barr