new to planted tanks

[chefjamesscott]

ive never really had live plants in my tanks , got lots of plants the other day and put them in

i toook the plants outta the pots they came in but planted them in this fiberglass type stuff that was in the pot with the roots and here it is weeks later the stuff has sort of expanded and dissolved off of the roots and filled my one tank with a lot of floating fibers and when i came in yesterday to feed this one tank i had fungus growing all over my tank and a few dead fish i have since done a few wc and the chemistry is sorta back to normal and the fish seem to be breathing easier when i cleaned the sponge in the filter it was just clogged with this stuff

what is this stuff that the plants were packed in i have since made sure that its all removed an have turfed it, it was a greenish brown in color and the one tank where i put the plants in with this stuff was the only one that ive had issue with other than the fish eating my plants

ok i found two more in my other tank that had this stuff still on it so i took it off and took pics and outta this stuff same thing in this tank but not in any of my other tanks here

[chefjamesscott]

ok so here are a couple of pics of this stuff

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/trainwreck%20tanks/DSC05293.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/trainwreck%20tanks/DSC05292.jpg

and a shot of what the tank looks like after ive just removed the plants to clear off the stuff

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/trainwreck%20tanks/DSC05294.jpg

i dont know how clearly it shows but the water is just filled with all kinds of little micro fiber type stuff i wish i had taken all this stuff off from all the plants it just fell off the roots of most of them when i toook the pots off so i took the stuff off but for these two tanks i did not remove all of it and wish i had

[pinkertd]

I think that stuff is called rockwool. Pull it all off before planting the plants. It shouldn't harm your fish but it's messy and not needed once you plant them. It helps keep the roots together while they're in the pots.

[AshK]

That stuff is rock wool. Usually you remove it from plants before planting them in the substrate. I've never heard of it killing any fish or causing fungus. Get those anubias plants' rhizomes up out of the substrate or the plant will rot. Unbury some of the bulb on that onion plant, too, or else the same thing could happen.

[jbradt]

That stuff is rock wool. Usually you remove it from plants before planting them in the substrate. I've never heard of it killing any fish or causing fungus. Get those anubias plants' rhizomes up out of the substrate or the plant will rot. Unbury some of the bulb on that onion plant, too, or else the same thing could happen.

agree 100% :thm:

[chefjamesscott]

ok so heres what i did i added ferts to the water as per first time addition double what is needed for a wc , i took the temp up 3-4 degrees so it was around 80.5-81 and since i put the plants in the only two tanks that i had the issue with the fuzz are the ones that had the plant stuff i usually run my tanks at 77-78 degrees but was told that warmer was better for the plants sake

will a warmer temp with ferts added for the first time cause any organic material to go fuzzy that fast like in four days or so and if i added to much fert to the water will it take out fish

my 180 only got 4 plants added and the pacu has been eating them steadily so i have given up on them

my 55 is filtered as if its a 100 and when i did first wc i did not add more fert and dropped the temp

my 75 green terror has only 4 plants added and i keep it at room temp with no heater

my other 75 is where i added 60% of the plants to and it an my corner tank are the only ones i had the fuzz issue with

also tanks for the info on the plants did not know i was not to bury them all the way now if only i can figure out which plant is which which is why ive never really done plants in my tanks ill take a pic of each of the tanks for your thoughts will post them in about half hour

[AshK]

Where are you getting your information on plant care? You should keep the temperature of the tank at the proper temperature for the fish. Not too many plants are temp sensitive, and the ones you have in that tank will be fine at 78 degrees.

Why are you adding fertilizers, and what fertilizers are you using (include their ingredients & dosing information)? What are the watts of light on all the tanks with live plants?

I've said this a million times, but I'll say it again: research, research, research before you buy.

[chefjamesscott]

ok so i took shots of the tanks one thing ive noticed with the higher heat in the water (ive never really run my tanks over the 80 mark ) i have much more algae growth but any rate here are the tanks please excuse the water marks all over the place been in and out of the tanks all day for the last day doin wc and tryin to fix the plants

the 55

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05295.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05296.jpg
tiger bulbs starting to grow

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05297.jpg

and the plant i can not keep from either getting buried or uprooted by the zebra

the 75 green terror tank all plants just attached to logs and tried to bury the tall ones roots under neath wood

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05298.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05299.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05300.jpg

here again this fish in here keeps constantly tryin to rip the plants off the wood

the ?g corner tank i had the issue with i removed all the decor and cleaned the sand and did a few wc over the past two days and then put the wood back in and used the wood to pin the plants in place also treated the tank with ick an melafix just for good measure temp is now down lower

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05301.jpg

the 100g baby tank i just set up no substrate just decor and one plant on log

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05302.jpg

the other 75g where i had small amount of fuzz show up

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05303.jpg

my 180g failed planted tank as the pacus are eating the plants just turned the lights on and large pacu freaked an raced about the tank

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/planted%20tanks/DSC05304.jpg



i can see why ive never really done plants before since planting tanks has always been an art form of sorts to me of the which im not skilled enough at at least not yet

i got a bottle of fertilizer from the lfs and followed the direction on the bottle where it said for first time two capfulls(20ml)/ 10g, then when i did first wc a few days later i added 1capfull 10ml/10g of new water and then as i watched the tanks for the next week i did not add more fert cause i saw a growth in algae in the one tank and then just found the fuzz in the other two tanks

will take my tank temp back down to 78 then

[AshK]

There's lots of fish who eat, uproot, or destroy plants. Did you research to see if your fish are compatible with plants? Pacus and various cichlids, among other fish, are big on destroying plants.

[petluvr]

I would suggest, if you are a beginner with plants, to return most of those plants, anubias, Java Fern and Java Moss keep. Any of the tanks with ANY cichlids in, again if you are a beginner at plants, take the plants out. Start off slow add the above mentioned plants, anchoring them to some driftwood-I saw a nice piece or so-Don't jump in with both guns blazing IMO you are just setting yourself up for disaster, which is what you are spiraling into IMO. As I said return all the plants except the ones mentioned above and you will be just fine:)

[chefjamesscott]

so far as returning the plants not possible they came from winnipeg, i did send the person pics of each of the tanks and told him what kind of fish were in them and they gave me a variety of plants that they said would do well in hard water and i figured it this way from what i had looked into if the fish ate some of the plants then the fish got to eat from the salad bar as it were which is why i only put a few plants in with the pacus cause the plant guy told me they would probably eat any vegetation

so far as the other plants i figured i would lose about 25% of the vegetation due to being new at this either to getting abused by the fish or by just not making it some of the cichlid keepers i spoke to here said that in african settings often for many kinds of cichlids there are no plants so they will go after the plants either rearranging them or outright destroying them

in the 55 i find that the zebra is just moving so much sand that he either buries them or they lose their footing an float up and in the one 75 i have watched the christyi actually ripping the plants to shreds but not all the plants just the tall ones that seem to be in their swim path

in the 100g i have been watching the crayfish actually eat the plant

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/treasure%20moments/DSC05238.jpg

As a side note I LOVE THIS SHOT FOR THE REFLECTION IT SHOWS OF THE KIDS WHO WERE FASCINATED WITH THE TINY LOBSTER

this may sound funny to some of you but this time around i wanted to try my hand at plants and asked for a variety that would do well in the hard regina water and if i lost 25-30% then i would chalk it up to a first time loss i will take a bit more time to look about this area of the forum to see

from what im looking at the use of fert seems to me to cause rapid decay of organic matter added the extra heat didnt seem to help either

its kinda like everything i looked up about the christyi said that they would be able to hold their own if i put them in the 55g for a week with my zebra and the johani and yet i lost one of them when the male zebra took it personal but since ive moved the two others to the 75 and added their old tank mate from the lfs as they were all in the same tank for months together they have done fine

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/75g%20souprman/DSC05251.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn352/chefjamesscott/75g%20souprman/DSC05246.jpg

at any rate ill keep lookin into this forum area a bit more since i now have put plants in and thanks for any input

[chefjamesscott]

well i got to the bottom of why my five side corner tank took a dive first its a 40g not a 60g so when i treated it with fert , anti ick and pimafix i totally overdosed it

i found the empty bottle of fert that i used tetra flora pride

on the brighter side i was able to save four of my fish in the corner tank have done constant wc with prime treatment to get it right again added a bubble bar to help agitate the water

[petluvr]

Why were you dosing "anti-ick" and pimafix?

[jpappy789]

tetra flora pride does nothing and is a worthless fert...if you really want to get into liquid dosing go with seachem's line.

[chefjamesscott]

Why were you dosing "anti-ick" and pimafix?

i did it cause a few days after i put the plants in an did the fert i took the temp up to81-82 i came into work an half the fish had the white fleck of ick on them so i dosed the water and then in the next few days there was a fungus thing beginning to set in so i got that pimafix stuff

after talking with a few people off an on this thread i find that i did not need to up the temp also i measured the gallon size of the tank wrong and basically messed up my tank i overdosed the tank by 50%