Ok, I need some serious help with my plants. It’s now at the point where we are going to rip them all out and buying plastic ones unless I can figure out what is going wrong.
The tank is a 46 gallon which has been set up for almost exactly one year (see fish list in signature). It is not in direct sunlight; however the room gets some sunlight. We have a CF light with 110 watts. We fertilize with the entire Flourish line on their recommended daily schedule. And we have two Hagen Plant Gro CO2 Natural Systems. The CO2 systems were originally a concern that they would not product enough CO2 for our tank, so we got two. The problem is that we often have to replace the sugar, water, yeast, etc. It doesn’t seem to last long at all, nor does it produce many bubbles.
We did have some Watersprite in the tank; however, it was growing so fast and overtaking everything else. We heard that they can eat up lots of nutrients and figured maybe that was why the rest of the plants were all dying, so we pulled it out. The other plants kept dying. Hearing that possibly having a more heavily planted tank might help, we recently bought a ton of plants from AZGardens.com. The plants were absolutely beautiful! We planted them and enjoyed for a few weeks, until we watched them one by one completely disintegrate. The only plants that seem to be surviving are Wisteria, Algae Balls, some Java moss, Moneywort (although it’s not looking that good), and an Anubias (which is a home to some algae). The Corkscrew Vals did the worst… disintegrating in mere days. We get some algae, but not too much.
Our pH is at a constant 7.0 due to treating the water (Jungle Labs pH Stable 7.0 Liquid) before water changes (our tap water is a very high pH and our tank water is at 7.0 due to driftwood, so we need to treat or we kill some fish). Our Kh was 60 and Gh was 80. The only test that seems off kilter is the phosphates, which is always through the roof (literally as high as the test goes no matter when we test or how much water we change). The only other things that might have any effect are we occasionally treat with Pimafix and Melafix if fish look stressed or after a water change and we use Prime to treat tap water.
Any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong? I’m leaning towards it being the CO2, but I’m not sure. I’m willing to set up a pressurized CO2 system if people think it will make a difference!
The tank is a 46 gallon which has been set up for almost exactly one year (see fish list in signature). It is not in direct sunlight; however the room gets some sunlight. We have a CF light with 110 watts. We fertilize with the entire Flourish line on their recommended daily schedule. And we have two Hagen Plant Gro CO2 Natural Systems. The CO2 systems were originally a concern that they would not product enough CO2 for our tank, so we got two. The problem is that we often have to replace the sugar, water, yeast, etc. It doesn’t seem to last long at all, nor does it produce many bubbles.
We did have some Watersprite in the tank; however, it was growing so fast and overtaking everything else. We heard that they can eat up lots of nutrients and figured maybe that was why the rest of the plants were all dying, so we pulled it out. The other plants kept dying. Hearing that possibly having a more heavily planted tank might help, we recently bought a ton of plants from AZGardens.com. The plants were absolutely beautiful! We planted them and enjoyed for a few weeks, until we watched them one by one completely disintegrate. The only plants that seem to be surviving are Wisteria, Algae Balls, some Java moss, Moneywort (although it’s not looking that good), and an Anubias (which is a home to some algae). The Corkscrew Vals did the worst… disintegrating in mere days. We get some algae, but not too much.
Our pH is at a constant 7.0 due to treating the water (Jungle Labs pH Stable 7.0 Liquid) before water changes (our tap water is a very high pH and our tank water is at 7.0 due to driftwood, so we need to treat or we kill some fish). Our Kh was 60 and Gh was 80. The only test that seems off kilter is the phosphates, which is always through the roof (literally as high as the test goes no matter when we test or how much water we change). The only other things that might have any effect are we occasionally treat with Pimafix and Melafix if fish look stressed or after a water change and we use Prime to treat tap water.
Any suggestions as to what I’m doing wrong? I’m leaning towards it being the CO2, but I’m not sure. I’m willing to set up a pressurized CO2 system if people think it will make a difference!
