Plant seems to be slowly dying! not sure why

[pthalobluebetta]

help! my plant for which I do not know the name seems to be slowly dying and I'm not quite sure why. It was doing quite well, intially, and after I added the algae eating shrimp, it was thriving even better with the algae growth removed. In the past week or so however, the tips of the leaves have been turning brown and gradually fading away along its length. Also the main stalks of the plants are turning a dark brownish as well.

I don't know what's going on. I've had my tank up for 6+ weeks and have had these plants in there since the beginning. I do about a 30-40% water change once a wk conditioned w/ primie. I add flourish excel once a day in the morning. My substrate is ADA amazon aquasoil. Light is 3 wpg 11 hours a day.

The plants in question are on the right side/back in the photo (with the long stalks and "fluffy" heads). I don't even know what they are called. This photo was taken a bit earlier before they started dying, I'll see if I can upload a more recent photo after work.

edited: oh, but the rest of the plants in the tank are doing fine, very vigorous growth in fact. The hairgrass is very green, and the rotala on the left spreading nicely. The stuffi n the middle/back needs constant trimming (I don't know what that is called either)

params on tank last tested 2 days ago:
ph ~7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20-30ppm, dKH 7, water is pretty hard in my area, before i ran out of test strips for it, it was around 180-200. when i intially set up my tank ph was more like 6.4, dKH 2-3, I believe due to the soil and driftwood in my tank. since I started doing water changes a bit more frequently trying to get my nitates down.. ph has gone up (we have higher ph/hard water in my area)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e326/wwwboards/aqua/tank.jpg

thanks!

[phanmc]

The plant to the right looks like a kind of tonina or eriocaulon, I've only recently successfully grown those and that's by making sure they get plenty of nutrients. Are you dosing anything else besides Excel? If not, you'll want to look for macro and micro nutrients (read the fert sticky).

The plant in the middle could be Lysimachia nummularia, aka creeping jenny.

[Mgamer20o0]

with that much lighting on that long you need to add ferts.

here is the link to the sticky on ferts.
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12585

excel is just co2. you need micros and trace.

[pthalobluebetta]

hmm, time to read up on fertilzers i guess - i was hoping i wouldn't have to add more chemicals now that my fishies finally seem happy =)

nice ID phanmc! i found my plant on the net, looks like it's Tonina sp. 'belem' - very difficult, requires acidic soft water. the other one, i don't think is creeping jenny, but i can't seem to determine it for sure off the images on the net.

If I want to add peat moss in order to soften the water, what is the best method to do it gradually without changing the environment too much for my fish? (neons, oto, dwarf gourami, bumblebee goby & amano shrimp)

[phanmc]

I wouldn't worry too much about the pH just yet, I think the nutrients are a bigger factor. 3wpg is alot of light and will force the plants to burn through nutrients very fast, if you don't replenish the nutrients the plants will be unable to sustain itself and die off. Toninas seem to require a significant amount of nutrients in order to thrive, their growth in my tank was very slow even when other plants were taking off like wildfire. I noticed marked improvements after I increased my dosage. Again, I've only successfully grown them for a little over a month, so my experience with them is rather limited.

If you do need to drop the pH, there are peat moss fibers or pellets that you can add to the filter that may help. Fluval makes them for their canister filters but you can just put them in a mesh bag and stuff them in pretty much any filter.

If it's not creeping jenny then maybe it's baby tears (Micranthemum umbrosum)?

[pthalobluebetta]

cool, I'm much more hesitant to make ph changes than adding plant fertilizers.

what sort of plant fertilizers should I be adding? I've read and reread the fertilizing sticky, w/ n/k/p spinning through my head, unsure what might be lacking in my tank. I'm not sure what's my substrate (Aquasoil - amazon variety) consists of.

So if i get regular flourish, that would add general trace elements to my tank. I don't think I'll need Nitrate as my tank is generally at 20-30ppm. So I'll have to dose w/ a source of P & K then.. I don't have any test kits however for minerals. should I be careful in dosing those w/o knowing exactly what's in my water already? My tank is small - 6g, would it make sense to buy the Flourish K & P?

According to the website I turned up, tonina would look better w/ some iron, so I think I'll get some of that as well.

wow, you're right! it's baby tears for sure. I've only seen it once respiring a stream of oxygen bubbles though, that was when my tonina was doing the same thing as well when it was healthier.

[phanmc]

I believe ADA AS is a clay based substrate with added peat (which is why it lowers your pH) and possibly some other nutrients. Still, you want to be adding ferts to the water. Eventually the nutrients in ADA AS will be consumed.

Your plants need light, CO2, macro, and micro nutrients. You have the lights and CO2 (Excel) covered so you need the nutrients. Micro nutrients are trace minerals including iron and is covered by Flourish. macro nutrients are nitrogen (N), phosphate (P), and potassium (K). Since your nitrates is reading over 20ppm you don't need to add anymore though you may find that you will need to add nitrates later on once your plants begin to really take off. Phosphate is generated by decaying matter and a phsophate test kit is useful to tell you whether or not you need to add it. Small amounts of K is usually available in your tap water but needs to be replenished as nothing generates it in your tank, there isn't any K test kits available to the average consumer.

To summarize, the main things to get are Flourish for the micro nutrients, a source of phosphate (Seachem Phosphorus), and a source for potassium (Seachem Potassium). You don't need to be exact in your dosing, many of us tend to overdose and do a weekly water change to ensure it doesn't get to a dangerous level.

[Mgamer20o0]

messing around with the ph can be harmful to the fish. you need to start doing ferts it sounds like. 3wpg over a 6gal is a lot less then 3wpg over a bigger tank such as 100 gal. smaller tanks need more light. phanmc is suming up right. add P K and trace ferts. i know its a lot to take in at once. after some time you will start to under stand it.