Plant Advice

huwg said:

I am in the process of doing a Fishless Cycle on my 5 Gallon tank.

I planted some plants on Sunday (Cryptocoryne wendetii, Sagittaria sabulata, Elodea Densa and Acoru) and looking at the tank now the plants are turning Yellow, some brown and the leaves on the Cryptocoryne are looking very fragile.

The first day there was lots of bubbles coming off the plants, the next day nothing.

I leave the tank light on for 12 hours a day and I have put in some liquid fertilizer.

I read somewhere that plants will wilt until they get established in the tank, is this true?

Any advice appreciated.

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There are a lot of factors to consider here. The main one that comes to mind is how much light do you have? As a general rule, a planted tank will not require a fishless cycle, since the plants will use the amonia (sp?) as fertilizer. I proved this for myself with a 29 I was attempting to cycle without fish. I put in a bunch of plants and the amonia went to 0 in a matter of 2 days. Never saw any nitrite or nitrate to speak of.

Another factor is how much iron you have available for the plants, you might want to buy a box of laterite and mix it with your gravel. Sometime a lack of available iron can cause yellowing of plants.

Let's see... for starters, I wouldn't have the light on for that long. Plants can only effectively utilize light for 8-10 max, after that you are just feeding algae. You can't make up for a low light intensity with longer duration.

Next, make sure you are dosing CO2 in some way. With that size thank you could easily do DIY CO2 (just do a search for it) or use Excel as a source.

Next, make sure your fertilizing regime first covers Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Those are your macro and critical elements to dose. Next, look for a source for micro nutrients. There is lots of good info out there by Tom Barr (www. thebarrreport.com) on what is called the estimative index. That is where you dose the maximum estimated uptake of fertilizer to your plants weekly, and then reset your tank at the end of the week with at least a 50% water change. The articles are very informative and at least will give you a good idea of the specific nutrients to look for to make sure you are dosing them all.

Lastly, some die off is to be expected when you fist add plants into even an established tank. They need time to adjust from the changes. Additionally, lots of big companies grow plants emersed not submersed, and that causes additional adjustments to be made.

www.rexxgrigg.com has a good article on cycling a planted tank. As long as you add fish slowly, starting with the algae crew, you should be OK.

It sounds like you are off on the right foot. Keep reading and have lots of patience, and you'll do well! Good Luck!