Help Please - Why are all my plants just dieing ????

Activated carbon has little impact on plant or algae growth, it doesn't effectively remove the nutrients required by them. BTW, you shouldn't need to be using activated carbon on a regular basis.

While I can't tell you why you're not getting algae, I can point out potential problems for your plant growth.

The most obvious thing is the CO2 and fert level. For a 55g tank, a DIY setup is insufficient to provide a stable concentration of CO2. Since you've lowered your light you can get by but I highly recommend saving up for a pressurized unit.

You need to start dosing the full range of ferts more than once a week, at least twice a week at 2wpg. macros (nitrates, phosphates, potassium), micros (trace minerals like iron, copper, boron, etc), and possibly calcium and magnesium.
 
Remove all of your activated carbon in the filter, that is likely removing the nutrients your plants need to grow.

As for PH crash in CO2 injected aquariums, that's a myth. pH swings cause by other ions in the water- like carbonate ions (KH) will have a very negative effect, but that's more due to the osmotic change that the fish can't adjust to that quickly. pH changes that are a result of CO2 are pretty harmless.

Overdoing the CO2 will suffocate your fish and that is something different, but the pH swings due to CO2 injection are irrelevant. I run all my tanks (11) at zero degrees KH and some have some serious CO2 levels. Yeah, my pH is a 5, but no one cares.
 
I agree that the pH swings aren't going to harm the fish normally (to some people's annoyance I'm a fairly loud voice on these forums trying to explode a number of pH myths), but running with zero KH can be a risk; if there are other acids other than CO2, then the pH will possibly go a lot lower than 5, and below 4.5 fish will start to die as sodium uptake is inhibited. That is the reason for keeping a moderate KH level; indeed, it's also a commonly held but false idea that the higher the KH, the smaller the CO2 induced pH change; in fact the pH change is always the same for a given CO2 input; KH just dictates the start and finish point.

Moving on to this particular tank, two nuggets of information are interesting. One is that the KH has gone up; I can only presume this is something to do with water changes, implying significant KH in the tap water. This, together with the sky high nitrate, points to the OTS I suggested earlier, so I'd suggest a series of water changes to bring the tank water chemistry in line with the tap.

The second piece of information is that injecting CO2 (even if it is DIY) has not changed the pH. This can only mean one thing - no CO2 is actually getting dissolved in the water. CO2 always and without fail will depress the pH. You're looking at 0.5 to 1 point of pH for the sort of levels most people inject.
 
phanmc said:
Activated carbon has little impact on plant or algae growth, it doesn't effectively remove the nutrients required by them. BTW, you shouldn't need to be using activated carbon on a regular basis.

While I can't tell you why you're not getting algae, I can point out potential problems for your plant growth.

The most obvious thing is the CO2 and fert level. For a 55g tank, a DIY setup is insufficient to provide a stable concentration of CO2. Since you've lowered your light you can get by but I highly recommend saving up for a pressurized unit.

You need to start dosing the full range of ferts more than once a week, at least twice a week at 2wpg. macros (nitrates, phosphates, potassium), micros (trace minerals like iron, copper, boron, etc), and possibly calcium and magnesium.
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I agree with the above statement. There is a myth out there that suggests that AC is detrimental to planted tanks yet I have yet to see any proof.

KarlTh said:
I agree that the pH swings aren't going to harm the fish normally (to some people's annoyance I'm a fairly loud voice on these forums trying to explode a number of pH myths), but running with zero KH can be a risk; if there are other acids other than CO2, then the pH will possibly go a lot lower than 5, and below 4.5 fish will start to die as sodium uptake is inhibited. That is the reason for keeping a moderate KH level; indeed, it's also a commonly held but false idea that the higher the KH, the smaller the CO2 induced pH change; in fact the pH change is always the same for a given CO2 input; KH just dictates the start and finish point.

Moving on to this particular tank, two nuggets of information are interesting. One is that the KH has gone up; I can only presume this is something to do with water changes, implying significant KH in the tap water. This, together with the sky high nitrate, points to the OTS I suggested earlier, so I'd suggest a series of water changes to bring the tank water chemistry in line with the tap.

The second piece of information is that injecting CO2 (even if it is DIY) has not changed the pH. This can only mean one thing - no CO2 is actually getting dissolved in the water. CO2 always and without fail will depress the pH. You're looking at 0.5 to 1 point of pH for the sort of levels most people inject.
Click to expand...

Brilliant post Karl, I couldn't agree more. And I for one enjoy your "loudness" on the subject of pH ;)
 
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