Help with plants

[wantokeeptrout]

I need some help with my planted 30 gallon aquarium. Each time I attempt to grow plants they do very well for about a month or 2, then suddenly turn brown and die off. I have a coralife t4 light and use fertilizers approximately once a week, ph is about 7.6

i currently have crypts, which are the only plant doing reasonably well, some sort of grasses, and a plant sold as an african fern

 

[carolinyens]

Theres a lot of questions raised. Is it one t4 bulb? whats the wattage? Theres something to do with PAR as well I never really got that in depth into it. Which plants have died? What ferts are you using?
To start, you might not have enough light. You might have bought plants that need a lot of light. Excel is known to melt plants. In general, too much fert kills any plant. So lets start with those questions and work from there.

 

[wantokeeptrout]

The light is a t5 with a 6500k and red spectrum plant bulb, the fert is big als plant food supplement and i have no clue what PAR is. Plants dying are crypts, a chain sword and something sold as jugo grass alongside the above mentioned african fern. They all started off perfect and stayed that way for a month but about 2 weeks ago they began turning brown, and now a couple are even partially transparent. The crypts are dying off slowest

 

[xUnRaTeDxxRkOx]

What kind of substrate are you using? What's the tanks water parameters? Is the light directly on top of the tank, or is it held above the tank? How far is the light away from the tank if it indeed is on leg stands, or hanging from something?

Exactly what kind of ferts are you dosing the tank with? Are the plants getting micro/macro nutrients?



What it sounds like to me, is that the plants aren't getting sufficient nutrients in order to stay healthy, swords, and crypt's are heavy root feeders. Are you using a planted substrate like flourite, or are you using any type of root tabs? As for the fern, do you have it planted into the substrate? Reason is a ferns rhizome should never be buried, which is why people attach ferns to driftwood because of their rhizome.



As for the lighting, the 6500k bulbs is fine for plants, but it sounds to me like the "red spectrum bulb" would be what's known as a colormax bulb, which does nothing for a planted tank. I would swap out the colormax bulb for another 6500k bulb.

 

[wantokeeptrout]

light is approx 2 inches from water surface, the tank is approx 15 inches tall, substrate is coarse gravel and a single bag of some sort of nutrient mix though it's been in water for almost 4 years, the fert i use says this for nutrients:

soluble potash - 3%
copper - 0.00001%
iron - 0.24%
manganese - 0.01%
molybdenum - 0.0009%
zinc - 0.0014%
kelp and vitamin extracts, add 5-10ml per 20 gallons once or twice a week depending on number of plants

 

[xUnRaTeDxxRkOx]

Ok, you should add root tabs under the substrate where the plants roots are, I go with Flourish root tabs if I'm out of my DIY root tabs using dry fertilizers. I would switch to a more comprehensive fert supplement like Flourish, because of how many trace elements it contains. Try to stay away from API Leaf Zone, because it's ONLY iron (fe) and potassium (k).

And because the SeaChem Flourish line of fertilizers come in specific types, like flourish comprehensive, phosphorus, potassium, etc...... You'll be able to supply the plants will the full NPK (nitrogen, phosphate, potash) potash is potassium


Aquatic plants need a range of supplements to flourish, and grow healthy, so the Flourish line of fertilizers are a good way to start. Then if you're a serious planted aquarium freak like me you can then start dealing with dry fertilizer compounds, and making your own root tabs.

 

[wantokeeptrout]

so your saying i need a more nutrient rich substrate or supplement for the substrate? I though aquatic plants only used their roots for anchoring and not to absorb nutrients, also i have a 10 000k bulb, would that benefit at all?

 

[xUnRaTeDxxRkOx]

10000k bulb is fine, go with it. Plants respond best to lighting between 5000k - 1000k

As for plants only using the roots for anchoring, this is an old myth, 90% of aquatic plants get the nutrients they need from their roots, which is the reason for planted substrates, because these substrates are able to actually soak up and store nutrients then slowly release them back into the water column and to the roots.

I would suggest going with a substrate like SeaChem Flourite, CaribSea FloraMax, etc..... These substrates are made of porous clay, and are able to capture the nutrients, and then release back into the water column, and to the plant roots.

 

[wantokeeptrout]

ok, i think i'll fix the issue with some of that substrate. my astatotilapia will love the extra plants

 

[xUnRaTeDxxRkOx]

Ahh an African Cichlid, part of the hap family, sweet.