new plant help needed

H

Hez Yeux

AC Members
Dec 14, 2005
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I have a 75 gal tank, with the standard light on it. I don't remeber the watts, it's the one that came with the tank hood. Anyway, I went and bought a bunch of low light plants from that fish place that pet place. They have been doing okay, and only once or twice have been found floating. But last night I noticed that some of them, mostly ones with broarder leaves are turning brown in spots. Not brown like dying, but dark brown. SO, my ? is will/should I get some plant food type stuff or what can I do to help my plants grow and thrive. If it matters, they are in a sand substraute. What I did when I set up the tank was to put a punch of small rocks around their roots, then a few bigger ones, lastly came in and filled the rest of the tank with sand. I thought the rocks might help keep the roots from being compacted by the sand.
 
If they are turning brown and dying they probably need:

a) more light
b) more carbon
c) more macro or micro nutrients

Stock lighting is almost never good enough, natural carbon levels are too low, and many nutrients are lacking in a "regular" fish tank.

If you want a low light, low tech tank you'll still need more lighting and probably want to try dosing Excel.

Low light plants include but are not limited to:

Cryptocoryne wendtii
Java Moss
Java Fern
 
I believe that your actual issue is the stock lighting. You probably have something in the neighborhood of 40 watts of flourescent lighting at the moment. For a 75g aquarium you should probably have somewhere closer to 110 watts for a low tech aquarium. A 2x55 watt retrofit kit from ahsupply would work or you can check other online stores and ebay for a full fixture.
 
more light it is then. It was mentioned for a retro kit, but can I just get a higher watt bulb into the standard light hood? Are there restrictions to how big, like ceiling lights say 100watss max. I don't se that on the hood
 
I've added light, and now have 110 watts with a bulb that says it runs at 10000 K on the spectrum. It's been on the tank for a week and a half, and runs 11 hours a day. No improvment in plants. Any more suggestions to help them flourish?
 
It might take more than a week since most low light plants are slow growers. Swords are root feeders and really need root tabs to grow healthy. It is hard to guess what else without knowing what plants you have.
 
I'm not really expecting them to shhopt up and be growing, I'm just worried the brown is still there. Here is a list of the plant pack I bought

6 - Crypt wendtii
2 - Crypt spiralis
1 - Java lace
1 - Anubias barteri
4 - Jungle vallisneria
1 - Java moss

I also added 3 red wendtii
 
If parts of the plant are dead, they won't come back. Cut off any dead/dying leaves so the plant can focus on growing new healthy ones.
 
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