What would cause my plants to do this?

Geeky1

Geeky1

AC Members
Aug 18, 2003
198
0
0
California
Visit site
My personal tank is a 10g, and I've always kept live plants in it. Initially it had 2 40w incandescents to light it, but those began to melt the hood, so I had to switch to 25w bulbs. Since then, I've gone to a single 18" fluorescent. Anyhow, for some reason, whenever I buy plants, they generally last about a month. The bunch plants start dropping leaves and I end up with a stem 10" long with 2" of healthy foliage on the end... The only thing that's survived for any length of time are java fern, java moss, and some other rooted plants that I can't recall the exact name of- they're either swords or crypts, or both... All I know is they have big, ovate leaves, and the plants are about 5" tall and 6" across. They have no bulbs, so they're not apongentons (sp?) but I don't know what they are... Oh, I had Tiger Lilies in it for a while, and they did great.

I'm inclined to think this is a lack of light, as I've been from an UGF + gravel + power filter to just gravel and the power filter, to fluorite and the power filter, and back to the ugf + gravel + power filter, and I've had the problem with all of those setups. The fish in the tank vary, but I've had basically everything but tetras and rainbowfish in it (altho I did just buy some celebes and dwarf rainbows last night...)

Could it be anything other than a lack of light?
 
How hard is your water?

Some plants have difficulty in hard water... IME, my stem plants didn't lose leaves in too little light, they just lost there vibrant color. However, it does seem that if you have nothing eating these plants, that low light could be the culprit of them dropping leaves.

You might want to wait for more knowledgeable people in this area though, I'm probably way off base :D
 
Honestly? I have no idea how hard my water is. I'm one of those people that does this by the seat of their pants, so to speak. I haven't tested any of my water parameters in at least 6 months, probably longer. Takes too much effort. All I can tell you is that I've had discus in the tank and they were dead easy to keep. However, I think my LFS mentioned that their water is pretty hard. On the other hand, they may very well be getting different water than I am, because I'm in a different city...

I suppose my Plec could have been eating them, but why would it only eat the bunch plants (e.g. cabomba) and why only up to the top 2" or so of the plant?
 
Have you had any dwarf gourami in there?

I had a pair that completely eradicated all feathery leafed plants in one of my tanks.
 
I have really hard water and have had no significant signs of problems in that area with my plants losing leaves.

It sounds a lot like low light to me because feathery plants like cabomba do best with 3WPG and up. I had a pleco before and it never ate my stem plants to my knowledge.

Try adding another flourescent tube or maybe a DIY compact flourescent fixture with something like 2 13W bulbs.

Hope this helps.

Graeme
 
Geeky, it doesn't sound to me as though you have a lighting issue here. I have a 10gal. hospital tank with a little 15w tube over it and can grow just about anything under it.
Unless I misunderstood your post, you probably have 1.5 watts as well. That should be plenty of light, in a 10 to grow many low to medium light plants including many stem plants.
You need to get yourself the basic test kits so as to find out your water parameters. Knowing your pH,gH,kH, as well as whether you have any ammonia, nitrites, and your nitrate level would be of much help in diagnosing your problem.
How often do you do water changes? Do you fertilize at all?

Len
 
Originally posted by Geeky1
I'm one of those people that does this by the seat of their pants, so to speak. I haven't tested any of my water parameters in at least 6 months, probably longer. Takes too much effort....
Click to expand...

Okay, this scares me. I hope you'll take the time if you're going to have a public aquarium that's packed full of live plants that's almost 3' deep.... As I have learned, a tank that big takes a lot of attention for the first few months.

But @ 10g, I have no idea. Listen to Len, Len am smart.
 
Oh for the big tank, no I'm going to be somewhat more meticulous. I have no experience with a tank that size, so it's going to be interesting...

How often do I do water changes? Anywhere between 1 and 4 times per month, 2 gallons at a time.

I don't fertilize with anything... As for the water quality, in general it's pretty good (I think) because whenever I get a fish that dies within the 7 day period the LFS guarantees it for and I take it in to have it exchanged, the water always tests fine- litte/no ammonia, little/no nitrate, negligible nitrite...

The pH is somewhere in the vicinity of 7.0, as that's what the water I fill it with is, but you know, it's going to vary somewhat. I'll probably pick up a test kit (since the reagents on mine are all expired anyhow...) and test it, but right now the tank is torn up- it's sitting in the laundry room full of a 2% bleach solution (fish in bucket, gravel gone, fluorite in another bucket) because I'm trying the fluorite again. I have to stop to pick up some peat (I'm going to give plantbrain's suggestions a try on my tank too) on my way home, so I'll try to get a test kit then...
 
CO2

I almost hate to mention this, because if you refuse to do the work involved you're just going to kill fish, but the problem you might be having could be related to CO2.

Most of the plants you can buy for an aquarium are actuallly marginal or emersed plants, they grow with their roots in the water and can do well or at least tolerate being under water. The problem is that they need Co2. You remember from 5th grade science that plants take in CO2 and give off Oxygen. Plants in mud get a lot of CO2 from the billions of bacteria per gram of mud working on decomposing crud. In our nice clean tanks, where we don't like the skunky smell of decomposing mud, we don't have that sort of CO2 level unless you work at adding it. For the 10 gallon tank, the Hagen/Nutrafin CO2 unit is the easiest. Over 20 gallons, you need either DIY or pressurized CO2.

Light, Co2, fertilizers.

Start with the light, get it up to 2.0 watts per gallon if you can. There are ushaped flourescent tubes that screw into the incandescent hoods that grow nice plants. see Wal-Mart.

Then get a Hagen CO2 system, $17 online or $30 in the local store.

Then get some basic plant food made for aquariums.

Invest in a real test kit, include nitrate. Then use it -- weekly, while you are doing a 30 to 50% water change.

If you don't want to do the work, get plastic plants and plastic floating fish. There are some that run on batteries.

But really, planted tanks are probably harder than fish only tanks. If you haven't done a good job with the small tank, why even invest the big bucks in a bigger tank? You're going to spend something like $10 to $30 per gallon to set up a new planted tank.

Are you really interested enough to do it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom