Why won't Hornwort survive in my tank?

Q

Quartermain

From the deepest darkest abyss
Jan 10, 2005
378
0
16
Hornwort, along with Wisteria and other stem plants, is proported to be one of the easiest carefree plants to grow. You can float it on the surface or anchor it. I anchored some in my 10 Gal to see how well it would do. Within a week it was brown and needles were falling off everwhere. What a mess!

Tank specs:
10 Gal (standard)
28 Watt Coralife CF (on 10 hour timer)

Fauna:
4 Glowlight Tetras
1 Corydoris Cat

Water specs:
NH3 = 0 mg/L
N03 = 10 mg/L
N02 = 0.1 (tank is going through a minicycle after a major replanting)
PO4 = 1 - 2 mg/L (range not certain)
GH = 8 - 10 dH (in the last 2 tests)
KH = 2.8 dH (dosing Excel to make up for lack of CO2)
pH = 7.4
Fe = 0.1 - 0.25 mg/L
Temp = 75 dF

Average Dosing:
1ml Flourish (plain) every other day
1ml Flourish Excel per day
1ml Flourish Iron once per week (or as needed to stay at around 0.1 mg/L).

Could it be too much nutrients? Not enough nutrients? Not enough light? Not enough freaking psychic growing power? I'm bashing my brains out over here. :duh:

Your help is greatly appreciated.

-edit-
Pictures may be worth more than words. My other plants aren't doing so hot either and the beginnings of hair algae are starting to show for the first time after replating about 2 weeks ago. Oh and by the way the substrate is 50/50 mix of Flourite and plain gravel. I have pushed Fourish Tabs into the substrate about every 4 inches in front and two in the back near where the Hygrophilia (Wisteria right, Polysperma left) are anchored.

You may have read my other post about using Excel in place of CO2 as the main source of carbon. Don't jump to the conclusion that this may be the problem becuase the plants were heading south before I started the Excel treatment. That's WHY I started it. They don't seem to be doing any worse but they're certainly not doing any better.

I have since restarted CO2. Yesterday I began raising the KH again. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda every 12 hours for 48 hours will raise the KH to around 7 - 8 dH. I plugged the CO2 reactor in as soon as dH reached 4.0 to avoid problems. Maybe not enough carbon? I'm thinking about dosing the CO2 at 30 - 40ppm for a couple of weeks to see if I can't get those leaves to pearl for me. But the last time I did this the tank was choked with algae! Where is this "balance" everyone's talking about!? :huh:


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One thing I noticed you are missing from your dosing regiment is K.....other than that it sounds like youre doing everything right
 
I had some anacharis that did not do well with the Florish Excel, and according to some folks here it is a known problem. I wonder if it affects Hornwort too. I have some in my 55 gal. It grows, but I have to keep it trimmed becasue the older parts get brownish and thin and loose leaves. Maybe someone knows about this and can tell us.

BTW..great pics!!
 
Quartermain: 1 Up your waterchanges to 50% x 2 per week.

2 Add diy, co2. I would rig up a 2 litre bottle. Watch the kh and try to keep it over 3. (I see you have 7 or 8)

3 Forget about fertilizing for a couple weeks. I think you are just feeding the algae.

4 -Get 2 ottocinclus and/or some amano shrimp.

Your tank will be pretty. I like the aquascape :)
 
I add 15 ml of Excel daily to a 65 gallon tank and my Hornwort is growing like crazy. I don't think your problem is with Excel.
 
I have hornwort in my 29 gal and use Excel daily (5 ml? It's half a capful), and flourish 2x a week. It's growing like crazy. I just got a new light (Power Compact 65 watt, replacing the 20 W that came with the cheap aquarium kit), and the plants seem to love it. I didn't have to scrape the diatoms off the glass this week so I think the plants are starting to starve it. That was my goal, anyway.
 
At the risk of sounding overly enthusiastic given the fact that it's only been five days since my last post I just wanted to report that the new strategy already seems to be working.

The Wisteria is exploding The algae on the Anubias Nana appears to be going away. The brown edges on the Crypts are once again turning green. The water is polished. This has been the single most dramatic improvement in my tank since I replanted it.

Three Key Changes

1) As recommended I increased water changes to 50% twice per week. The stats out of the tap are: pH = 9+, KH = 3.8, GH = 10 +/- 1, NO3 = 5 ppm, PO4 = 0 ppm. I treat the water to buffer and adjust pH to 6.8 and that's it.

2) Also as recommended I cut back on the Ferts to avoid feeding the algae. I haven't changed what I'm dosing, just how often I'm dosing it. Currently I'm doing 2.5ml Iron, 5ml Flourish, 5ml Excel, 5ml K (KCL), durring each water change.

3) I built a DIY power reactor for my Hagen CO2 kit. This is something I've wanted to do for a long time but just didn't have the parts for. Well I got a hold of a free powerhead, an old acrylic tube from an unused undergravel filter, and a condiment bottle from a kitchen store. Cut a hole here, a slit there, and voila... my very own power reactor! Not only does a better job than the ladder diffuser but it allows me to turn the CO2 on and off (more or less) with the same timer. Now I've got CO2 under control!

I never thought a few simple changes could make such a difference. Now the challenge is to keep it this way.
 
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