Plants are dying!!!

[zoidberg]

I have a 55 gallon planted tank and it's been up and running for about 8 months now. I had it setup with just all plants and fish there was no other decorations. All the plants were multiplying and looked healthy. I thought it looked kind of plain. So about 2 months ago I got some rock from my lfs and made a area up for the fish to hide and to make my tank look better. When I did this I reposition some of the plants and took out some of them. The tank look awesome, and I was very happy with it. About two weeks after redoing the tank my plants started to take a turn for the worse. First the bearded algae started to come, and some of the plants started to die. I got rid of the bearded algae for awhile by pulling it off and doing weekly water changes instead every two weeks. I did that for about a month and it worked and all the bearded algae was gone. Then about two weeks ago the algae came back and more of the plants are starting to die. I don't know what to do next, I tried adding liquid co2 to save the plants and it didn't do anything. My water test are coming out good. PH 7.8 Amm 0 Nitrite 0 and Nitrate 0. Like I said the tank is a 55 gallon with a fluval 305 filter, and 48" aquaticlife dual bulb 54w t5 fixture. 120lbs of caribsea eco complete plant substrate. Any suggestions?

 

[KARussell88]

When you move plants you rip or damage their roots, they will normally die off for a little while until they re-establish themselves. Make sure you rip out all the dead leaves because they will rot and can throw off your water parameters.

 

[Luukosian]

Like mentioned above you might have damaged the root structure when you moved them. Also how many fish do you have and what plants, and just more about your tank in general. 0 Nitrate in a planted tank is actually not preferred.....your plants need nutrients(NPK) in order to thrive.

If these are stem plants it really doesn't matter if you keep the roots or not, they should jump right back. Something like Anubias can be a little more picky when you move it.

 

[zoidberg]

Thanks for the quick replies I have some Wisteria, which is probably the healthiest of all my plants now. I also have some Rotala Magenta, Ludwigia, Balansae, Anubias, Dwarf Sword. The dwarf sword is a newer plant that I bought after I redid the rock but that is also dying. I didn't know nitrates are good for plants, what level should it be at?

 

[Luukosian]

Ussually fish waste is enough to keep nitrates up...when I was dosing a tank with a low bioload I was keeping it at 5-10ppm and doing good. With the plants and lights you've listed you should be pretty good on nutrients with just regular water changes and possibly occasional dosing. When you start with a "high-tek" co2 type system, dosing becomes more important because plant growth skyrockets. I fooled around with the liquid co2, and the "low-tek" yeast co2 systems and they just cause more problems than good, save yourself the trouble.

I fought algae in all my non-co2 regulated/high light tanks for years before I went co2 and I'll never look back.

 

[KARussell88]

your nitrates could also be zero because your plants are using them all up though. In my planted tank I just overfeed a tiny bit.

 

[Luukosian]

That is true, I just like to see a small amount of nitrates in my freshwater tanks....I'm with you KAR, I just make sure the fish are well fed. I dose potassium and micro's and let the nitrate/phosphate keep itself in check with regular feeding. Black beard algae can be a real pain...a true siamese algae eater will eat it, but other than that you need to find the root of the problem. One of the macro nutrients being out of whack(npk) will be detrimental to plants but algae could care less.

The trick to any freshwater planted tank is to make the plants grow so fast the algae has no chance to get a foothold. You will almost always have SOME algae but thats what the freshwater version of a cleanup crew is for. I've found true siamese algae eaters, otocinclus, and your run of the mill chinese algae eaters to be the best combo.

food for thought....just because my plate is empty doesn't mean I don't want more to eat

 

[KARussell88]

Siamese algae eaters are key! a.k.a flying foxes lol

 

[Luukosian]

Ussually if they are sold as flying foxes they are the false siamese......when a store can get them in stock and knows what they have they are labeled as Siamese algae eaters. Flying foxes= Epalzeorhynchus kallopterus. True siamese = Crossocheilus siamensis. The best way to tell the difference is in a true siamese the dark line will extend all the way to the end of the tail fin....don't know how many times I've gone to a store and flying foxes are labeled as siamese. Anyways....enough fish talk I gotta head to bed! Thanks for the good freshwater thread, we need more!

 

[KARussell88]

sorry I didnt mean a.k.a lol i meant and/or flying foxes. stay away from chinese algae eaters though!

 

[DavidM]

When you move plants you rip or damage their roots, they will normally die off for a little while until they re-establish themselves. Make sure you rip out all the dead leaves because they will rot and can throw off your water parameters.

So right - I had the same issue when I was moving the inside of one aquarium to another bigger one... I accidentally damaged the roots of my plants and in the end I wasn't sure how badly the injury has been so I had to throw them away because I believed they wouldn'r re-establish themselves at all. Unfortunately. I really loved them because they were a plant gift from my mother. Nonetheless, I simply had to buy new plants though I would have preferred keeping my old ones.