Browning HC

[matashi]

Hi guys, need some help.

I have 3x1.5x1.5 growing HC emerge for about 1 month. Every was fine then. After flooding 1 week later, HC leaves turn brownish at the edge. Hc seems to be spreading also. Can I know what am I missing?

Tank: 3x1.5x1.5
Co2: 4 per sec @8hours
Lights 39w x2 t5 12000K @9hours a day

Have a 4 guppies, 2 oto, 5 shrimps inside.

Using ohf and water outlet is smooth without splashing water.

1 thing I notice is the shrimps tend to hide most of the time under shade as I don't have chiller. They are fire red shrimps.

Any advise?


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[wongce]

browing,melting...aka dying during conversion from emerge to submerge is normal...

check your temperature...below 30 degrees Celsius should be ok for plants and fire red shrimps..

shrimps hiding are normal, but if the hide together (group and cramp together) in 1 place for a long time...that means something is very very wrong...

[matashi]

So I should let the tank be and the HC will go back to the normal green?

The shrimps are hiding all over the tank. A few are sort of burrowing themselves below the plants and pulling the roots off ;(

Temperature is maintained between 29-30 degrees. Should I change lights or?


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[qool]

Consider getting a fan to lower the temperature since all plants do better with lower temperature.

[Urban Aquaria]

The shrimps are hiding all over the tank. A few are sort of burrowing themselves below the plants and pulling the roots off ;(

That's normal... especially in tanks with HC as the main carpet plant, shrimps love to hide under the carpet and feast on all the food particles and detritus accumulated inside. The benefit is they help to clean the undergrowth, but the side effect is they also tend to steadily uproot the HC too.

[wongce]

Your FR are just scavanging for food ..Secondly, shrimps will come out in the open a lot lesser if you have fish like guppies around....haha so its normal.... e.g will you swim with the sharks ?

[matashi]

Lol I thought something is wrong with the shrimps. What should I do to prevent them from uprooting the HC? Will the HC grow green by itself?


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[Urban Aquaria]

Lol I thought something is wrong with the shrimps. What should I do to prevent them from uprooting the HC? Will the HC grow green by itself?

Nothing much you can do about shrimps uprooting HC (other than shifting out the shrimps temporarily)... i guess the best solution is to allow more time for the HC to grow stronger roots and then it'll be less likely for them to be uprooted.

Thats usually one of the reasons why people try to establish a dense HC carpet fully before adding shrimps.

Your HC turning brown at the edges is just due to the weaker emersed leaves rotting away as the plants transition to submersed form, once they adapt to the new conditions, the new submersed leaves will be nice and green.

[matashi]

Ooh ok thanks. I'll switch them out first. Thanks!


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[Ingen]

I lost my HC carpet of 6 months to a ""Swam" of CRS. Probably because the undergrowth started to die off, thus the CRS removed it area by area in a very tactical manner hahha.

[matashi]

Wa. HC not suitable for shrimps?


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[thebaldingaquarist]

To avoid up rooting, what I practice is to feed the shrimps somewhere else in a dish. The feed breaks down but will not go in between the hc leaves.
I did this with varying degrees of success. Another thing is to trim often. This is because if it's not trimmed, the lower tiers will start browning and it will up root itself.

Hope it helps you.

[matashi]

Wa I din know HC needed trimming. But if light is strong enough then HC won't grow high right?


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[wongce]

Eh, still need to trim now and then, hc will grow over adjacent plant and cause the lower hc to die off...then the top hc will start to float....

Well most plants needs prunning...unless you go for java ferns...(I still prune the leaves though)...

[matashi]

Wa if my HC can carpet the whole floor I very happy liao


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[qool]

With cooler water, strong lightsand co2 not really that hard