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Thread: Tank full of melted plants

  1. #1
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    Tank full of melted plants

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    I recently tore down my 1 foot tank and redid it. Added tropica soil, those 3 to 4mm kind of granular soil. Had a stone, was told it doesn't change the water parameters much. Plants were rotala bonsai, hair grass mini and monte carlo. Had a hang on back filter, with sponge and seachem matrix in it.

    Initial start was an attempt on DSM. With moist soil, not water logged misted it everyday and opening the cling wrap for about 15 mins each time. When I spotted mould, I flooded the tank and ran the filter, and poured in fritzyme bacteria.

    It was running fine and I was dosing about 4 drops of flourish excel every other day, with light schedule on 3 hours, off 4 hours, on 3 hours and that's it. A few leaves turned brown and came off on the rotala, but there was new growth, hair grass was creeping a bit, monte carlo rooted well and were running with lots of new growth. On the 12th day, I left my house for a 2 day period. And came back to a melted tank..
    My heart just sank.

    Tested the water and here are the parameters.
    Ph - 7
    Ammonia - 0.25
    Nitrite - 1
    Nitrate - 40

    Where did I go wrong?

    Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

  2. #2
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    You need a CO2 system. Your plants require it to convert from emerse to submerse form.
    Temporarrily you can use DIY CO2 using sugar water and yeast. Use a cheap difusser will do.
    If you have the funds, can a proper CO2 cylinder and solenoid valve.

  3. #3
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Thanks Greenie, will be getting a proper co2 system tmr. But I was told by a local lfs guy that the plants melting may have to do with the new substrate leaching ammonia. I thought ammonia and nitrate is supposed to be food for plants?

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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Quote Originally Posted by Jetxx View Post
    I recently tore down my 1 foot tank and redid it. Added tropica soil, those 3 to 4mm kind of granular soil. Had a stone, was told it doesn't change the water parameters much. Plants were rotala bonsai, hair grass mini and monte carlo. Had a hang on back filter, with sponge and seachem matrix in it.

    Initial start was an attempt on DSM. With moist soil, not water logged misted it everyday and opening the cling wrap for about 15 mins each time. When I spotted mould, I flooded the tank and ran the filter, and poured in fritzyme bacteria.

    It was running fine and I was dosing about 4 drops of flourish excel every other day, with light schedule on 3 hours, off 4 hours, on 3 hours and that's it. A few leaves turned brown and came off on the rotala, but there was new growth, hair grass was creeping a bit, monte carlo rooted well and were running with lots of new growth. On the 12th day, I left my house for a 2 day period. And came back to a melted tank..
    My heart just sank.

    Tested the water and here are the parameters.
    Ph - 7
    Ammonia - 0.25
    Nitrite - 1
    Nitrate - 40

    Where did I go wrong?

    Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
    It seems like if I trim plant back when moving them, they transplant well. If I move a mature plant, it melts. Moving, or redoing tank(same thing) is very stressful on plants, just like fish. Give everyone a good haircut and they should come back.

    Sent from my Nokia 3.1 A using Tapatalk

  5. #5
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Quote Originally Posted by Evilyn665 View Post
    It seems like if I trim plant back when moving them, they transplant well. If I move a mature plant, it melts. Moving, or redoing tank(same thing) is very stressful on plants, just like fish. Give everyone a good haircut and they should come back.

    Sent from my Nokia 3.1 A using Tapatalk
    Oh, I didn't move the plants, I got a new batch of plants. And I did trim the plants after planting them in. This time round, I got the rotala rotundifolia, rotala bonsai and monte carlo again, all tissue cultures. I trimmed back the rotundifolia after planting them. I didn't touch the bonsai as I thought they were too short and pretty to be trimmed now. As for the monte carlo, I didn't do much except trying to plant it deeper.

    One week in, rotundifolia melted pretty much, left a couple of them, bonsai somehow being steadfast, monte carlo pretty much melted all the way, except for a few floating around.

    I only started changing water like 2 days ago, 50% daily as I found my nitrate to be too high. Like 80ppm.

    Also, just got my co2 system setup so still figuring out what's the best BPS for my tank without killing the inhabitants.

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  6. #6
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    From my experience you dont need co2 to convert plants from emersed to submerge but will take longer


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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Depends on species. The science is CO2 readily available in air. At the point of flooding, the plants loses the abundance of CO2 in water. Injecting more CO2 helps in the transition. It's detrimental for some species based on experience if CO2 fertilization is not provided during this phase.

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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    I invested in a co2 system, so now I realised it's my rotala bonsai that melted the most, monte carlo are all gone.. and the rotundifolia took over everything. After keeping up with water change every 2 days, I think my tank has stabilised, but I lost an oto in progress and now with a bit of green spot algae

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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Do not add more fishes until plants stabilize. Get your NO3 down to below 30ppm by changing water.

    For GSA, either reduce intensity of your lighting if can dim or reduce lighting duration or both. Scrape any GSA on glass. GSA is taking the excess nutrients and light to start blooming. I can say which nutrient is in excess and which is deficient but any imbalance, algae will take advantage

    Increase your CO2 injection up to just until your remaining fishes start to stress and dial down. I don't follow the bubbles per second method or pH/kH table anymore.

    Only keen observation during the adjustment period that can last for hours up to a few days/weeks until you see both plants and fishes respond positively.

    I always pinpoint on CO2 first follow by light and follow by fertilizers. Plant mass and density also is on reason for success. Plant heavy initially is better than to let it slowly grow out. Less headache.

  10. #10
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    My ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and nitrate, at 10. Have been dosing tropica liquid ferts every water change, and I just stopped it when I saw the abundance of GSA.

    Stopping ferts and increasing the height of the light to reduce the intensity to see how the GSA reacts.

    I introduced the oto when the ammonia and nitrite was at 0, and nitrate was holding at less than 40ppm for a few days. But it still passed on 2 weeks later.

    This tank is a skittles tank, only neo shrimps..

    And only recently, I think I'm having an invasion of Rhabdocoela worms. I cant see any arrow head so I'm pretty sure they aren't planaria and my shrimps are not dying.

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  11. #11
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    GSA is a pain in the butt algae for me.

    FYI, I diyed my LED lights for correct spectrum and intensity for any aquatic plants on this planet.

    My DIY lights are dimmable, both manually and programmable. So from up to 20% intensity, my plants are happy but not pearling. 20%-30% it starts pearling but GSA slowly will start visible on glass if I do not do frequent water changes. 30%-50% intensity, full pearling but GSA starts popping on glass, hardscapes and plant leaves. Dialing down my lights to somewhere 20-25% stop GSA growth but my high intensity plant, rotala sp ramosir tends to be not "happy" if prolong for days. Still grow side shoots but leaves becomes orangy to pink rather than deep red.

    Beyond that, no real benefits to plants, so I've over built my lights. My tank is 2.5ft deep, that's why.

    I've read adding PO4 reduces or stop GSA but results have been mixed for me but you can try dosing po4 seperately in slightly higher doses. My fert dosing is automated using 4 pump doser and diy ferts for Macro, Micro, Fe and NO3 using EI dosing regime.

    Like you, I restarted my tank in Jan with only tons of buceps (slow growing), rotala sp ramosir and HC.

  12. #12
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    I'd love to know how you DIY your lights. Mid sharing with me?

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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    I don't mind sharing here but wait for me to open a new thread in DIY section. Basically using various wavelength colours of 3 watt led emitters in series, adding different led lens angle, led driver (power supply) and controllers for the sunset/sunrise effect.

    I use Seneye Reef for PAR reading and lumens strength for my DIY Lights. Learnt a lot through the DIY.

    I've made for a few friends before by retrofitting their old light fixtures.

    Just watch the DIY section. Soon.

  14. #14
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    I can't find the DIY section in tapatalk.. got a link?

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  15. #15
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    DIY Projects
    But I need to dig through my PC for mine. I never document any of my projects but everything is in my head. Best is when I make another one with slightly different version.

  16. #16
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    Re: Tank full of melted plants

    Wow! Thanks! I'll be glued there for a while!

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