Problems with DSM, need advice

[Bong360]

Hi everyone, need some advice to what went wrong with my DSM. This was my 2nd attempt after my first attempt had mold. Grew the grass from seeds in the Fluval shrimp substrate, and all was growing well initially till about 3 weeks in, could see that some of the grass started to turn dark green and die off
Decided to flood the tank and maybe that was a mistake, the plants started to "melt" and that slowly spread. I had a Co2 dispenser but my co2 drop check indicator was forever reading blue no matter how much I was dosing (maybe I set it up wrong).

Right now 70% of the plants have melted (died imo) and it seems to have stabilised. Although I still don't know what went wrong initially. I did daily water changes after I flooded, ran my Hob filter and a sponge air filter too.

Right now my readings: ammonia is between 0 to 1, nitrite is 0 and nitrates are about 20ppm.

Any advice on what went wrong as I'm planning on starting another planted tank.

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[torque6]

Various facebook groups have already warned newbies from buying grass seeds from Taobao.

How do you expect NON AQUATIC plants To survive underwater?

Nowadays, every resource and learning experience available online. From Youtube to facebook vids. So many good resources compared to my time where everything is word of mouth.

You guys are the lucky batch.

[Bong360]

Thank you, never did though if that. Had just assume wildly that it was an aquatic plant. Mystery solved.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[BFG]

Various facebook groups have already warned newbies from buying grass seeds from Taobao.

How do you expect NON AQUATIC plants To survive underwater?

Nowadays, every resource and learning experience available online. From Youtube to facebook vids. So many good resources compared to my time where everything is word of mouth.

You guys are the lucky batch.

Looking back , I still remember this forum organised a bulk purchase of ADA Aquasoil , now most lfs stock up this soil .

[torque6]

Looking back , I still remember this forum organised a bulk purchase of ADA Aquasoil , now most lfs stock up this soil .

Last time only have 1 ADA distributor, who is Thio. ADA tanks were highly sought after those days. Now? No longer. So many similar quality products at 1/3 of the price.

I envy those people starting out now. Have youtube tutorials, face book, wechat support groups.