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Thread: Why are my plants dying all the sudden

  1. #1
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    Why are my plants dying all the sudden

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    I have 3 plant types in my tank: Vallisneria Spiralis, bucephalandra sp godzilla (attached to fake wood ornaments); ancharis, egeria densa. 55 Gallon tank

    Before they started dying off, everything was lush and healthy for months. The Valls were so healthy that they were filling the tank too much almost. At this point, the Valls are only about 20% left, the bucephalandra is gone completely and the ancharis are only about 5% left. This took about 1 1/2 months to get to this place (from a very healthy state).

    I am noticing that the Valls's runners seem to be turning brown first, then one leaf at a time turns red, translucent and when I pull on them, they come off at the gravel, root.

    When I first noticed the plants suffering a little, I looked back to any changes I had made. these were the changes I had made about 2-3 weeks before I noticed the problems:

    1 - changed one of my filters (my unit holds two) from the Marineland penguin (with carbon inside) to the Api BIO CHEM zorb. The aquarium did seem even more clear than usual.

    2 - I put a different lid on top of the glass. I usually just use pieces of glass. I took them off and put new glass pieces that had hinges in the middle and handles to make it easier to feed. I noticed that the black hinges/connectors in the middle was keeping the light from spreading as much and I was concerned maybe plants in certain areas might not be getting enough light.

    3 - The Vals were so thick that the fish didn't have as much space to swim around in them so I thinned them up quite a bit. And created paths throughout them where I took some Vals out completely. At first I thought this might have been the problem, but this wouldn't affect the other plant types.

    4 - I had put nitrazorb and phoszorb "pillows" in my filter as the nitrates and phosphates were getting high. It is not unusual for me to do this sometimes as my well water goes through periods of high nitrates and phosphates.

    4 - Although not an unusual event, I had taken some of the ornaments out and dosed with hydrogen peroxide to kill off some black algae. I rinsed them well, placed them back in tank and did a water change. This is not unusual maintenance though.

    Once noticing the problem getting really bad, a few weeks ago, I put the old filters back, put the old glass back, took the "pillows" out and did a 50% water change. The problem has not gotten any better. I take handfuls of vals out, that are dead and floating, every week.

    I tested my water parameters. They have not changed this whole time (before and after issues):

    PH: 8.2
    Nitrite: 0
    Nitrate: 5.0
    Ammonia: 0
    Phosphate: .25
    KH 7 (125.3) this usually rides between 5 and 7
    GH 6 (107.4)

    Typical maintenance:

    API liquid co2 (which really made my Vals take off) every day

    Dose with Thrive (for shrimp) fertilizer 3 times a week and put capsules in the gravel every few months.

    My weekly maintenance is typically: 30% water change, clean filters, stress zyme, stress coat. Test for all parameters above.

    Any ideas what is going on? I am going to be out of plants soon and will need to replenish before my algae gets all out of wack and I don't want the same thing to happen to the new ones.
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  2. #2
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    Re: Why are my plants dying all the sudden

    Surprised I haven't heard anything on this post. Plants are almost dead now. I have stopped dosing with the liquid co2 and took the activated carbon out of the filtration.

  3. #3
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    Re: Why are my plants dying all the sudden

    Maybe you have changed a lot of these things all at once, it really changed the environment your plants were living in. It might be this, or it can be other reasons.. This article explains a lot of reasons why aquarium plants are dying : https://www.theaquariumkeeper.com/10...ants-are-dying

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