help : melting plant

[neon]

I start seeing plants turns brownish and blackish below. Those on leaves on top are green. Any comment and suggest are appreciated.

Lighting 24w x 4
3' tank
water change : 20-30% / week
TMG 20ML after change
some ferrorus solution (2 caps - 10ml)
no additional Potassium added
fishes : 8 platies
12 cory
6 rasbora
3 Otto
1 sae
3 emperor
3 black tetra
1 common pleco
2 pigmy cory

Thanks !

Cheers
CHOK

[marle]

no c02?

[neon]

Sorry, missed out the most important one.

Yes, 1-2 bubble/sec, 10 hrs / day
heavily planted.
gravel 2" in front , 4" at the back, no base fertilizer. Temp holding tank.
lighting hours : 10 hours / day

Cheers
CHOK

[budak]

Can you identify your plant species? This would help a great deal in finding the problem. Thanks

[eric_kclee]

Yes Neon, tell us what is your plant that melt, Is other plant OK? what Other plat are they? Or they all melt together?? this are very important infor.

Like if you have Tonina Melting...I won't be too supprise..

[renrub]

I think the lighting isnt reaching the plants at lower depths.

[chua]

1-2 bubbles per second isn't an accurate gauge.

You may want to calculate the KH/PH/CO2 relationship.

[eric_kclee]

how to help without knowing the melting plant?

Just like asking 'why my fish die?'

[neon]

PH : 6.0
KH : 10 PPM
bubble count : 2 bb/sec

How do I calculate these 3 relationship together ?


The brownish/blackish plant is : Hottonia inflate

The melting plant are :
- Vallisneria gigantea
- Vallisneria americana


Thanks !

Cheers
[]

[budak]

Hottonia is very light demanding. for a 3 ft tank, with such plants, I would go for at least 3 watts per gallon (you have about 2 wpg). Vals are generaly very hardy plants, and lighting/Co2/fert are normally not an issue for them. Are they perhaps recently planted and still adapting? If so, leave them (or cut off the old brown leaves) and wait for new growth. Or perhaps you planted them to deep (the rootstock should be just below the substrate surface)?

[eric_kclee]

----------------
On 11/8/2003 9:20:05 PM

The melting plant are :
- Vallisneria gigantea
- Vallisneria americana
----------------

See..not all plant melt right?
Planted Val. before...I think they need quite alot of light. They are EASY plant by nature..it should not need very special attention on water condition.

You may have enough lighting but me not sure how you place you plant or light, you val. may not have received enough light. You can do some experiment, move you light!....Alternatively... you can put some plantlet at brighter area, I bet it will grow like wild fire.

[neon]

Thanks. You are right on the light condition and recent planted. This 3' is my temp holding tank. I wanted to get a bigger tank , but cannot tahan whenever visiting LFS likewise in Aquarama, itchy hand must buy.

Just got my MH light from H2O during Aquarama, it is intended for my big tank, I might hang it up and blast it through my 3' to try it out. Hope the plant won't "chow dah" leow !

Cheers
CHOK

[eric_kclee]

Just becareful of Algae...when there is a sudden big change in light condition....it will result in higher up take of nutrients...if nutrients & Co2 is not adjusted accordingly...plant will stunt and algae will bloom.

[neon]

Thanks . How am I achieving this ? Switch on the MH for 1 hr and the rest of time on PL ? Why do I need to adjust the nutrient if I change water 20% weekly and top up TMG 20ML according to the size of the tank ?

As I did not measure Potassium level, with the TMG topup and 20% water change would it be sufficient ? If Potassium is needed, would you recommend PMDD ? Which one, where to buy , how much does it cost, and how much to top up ?

Thanks !

[ckll]

----------------
On 11/8/2003 10:18:05 PM

As I did not measure Potassium level, with the TMG topup and 20% water change would it be sufficient ? If Potassium is needed, would you recommend PMDD ? Which one, where to buy , how much does it cost, and how much to top up ?

Thanks !
----------------

Wah TMG for potassium! That's rather costly []

You can get K2SO4 from Dr. Mallick (see LFS list) for your K. Cost <$10 for one big container.

Regarding lighting, what's the color temp of your 24W lights? I'm under the impression (could be wrong) that most 24W lights have lower color temp, means more red wavelenth, means less penetrative, means less light getting to bottom of tank.

[neon]

CKII , what I meant was beside putting TMG as water column fertilizer, I did not put any extra Potassium .