Dying Plants

**felix_fx2** · 10th Apr 2012, 03:05

Hi, can i request for a full tank shot? Better for other who might shed light.
And just curious about the vallis root still, even when they should be able to absorb via the leaves.... (not sure why but i just keep thinking about that.)

can you comment or a photo of the runners see how their doing, sorry but just want to have a look how their doing.

thanks

**aquarius** · 11th Apr 2012, 00:05

As you can see i cut off all the leaves. The new shoots has been like that for quite some time already. I wonder why it's not growing bigger and having more new shoots?

The below picture is some hairgrass that i removed. Notice that the roots are not growing well?

Notice that even the runners don't have good roots formation?

I've had the hairgrass from the day i set up this tank in Dec 2011. They seem to have stopped growing and looks to be dying very slowly. Hope the experts here can help.

**dmateo** · 24th Apr 2012, 17:51

I had the same problem on my previous setup which was running fine for 8 months, sadly I have not solution for it and ended up redoing the whole tank. I've changed all known parameter (water, fert, lighting, put co2) all to no avail and hence given up

The new tank is now growing fine for the past 2 months with no problem whatsoever...... fingers crossed.

**felix_fx2** · 24th Apr 2012, 18:14

Originally Posted by dmateo

I had the same problem on my previous setup which was running fine for 8 months, sadly I have not solution for it and ended up redoing the whole tank. I've changed all known parameter (water, fert, lighting, put co2) all to no avail and hence given up

The new tank is now growing fine for the past 2 months with no problem whatsoever...... fingers crossed.

Hi dmateo, very early when I started. I read about that some plants give out some chemicals in the water to kill or deter other plants from growing.

I can't recall the exact term ( I'm on the move now) but maybe you would want to give a rough plant list of the old setup. I will see if I kept a bookmark on that factor.

**dmateo** · 24th Apr 2012, 23:44

it was almost the same as bro aquarius. Vallisneria spirals, java fern, another stem type (long one with small leaves), and amazon swords. They all start to die one by one. I think it might be male nutrients in the soil but I've put root booster and fertilizer, which still doesn't do anything.
At the end I gave up and discarded the whole setup together.
Current setup I only have some Cabomba, Amazon swords and java moss on the drift woods with some micro sword. I also ditched the gravel and just use ready to use base, can't remember the brand it was a japanese make. So far so good although the micro does not seems to grow well (the don't spread) but I think it's probably due to insufficient light (2 x 24W on a 100 litter tank). Will try to add CO2 and change light next, but as for now I will leave it be and observe first

**aquarius** · 27th Apr 2012, 22:54

dmateo ~ YOur lights is definately not enough for a 100L tank. The setup that you say you ran for 8mths, did you use the same 2x24W lights for it?

felix ~ i've also read somewhere a long time back about plants giving off chemicals to kill or deter other plants from growing but i doubt it ever happens, the reason being that i've seen so many planted tank setups using the various species of plants and they all grow very well with each other. Something must be missing somewhere that is causing the plants not to grow well.

**aquarius** · 27th Apr 2012, 23:06

So far after i added Seachem Equilibrium, the vallis seem to have stabilised and grow a little but because i changed 100% water due to very bad hair algae problems, i did not add any Equilibrium for about 2weeks. The vallis start to turn yellow with a bit of the leaves also turning white again. I cannot confirm but it looks likely that it's got to do with not enough calcium and magnesium.

Anyway why aren't my Hairgrass growing well? Saw somebody's hairgrass growing very well in his Low tech Non CO2 but Excel enriched tank. Do i need to add excel in order to keep hairgrass?

**xXXXx13** · 28th Apr 2012, 02:09

Hi Aquarius, I've been dosing EasyLife Profito (weekly) and Carbo (every other day as far as possible) for my tank which have vallis in it. 2 of which have grown a plantlet each. A few of the vallis are so tall that the top portions are floating on the water surface. My tank is a 4ft with a 55W PL lighting. Also added monster roots into the substrate. I can pass you some of it for you to try out first if you are staying nearby.

**dmateo** · 29th Apr 2012, 11:59

Originally Posted by aquarius

dmateo ~ YOur lights is definately not enough for a 100L tank. The setup that you say you ran for 8mths, did you use the same 2x24W lights for it?

the 8 months setup run on aquazonic T5 24 x 4. So they are fine from light.
For the current one, I will beef it up with the new LED light when I get my hands on them... seems like the micro swords is not doing well. although the rest is ok, we at least so far..

Cheers

**aquarius** · 30th Apr 2012, 00:42

HI steven ~ thanks for offering to pass me some vallis to try out but not at the moment cos i'm currently battling very bad hair algae problem. Do you change water every week and if you do, by how much?

**xXXXx13** · 30th Apr 2012, 21:16

Hi aquarius, i tried to WC every week and the amount of water is about 1/8 of the tank water volume. I'm now having green spot algae on my tank wall which i'm too lazy to scrap off. Maybe you can get some cleaning crews like yamota, malayan shrimps or otto to help you combat with the algae.

**aquarius** · 3rd May 2012, 17:15

I already added one otto and 3 yamato shrimps but i also know that it's not enough to do the job cos the algae infestation is too bad. Anyway i want to find out and fix the root of the problem instead of just relying on the cleaning crews.

Algae issues aside..... it looks like no one is able to suggest or give any reasons why the plants are not doing well even though i've added Equilibrium.