Trouble with Micromeria brownei

[Law Dog]

About 3-4 weeks ago I purchased 2 Mint Charlie's (Micromeria brownei) and removed them from the rockwool. I planted them at a depth that they were at in the pot, but after a week I started noticing the bottom of the stems browning and the lower leaves dying off. It has since progressed to the point where I removed one of them today and cut back to the green stem portion and replanted. This time I separated them into 3-4 per bundle instead of all in 1 bundle. I didn't touch the other one as it has new shoots growing from the substrate (4 of them), but the old part of the plant is doing the same thing.

I was told that this plant was similar in its requirements as Crypts and Vals, thus why I purchased them. The Crypts and Vals and doing outstanding, thus why I'm at a loss as to what I'm doing wrong for the Mint Charlie's. I do weekly W/C's and my nitrates never get about 10-20, with all the others ZERO. I have a 48" Beamswork 6500k (.5w x 54 @ 2600 lumens) that is timed for 8hrs of white and 10hrs of Acentic with the whites overlapping the blues.

Any suggestions?

I've been contemplating about adding another light (full spectrum) but I don't know if I really need it for what I have in the tank.

[dwarfguy]

It sounds like a light problem. You can try upping the 6500 k to 10 hrs as well and see what that does. If it were me and everything else were going well with little to no algae I would probably just consider those plants a loss. I am not familiar with them so can't provide specific recommendations. I do know once you start adding more light you up the odds of algae outbreaks and then get all the fun of trying to balance nutrients and plants, plus more time spent trimming and plucking.

[Slaphppy7]

If it were me and everything else were going well with little to no algae I would probably just consider those plants a loss.

+1 to that.

[Law Dog]

It sounds like a light problem. You can try upping the 6500 k to 10 hrs as well and see what that does. If it were me and everything else were going well with little to no algae I would probably just consider those plants a loss. I am not familiar with them so can't provide specific recommendations. I do know once you start adding more light you up the odds of algae outbreaks and then get all the fun of trying to balance nutrients and plants, plus more time spent trimming and plucking.

Thanks DG. If both plants were suffering the same fate equally I would agree 100% with considering them a loss, but 1 of them actually has 4 new shoots coming from the gravel that appear to be healthy and growing good. It may be short lived but we shall see.....

I can try to up the time on the light as I have very little algae at the moment. If it does increase my algae growth then I will surely bring it back down. I'd hate to battle that since I've now gotten my diatom issue licked since switching the tank from no plants/Africans to planted/community.

[Law Dog]

I ended up ditching the MC's as they kept clogging my filters and power heads every day. I bought an Amazon Sword and split it, so fingers crossed that they do well. My crypts and vals are growing like crazy after just 3 weeks though.