Sos!!!!

[soulmia]

Ok all you guys,
Now I am panicing BIGTIME!!! Not only did my fish die on me...now my plants are doing the same!!!!

Check out the pics!!!!!

1. Giant mint: Spinach like leaves - notice the colour and texture
2. Lily: This is a creeper and is tied to the driftwood. Has yellowed considerably since the 1st day.
3. Red ludvigia:The colour has changed from a good red to a pale maroon and notice the roots! The roots are growing like crazy!!!
4. Unknown foreground plant : About 6 - 7 inches in height. The leaves have lost a lot of colour and are looking limp now :(
5. Unknown Plant: This is the plant no one knew the name of - the leaves are turning yelow and in some cases brown!!

Also, the suction tops that attach the filter to my tank had some white-ish slimy stuff on it.... looked like liquid silicone (although it wasn't)

WHAT"S going on in my tank!!!!!????

I finally found a guy who sells aquarium lights and he suggested 3 x 40 watt Phillips Trulites 6500 K :(

I am completely panicing! Someone also suggested that if I want a low maintainace and low cost tank, I should have low light needy plants like moss, java ferns and anubias nanas....
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[soulmia]

These are some pictures and the specifications of my tank's roof... I know I have the wrong lights and the wrong reflectors... but this was just make shift till I got the right lights.....

I am really upset now!! This planted tank is turning out to be a nightmare!!!!:confused:

[Lady Hobbs]

What happened with the reflectors that guy was making you?

Your plants probably need some plant food and for sure you need to get in there and cut away all the bad stuff or it will cause ammonia in your tank. The part on that red ludwigia has not turned gold.....that part is dead and needs to be removed, as well. Plants that are red in color require a higher output light so possibly that's the problem with that one.

Remember that these are also new plants and I doubt it would be uncommon to have some die offs when first re-potted. But it looks as they could use some fertilizer. But get rid of all the dead stuff and you will probably start seeing new growth again.

My plants look like blazes as well. Nothing is dying but nothing has grown much either but they've gone thru a LOT for tiny little plants. Like about smothered in slime twice, ripped out of the substract about 50 times, etc. *sigh

[Tails]

The only thing I can think of, is that it all stems from your lighting. Without sufficient lighting, the plants will use up more oxygen to try and survive, leaving the fish without much oxygen. Also with the excess plant decay in the water, maybe that contamintated the water and made it more uninhabitable for the fish?

Normal energy saving bulbs are nearly sufficient for planted tanks - thats why they make aquarium lights.

Also dont forget, some plants just dont like some tanks, no matter how hard you try. Are all these plants around the same pH standards? Some plants do better in different conditions, just like fish, so you may very well be mixing these types of plants who would have a hard time living in the tank with the sufficient lighting, who now have to struggle with the pH levels AND insufficient lighting as well, making it almost impossible to survive.

The one plant thats surviving: you may find that it likes the low light and water conditions in your tank. We had this plant and it died fairly quickly in our tank - we just didnt have favourable conditions for it lol

Shame I sympathise with you, this seems like a horrible thing to happen, esp when you have a new tank and want everything to go smoothly.

How long have you had the tank and energy saving bulb running?

PS: That last pic of your plants looks like a type of Water Wisteria...but I very easily could be wrong

PPS: These are all comments from an amatuer, so please excuse anything that I advised wrong ;P

[Lady Hobbs]

I thought your comments were very well written. Different plants do better in lower pH and some in higher pH. Some refer softer water than others so I think you are very right with your observations, Tails. I think if we find a plant that does well for us, we should just get a bunch of it and fill our tanks with the darned stuff. Forget the harder to grow stuff.

[soulmia]

Oh GODDDDD! This planted tank is proving to be the death of me!!!
The reflector that was supposed to come 4 days ago has STILL not come - the guy has been ill!! and to top it all - the local fish shop guy told me that the stainless steel reflector would be a bad idea as stainless steel absorbs light instead of reflecting it - I am not totally convinced though..... I feel he may be seeing a way to make some money out of me....

I was thinking, since the anubias nana and java ferns need low light, should I have only low light plants in the tank???
Which other plants require low light? I'll get rid of the red ones and the other high light ones.....

HELP me Hobbs!!!

[Tails]

Well thank you, Hobbs :) *blush*

Soulmia, even though your rescue lies in the hands of Hobbs, I'll just leave a link here in my post for you about plants and their lighting (I found it useful :P):

Haha! I just saw now it was written by Hobbs lol!!

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Otherwise these have been mentioned by other people on other forums:

Anubias, barteri types and nana, java ferns, normal narrow and windlov and java moss

[soulmia]

Thanks for posting! And like Hobbs said - the comments were written very well - I'm the amateur here! I should kick myself for tryin my hand at a planted tank when I have zero knowledge - I just didn't expect it to be so hard!

Like I mentioned, i will up the lighting and stick with the low light plants like the anubias nanas.... they seem to be doing well.....

Sigh..... I'm turning into a wreck!! I HATE anything dying on me!!!

[Tails]

Aw dont stress :) I'm soon venturing into a planted tank myself and I'm sure these things will happen to me too!

Good luck with everthing and be sure to keep us up to date on your tanks ressurection :P

[soulmia]

I'm tellin' you, it sucks that the LFS gives me bad advise on purpose. I think his theory is that the more the stuff dies - the better a customer I will become! Since he is the guy who stocks the most variety... I'm so helpless!

But I am now going to remove all the lilies, mints, small er foreground plants - which I am told need more light...
Will stick with java moss, java fern anubias nana and the red ludwigias....
What say hobbs???

Tails: Learn from my stupidity:hmm3grin2orange:

[soulmia]

The plant in the foreground was Sunsest Hygro but it was a green version of it. It was never red.... When I took it out of the tank today, it had grown long roots into the substrate...in just one week! Should I have held onto it??

As of tomorrow, I plan on having 3 lights each of 36W each (attachment with specs...please see if this is ok) That would total to about 102W for my tank...
I have kept the red ludwigia, the giant mint (I have attached a picture here), the java fern and the anubias nana(dwarf). I have given back the rest of the plants to the LFS. I'm attaching giant lily pics - notic how the leaves are becoming mushy....

I was told to grow some java moss and some more anubias nana… what do you think? With this kind of lighting, will I be ok?


Need as much advise as I can get…..

[RobbieG]

Java Moss is a low light plant and the Anubias nana should be able to handle just about anything so everything else being equal they should be OK

I agree with Tails I just killed 6 fish trying to get some plants that didn't like my tank to grow. I've probably tried ten plants and only two kinds didn't turn into mushy brown ammonia machines in like two days. (Not even counting the ones the LFS sold that weren't aquatic plants to begin with.) After my last disater I'm sticking with the plants that do like my water.