Aquarium Plant Woes

[Blue Guppy]

Its great to be back after more than 4 years I think.

I'm having problems with my plants thriving in my tank. I have recently changed my tank from an African cichlid to South American cichlid. Here is my stock right now:

1 Golden Severum about 5" in diameter
1 Electric Blue Jack Demsey about 5" long
1 Firemouth - about 3-1/2" long
3 Clown Loaches

My tank size if 55 gal - Dimension : 30" long x 24" deep x 18" wide

My substrate is the TopFin black gravel

My plants include the following:

6 Vallisnerias
4 to 5 Cabomba
8 Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus
3 Anubias Nana glued to a rock decor
1 2" x 3" patch of Christmas Moss tied to a wood decor
Several patches of Micro Swords planted in the foreground

My decors:

1 wood branch about 14 to 16" long (where the Christmas Moss is tied to)
1 wood like decor I got from PetSmart about 18 long

I have a heater that's good for a 40 to 55 gal tank

I have 2 Aquatech power filters each capable to filtering 20-40 gal tank.

Water Temp around 78 to 80 F.

Water pH between 6.5 to 7.2 but not sure.

I have a Finnex 24/7 Planted+ HLC-24A LED Light 24" Fish & Planted Aquarium Light

I have purchased another Finnex 30" PLANTED+ 24/7 HLC SILVER AQUARIUM LED but has not arrived yet.

I have attached a snapshot of what my tank looks like right now.

I have started purchasing plants online about a month ago and stared to propagate as I get them. The Vals and Cabomba are all planted at the background followed by the Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus a bout 2 inches in front of the 2 plants I mentioned. Both the Anubias Nana and Micro Swords are planted in the foreground. I have the aquarium lights on overnight (about 12 hours of lighting), I have also inserted several Root Fertilizer tabs by Osmocote...roughly about 4 to 6" apart all over the tank. I have also squirted about 6 to 8 squirts of Easy Green Fertilizer that I purchased from Aquarium Coop (similar if not slightly better from Seachem) per week.

I have purchased the Vals and Cabomba for about more than a month now, the Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Christmas Moss, Anubias Nana and the Micro Swords coming to about 2 weeks. I know that most plants when purchased will usually melt down since most of these have been grown out of the water. Amongst all the plants that I mentioned, the Anubias Nana are the ones that have not melted down and seem to be doing well...so far. But the Vals and Cabomba seem dull and not doing well. A lot of the leaves especially from the Vals have turned brown and wasting away. Also the Micro Swords have melted so much that I think these might eventually die. Hopefully not =( The Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus looks ok but with all the fertilizer that I have already put in the tank I was expecting it to flourish.

Per what I had mentioned above and all the parameters, tank size and fertilizer I have put in is there something that I am missing that will hopefully be the solution to help ALL my plants flourish?

Thank you for any advice and comment you can give. I appreciate it.

[Blue Guppy]

Hi to all

I have an update with what I posted above.

I have traded my previous stock with the following:

1 Albino plecostomus

5 electric blue rams

3 golden ram

1 german ram

2 apistogramma borelli

4 apistogramma agassizzi

11 cardinal tetras

12 ember tetras

I've also added a few Marimo Moss and attached it to a driftwood. I've added a couple of Java Moss attached to a metal mesh.

I did a pH test recently and came out to be 6.0 to 6.5

I've added a DIY CO2 diffuser (yeast, sugar and baking soda) that runs 24 hours. A large soda bottle usually last for about 1-1/2 days. So I reload it every other day.

I bought a new heater after discovering my current heater is sort of busted. It keeps the temperature to 82 F even after turning the knob to 75F. With the new heater, I've managed to keep the temp to 72 F.

I've started to dose iron for the past 2 weeks and added a few more root tabs.

So with these changes, my plants seem to be flourishing. IMO the following may have improved the conditions of my plants and with some of my fish:

1. Per my research in various websites, most aquarium plants thrive between 70 to 75 F.

2. Since my aquarium is starting to be heavily planted, dosing it with injected C02 via DIY and iron seem to have a positive effect on the plants. I'm really not sure whether this contributed a lot.

3. I have severely reduced the lighting hours from 12 hours (from 8pm to 8am) to 6 hours (8am to 2pm). I noticed the cabomba growing really fast as well as the Vals and Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus.

My only pet peeve is my Java Moss. I bought it about 1-1/2 months ago. Its still brown and seems to have lost all its greens. I've done extensive research on how to make it thrive and all the parameters I listed above fits the bill. The changes I mentioned above is only a couple of weeks old so maybe giving a month or so might bring my java moss become green again. So far no signs of it turning green. But am welcome for any advice you might have.

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome back.
@Boundava for the plant questions

That's ALOT of rams for a tank that size, you don't have any territorial issues?

Any idea of your M/F ratio with them?

[Blue Guppy]

Luckily I was fortunate enough to have bought a docile bunch. The german ram is female, one of the golden ram and electric blue ram are male.

[Slaphppy7]

You list 9 rams total, what about the other 6?

[Blue Guppy]

You list 9 rams total, what about the other 6?

1 female german ram

1 male golden ram and 2 female golden ram

1 male electric blue ram and 4 female electric blue ram