Aquarium Plants dying off

[daginge]

I am having trouble keping aqaurium plants alive in my community tank. They seem Ok at first but quite quickly fade. I recently bought two which are somewhat like a spider plant in colour but with a thickish almost leek like stem. The lower leaves are already transparent and the upper ones beginning to brown in places. Any assistance would be appreciated. NB I have not checked PH or hardness as I don't have test kits for these only a nitrite kitfor general health checking.

[hammerman]

Quite a few plants that are sold for the aquarium are infact domestic housplants and will not survive for very long at all....and that includes the "spider plant" type plant you describe.

For general, all purpose plants that will put up with low light etc, try things like amazon swords, java fern, vallis and ludwigia.

Don't worry about pH or anything, most plants will survive in a variety of conditions.

There is a planted tank forum which is good. You can ask questions on there although it can get a bit "high tech" http://www.ukaps.org/forum/ Good luck and keep asking the questions.

[daginge]

Cheers H!

[B00]

My plants never survive for long either, but I think i've discovered the culprit, my red tailed shark. He happily works his way up and down each and every leaf nibbling away.

Threatening to BBQ him is having no effect ;-)

[daginge]

Hammerman
I have also noted that whereas before there was a lot of thick green algae on the rocks it now has bald perfectly circular patters through it. Could this be that it is dying off due to water chemistry or am I mountaineering up a molehill here? ;-)

[hammerman]

RT sharks are generally not considdered a pest to plants. I'd have one in my planted tank with no worries at all except that they nearly always end up very terratorial. When they "nibble" the leaves, they are just eating the algea off it not the plant itself.

Plants need....sufficient lighting, CO2 and a decent, nutrient rich substrate if they're going to thrive. A weekly addition of plant food is also useful.

However, if the lighting is low, plant growth will be much slower and therefore much less CO2 and nutrients will be needed. This is called a "low tech" planted tank. The plants i names above...plus quite a few others will do very well, although Amazon swords are very "root hungry" plants and like a plant food tab being poked into the gravel.

The more lighting you have, the faster the plants grow and they will soon use up all the available CO2 and nutrients. The plant then becomes pale and thin and very weak. I have 6 flourescent tubes over my 100 gallon tank and i really pump the CO2 in there too. Ovbiously this is classed as "high tech"...although more like high maintenance as you need to prune the plants back almost weekly.

One small tip, the more plants you have, the less likely you are of getting algea problems. They tend to starve the algea of nutrients.

[B00]

Seriously Hman? Hello stranger by the way- you well? As I've seen the little beggar whiskering his way up and down the leaves.

Do you mean i've been threatening to BBQ him for nothing?

looks suspiciously at her bristlenosed catfish, hmmmm

[hammerman]

In answer to your second question, it's very hard to say without knowing what type of algea it is. There is a particularly nasty type called cynobacter or slime algea. It's not technically an algea but a bacteria which covers everything in this thick greeny blue slime.

You clear it away with a syphon and it almost grows back before your eyes. The only way to clear the tank of this awful stuff is to completely black the tank out for 3 days....i wrapped my tank in bin bags and then wrapped it in a quilt and blankets and turned all the lights off. I didn't touch it for 3 whole days...the fish were fine without food and the algea had gone...never to return !!!

[hammerman]

Hi Boo....yes im fine thanks and always check this site several times a day.

I certainly wouldn't point the blame at the shark and to tell you the truth, even the BN plec would be dubious....i have a lovely plec in my tank (don't know what species but looks like a leopard) and again, they tend not to eat plants.

Do you have any snails....some may be nocturnal so you may miss them.

If you have any worries about your plec, try feeding him a bit of cucumber a couple of times a week. I cut off about an inch then i use those lead weights from the plants to make sure it sinks. Leave it in there for max 24 hrs. My clown loach love it too and infact most of the fish will have a nibble. Algea wafres are good too.

[B00]

No worries about my catfish HMan, they obviously content as the little devils are doing what comes naturally (I stupidly put the female in with the male- long story- dont ask!) and now I have at least 5 tiny babies as well....lol

[hammerman]

Surely that's not a bad thing Boo....ickle BN's are gorgeous !!! Good luck.