why do my plant leaves die and look dead?

[thenuggetuk]

Hey
I have a planted tank with a couple of plants but for some reason the leaves are dying and they are looking very unhappy. I use fertilizer to try and make them better. I do not know if it is because of snails? or my angels because they tend to nip at the leaves when they are ready to lay eggs??

Is there any way i can encourage healthier plant growth? Even normal pond weed is struggling to grow happily without turning brown and dying

I ENVY YOU PEOPLE WITH NICE PLANTED TANKS!! lol

All advise welcome I have a light which is good for plants.

thank you!!

[Damon]

Could be a number of things.......
Improper ferts
Inadequate lighting for plants
Disease
fish
inadequate substrate
wrong plants (not aquatic)

Tank specs fert schedule would be more helpful.

[thenuggetuk]

the fertiliser is called Tropica Master Grow I give about20-25ml once a week at the moment until i work out the dimensions of my tank properly so i can work out the amount of water.
All plants were from my LFS and i have gravel substrate and the light was also recommended by the LFS
I do not know of any disease

I have mollies, guppies, platies, angels, plecos, golden snails, gourami and tetra

thanx

[Christine]

LFS plants are often not true aquatic plants. LFS recommendations unfortunately are also generally not up to snuff. After all, if they send you home and everything works great and you don't need anything else from them... well, thats not making them money. If however they send you home with fish/plants that don't work and end up dieing, its quite possible you will come back for more to try again.

What are the dimensions of your tank? If you dont know the names of the plants, how 'bout posting a photo? Look on the light and see what kind of light it is.

[thenuggetuk]

4ft(48inchs)x1'6"(18inches)x1'8" (20inches) . The substrate is gravel about 2inches deep which makes it about 60gallons (273litres).

The tank is near a window and the light is an aqua glow 40w which is on about 10-11hours a day.

I am unsure of the plants but i am trying to find my camera at present so bare with me lol. I use tropica master grow 25ml once a week.

I have a full tank i think lol. 3angels, 2minnows, 5guppies, 4platies, 4mollies, 2plecos, 2tetra, 4danio, 1silver shark, 2gourami

The temp is around 26C (78F)

The tank gas been set up almost a year now!

Ill post the plants asap!!!

thank you for your help!

[thenuggetuk]

[thenuggetuk]

[MyraVan]

A plain gravel sunstrate isn't the best for growing plants, but some people have success with it. A substrate specifically meant for growing plants (or one that is meant for something else but happenes to be suitable) will help.

But your major problem is the lighting... There's nowhere near enough!

Usually plant enthusiasts talk about watts per gallon (wpg). First thing is, the gallons that they talk about are American gallons, presumably your tank is 60 Imerial gallons, right? That's about 72 American gallons. So you have 40/72 = about .55 wpg. This is a *very* low light tank. To get any decent plant growth, you need at least 2 wpg, although if you're contented with a quite limited range of plants and slow growth, you could go as low as 1.5 wpg.

So, first thing you need to decide is, do you really want to grow plants in your tank? If so, you're going to need a serious investment in lighting. By far the most energy efficient way of getting the lighting you need is to get Arcadia T5 HO lighting. This will set you back about 60 quid for a lighting controller that will light 2 tubes, 16 quid or so for each of the tubes, and 7 quid each for reflectors. You can also go the power compact lighting route, which will cost quite a bit less, but will be far less energy efficient: I haven't found any electronic controllers for PC bulbs in the UK, nor have I found any reflectors specifically meant for PC bulbs.

So have a quick think about whether you really want to grow plants, and I can advise you on specifics.

[thenuggetuk]

i really really want my tank to look as naturally as possible for one it looks nicer and also the fish will be in a better more natural enviroment, so hopefully it will be better. I am hoping to save electricity rather then using lots just for a tank lol or even havin a huuuuuuuuuuge electric bill!!

thanks for ur help

[MyraVan]

OK, if you really want the plants, then a lighting upgrade is a must.

Now, the 2 wpg minimum I qouted was for T8 lighting, which is (presumably) what you have already. T8 just refers to the diameter of the tubes, 8/8" (ie 1"). If you really want to do energy efficient lighting, you need to go over to T5 HO lighting. T5 refers again to the diameter of the tubes (5/8"), HO means High Output. T5 HO bulbs (tubes, lamps, whatever, I tend to use the terms interchangeably) are about 50% more efficient than T8 bulbs, so you get 50% more lumens/watt from the T5 HO than the T8s. This is partly where the energy efficiency comes from. The other source of energy efficiency is that the starter (aka controller or ballast) for these T5 HO bulbs is electronic. Most likely the starter you have now is magnetic, which consumes alot of power (you can feel the power being used in the form of the hear it emits). Electronic starters consume almost no power. They also prevent your bulb from flickering (I can see the flickering in bulbs with magnetic starters) and don't have that irritating flashing when they turn on; they simply go from off to on.

The upshot of this is that in your situation, you need 2*72=144w of T8 lighting. This is 4 of the bulbs you already have! But since T5 HOs are so much more efficient, you only need about 144/1.5=96w of them. In the UK, Arcadia are the folks to go to for T5 HO lighting. Your options are 2 34", 39w bulbs, or 2 46" 54w bulbs. I'd go for the latter. The Arcadia Pro Plant bulbs are very nice, a good color (in my opinion) and plenty bright.

If you can't find this stuff in your local shop, it's easy to find online. Just do a Google for Arcadia T5 and you'll find what you need.

As for the plants themselves, I haven't found a single local fish shop that has anywhere near the selection of the online shops. I have been buying from Greenline, but recently I bought a few from AquaEssentials, who sell the Danish Tropica plants. As first glance the Tropica plants seem very expensive (costing about 5 quid each), but you get alot for your money. The plants I got were really healthy, with alot of leaf and root, and there were quiet a few plants in the pot.

As for what plants to choose, the best info on plants comes from the Tropica website http://www.tropica.com/