Melting plants - so frustrated

by **Lairewen** on Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:07 pm

Last week I completely revamped my 28l tank. I removed all but a tiny
bit of the old gravel, put in ecocomplete, planted it reasonably
heavily and have been dosing with fertiliser and easycarbo. And I'm
*still* getting plants melting or going brown. Any suggestions as to
what I'm doing wrong? I really can't afford any more plants. The lights
are on for about 10 hours a day, no livestock yet, but the filter is
being kept mature with a daily sprinkling of food.

Thanks.

by **Vandraco aka Bronzecat** on Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:05 pm

Hi
What light tubes have you got? (T5,T8 etc)

by **Lairewen** on Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:49 pm

Oh, erm, no idea... whatever came with the tank... it's an aquastart 320.

by **Vandraco aka Bronzecat** on Sat Aug 22, 2009 11:30 pm

T5's then

They are the smaller diameter tubes, but produced better light than the larger T8's.
Are you using an under gravel filter?
Try less light hours, say down to 7 per day.

by **cherrydanio** on Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:32 am

We had this problem with our dwarf puffer tank. Everything just melted away in the first two weeks. A guy in my favourite LFS suggested it was something to do with the change in water? (Like a fish would need to acclimatise to new ph etc) He told us to just leave it for a while and sure enough a couple of weeks later new growth on all the plants! They look good as new now. Maybe just try and wait it out?

by **Wild Man** on Sun Aug 23, 2009 12:45 pm

what species of plant is it?

by **Lairewen** on Sun Aug 23, 2009 1:21 pm

Hi all,

It's an internal filter, for some reason the silver 320s come with them! I will try less light hours.

I have this collection from Plants alive and the problems are mostly with the fore and midground plants:

http://www.plantsalive.co.uk/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=45

Thanks. Smile

by **Wild Man** on Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:32 pm

if its the crypts and the amazon swords that are dying back then it is very common, in most cases just let them die back and they will re-grow. just cut off the die-off with sharp scissors.

many plants just take some time to acclimatise; just like fish

also, make sure you dont plant them below the crown

cheers

Melting plants - so frustrated

Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated

Re: Melting plants - so frustrated