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Hey there,
maybe someone can help me out here. I set up my 90g tank, and I used the plants from my 25g tank and some from my 10g to start the tank off. There are Amazon Swords, Pennywort, Giant Hygrophilia, Wisteria, Java Fern, and Onion Plant.
All these plants looked great in my other tanks, green and lush and gorgeous. Now they are going brown, with the exception of the java fern and the wisteria. The amazon swords that looked so gorgeous for the first week in the new tank, now are fading to yellowy and brownish and leaves are very droopy.
I do not have C02 in this tank, as I cannot afford it right now, and I was told a DIY C02 wouldnt work for a tank this large. Im wondering if this is the problem, and if so, can someone give me directions on a DIY C02 please.
I have 2 large high powered air stones in the tank, so Im pretty sure there is enough gas exchange going on.
Should I dose fertilizer and hope? Does anyone have any ideas?
The light on the tank is giving 1.7 wpg, which is far more than the 25g tank which has .5 wpg.
The only other thing I can think of is that the tank doesnt have adequate filtration right now, I am biding my time with water changes until the money comes in middle of next month when I can get an additional filter. Right now filtration is a Fluval 204, I know hardly enough. Could this lack of adequate filtration be the culprit of browning/yellowing plants?
I am using Nutrafin Plant Gro w/Iron fertilizer, I usually dose the plants 1 time a month unless I move them around when I do that I give a half dose. I transplanted them and dosed a full dose in the 90g tank, and 1 more half dose since.
Any advice is welcome, if you need any additional info just ask.


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Hi,
Well what is happening is normal for a variety of
reasons:

Any time you transplant plants to another
place or tank, the soil or gravel (in the case of
an aquarium) has a different consistancy of nutrients.
They all will have a set back that could take a couple
of weeks while they acclimate, use up stored nutrients,
and start to pull from the current environment.

This is a new tank, not a well established tank, and
it will take far longer for a tank that size to build
up the the nutrient equivalant of your old tanks.

A 90 gallon tank is far deeper than the other tanks
as well, so the "intensity" of the light at the substrate
will be less than you figured (1.5 wpg) because the
light is scattered and absorbed on the way through the
water column.

To try to save at least some of them you will need
to increase your wpg, add nutrients, and fish.
a 30 gallon tank is about as big a DIY CO2 system
as you want to try. Bottled gas is the only way
to go for tanks as large as yours.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Pete,

If you are thinking of CO2 , you have to get rid of those air stones. Gas exchange in planted tank equals bad. All your CO2 is going up into the air and the plants are not getting a chance to use it.Additional CO2 would be a waste. As a matter of fact I'd get rid of the airstone now.

Frank's got a point with the light. While it is brighter then the old set up it is going to have a much harder time getting to the bottom. A higher kelvin bulb like a 10000k may help.

Not familiar with the fertilizer you mentioned but it sound like a liquid. If it is it won't help the Sword at all, and they will need some for of root fert tablets to get the nutrients they need. The yellowing good be indeed Iron problems but a liquid supplement wont help much with that.

---

Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Thanks guys
I thought that the lack of nutrition in the substrate could cause the problems.
I didnt know a liquid fert is not good for swords, I will try to find some root fertilizers.
I know that my plants already suffer from lack of iron in the water, which is why I got the Nutrafin with Iron. My plants did look great though in the other tank.
I wish I could provide more light, but the money situation doesnt look good for lighting, as we just paid 219 dollars for the new corallife dual compact flourescent hood, 165 watts. We cannot afford more lighting. I will try to put a lamp beside the tank and see if that will help. The bulbs in the lamp are 6700 k 65watt High Noon bulbs. They are brand new, as I said.
The wood hood we built for it is not made to fit a larger light anyway. However, once we move into a place in the future that we own (renters now) we will add a couple of pendant metal halides to the tank area to brighten it up. That is why Ive chosen low-medium light plants only !
I will try to get some ferts in the next couple days, and guess I will just have to baby the plants until the come back, my guess is the transplantation was tough on them.
Thanks for all the help Frank and Bensaf!

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