Planted Aquarium

[spitz006]

I recently transfered tanks and now my plants aren't doing as good.

I had a very successful low-tech 20 gallon planted with the following

Substrate: sand
lighting - 1 flourescent flora-grow bulb
fertilizers - Flora-Pride by Tetra and Excel by Flourish
frequent 25-40% water changes

I have all sorts of random plants that were given to me by a pet shop. Everything from ferns, mosses, vals, swords, and everything was doing great! I mean, i had things floating around that looked like they were just leaves and they started growing roots out of them and I'd stick them in the sand and they'd start growing! I upgraded to a bigger tank and decided to upgrade lighting as well. Now I'm using two flourescent bulbs and also a compact fluorescent bulb that's actaually supposed to be used for reptile tanks, and it says 5.0UVB, 26W. Also I removed the background and I have the tank next to a window where it's getting a lot of direct sunlight. I also added a bag of fluorite gravel to the tank. I'm not really seeing an improvement like I thought, in fact some things are turning brown... I haven't been doing the frequent water changes so maybe that's the problem?

 

[killerfahaka]

sometime the plants need time to adjust to new environment. What size tank did you upgrade too?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Sounds like they could be melting... Just a reaction from the stress of the move. They should bounce back. Make sure everything else is in check.


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[zabelkid]

Direct sunlight would cause algae in my tank if it was next to a window. Brown algae is usually a sign of a new tank. And takes around two weeks to go away with normal water changes. The most important thing I learned in my tank is if the water is really clean from taking out nitrates during water changes then what does your plants use for nutrients, so I whent with adding seachem plant Pak twice a week. Nitrogen phosphorus and potassium and my plants got so much healthier. And a Siamese algae eater to keep algae off the leaves


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