How to grow healthy plants

[Jaide]

So, what am I doing wrong? I plant them, add plant food, and light - so why do the leaves go dark and float off and the plants become scody?

[Guest]

What type of plants?

[Jaide]

all of them

[Insect Direct]

thats abit broad as dif plants have dif requirements

ive had plants do the same when trying to grow them now i do nothing but feed fish and waterchanges and all plants seem happy as.

cabomba i dont even plant - just floats in tank lookin pretty lol

i use 6500k fluro btw

[Guest]

lol, like what types of plants were they java fern, ambulia, indian fen or stuff like that? Some plants don't like to be too hot or cold otherwise they the leaves die and float away.

[supasi]

So, what am I doing wrong? I plant them, add plant food, and light - so why do the leaves go dark and float off and the plants become scody?

Firstly,as everyone else has stated, you need to be more specific with the typre of plants.

where did you purchase plants from??

My first thought is the plants have been grown emersed(out of water) and need to be acclimatised to being submersed.

Secondly, you say you are giving them heaps of light. Well how much? what type of lights are they, what watt, what is the depth of the tank.

Artificial light is nowhere near as bright as the sun and most plants require a fair amount to grow healthily.

Feeding plants ferts is no good until plants have established and roots system has developed. But again its had to say as you have not ID'd the plants in question.

Answer some of these questions and we will be able to help a bit more.

[spoon]

if u can grow green algae u can grow plants first off plants need nice water , then heaps of light no gud if ur tube in ur tanks is 2 years old it may function and looks good to you but its useful light output for growing plants is gone within a year . a decent substrate helps fine gravel of sand(NB without getting to fancy here) . fish to poo to fertilise them basics . from here it starts getting complicated and expensive flourish ecel is a good wway to get plants started and growing good without all the work and may well get u interested seriuosly in a planted aqauarium

[Luke*]

How to grow healthy plants

1watt lighting/litre of water you can't go wrong

if you wanna get high tech go metal hallide lighting and/or CO2. light most important, then CO2, then ferts. until i realised you need a lot more lighting than what you think (unless they're low light/hardy plants like java fern) i had plants do this too

[alanmin4304]

One watt of lighting per litre means nothing. I have a 250 litre tank with 60 watts of light that grows plants very well without CO2. What is more important is:

What type of light

Time the lights are on.

Distance of lights from surface and what is in between

Depth of water

The type of plants is very relevent as most are grown emersed (as previously stated) and some are difficult to convert to submersed and some are not realy aquatic plants at all.

Most petshops don't know or care about plants so a picture may help people give good advice.

[Jaide]

lol, like what types of plants were they java fern, ambulia, indian fen or stuff like that? Some plants don't like to be too hot or cold otherwise they the leaves die and float away.

That's what they do, the leaves die and float away.

I purchased them from a member of this site, I don't recall what they are - one of them is Indian fern - that seems to be doing well in my fighter's tank, possibly because it's near the heater?

The fighter's tank is about 40 litres and has a 9W double bulb, the colour is red (good for plants apparently) but I also have white. I planted some baby plants on a log but they all died. Also another long plant which seems ok so far, the odd leaf has died though.

The community tank is the worry, the water went green due to too much nutritian (whatever that means) and not enough plants. Some plants were floating but looked very scody and another is a floater - like a mossy grass, that I tie down to cover stones - that's still ok but lots of it is all over the floor of the tank now. That tank has a pink/red bulb and I turn my tank lights on the evening for a few hours (up to 3 hours maybe).

Admittedly the dollars ate most of the plants, but they still looked crap even before the dollars got at them and it didn't take long for the water to turn green.

I tried plants years ago, and the same thing happened then - water turned green, plants dying - gave up then and maybe I should give up now, would really like a planted tank though.

[alanmin4304]

You will need to advise clearly what sort of lights you have and 3 hours at night is way not enough. Sounds like you may have the wrong light and not enough of it.

[supasi]

Three hours!!!!!

No wonder your plants are dying.

Try leaving lights on at least 10 hours per day.

In the tropics the sun is up about 12 hours per day.Plants need light to sustain themselves.

[spoon]

itsa also better for your fish to have 10-12hrs of light a day as this is what they would have in the wild

[nemines]

you can buy an electronic timer for your lights from a hardware store too. that way your lights come on and off well, like....clockwork :lol:

[Jaide]

The tanks are in well-lit rooms so get plenty of natural sunlight, which I would have thought would be better than unnatural halogen lights. I also made enquiries about how much unnatural light the plants would require before I bought them, and was told 2-3 hours per day would be fine. I now have green water from too much light apparently - so figure that one out.

As it is, I'm home late (often 8pm) so the lights don't go on until then and then off again when I go to bed. On days I'm home early (5pmish) the lights are on for longer. I don't believe in leaving lights on all night in fishtanks - it's not natural and fighters, which prefer brackish, darkish waters, wouldn't appreciate it.

[alanmin4304]

I grow plants and sell them on Trademe. My lights are on 17 HOURS/DAY. That is more than most people do. If you can grow plants with the lights on for 3 hours/day I would love to know your secret as I could save a lot of power.

Listen carefully as I will say zis only ze wunce. Your leaves are falling off because the plants do not have enough light.

[Jaide]

I shall zay zis only one more time so pay attention:

I have green water, which means an algae bloom from too much light - which means..... gee whiz - TOO MUCH LIGHT!

[supasi]

I shall zay zis only one more time so pay attention:

I have green water, which means an algae bloom from too much light - which means..... gee whiz - TOO MUCH LIGHT!

NO!!!

It means you have an excess of nutrients in the water, either from fish waste or overdosing of ferts. Most likely ferts as earlier you stated you are dosing tank, but with the lights on for only three hours the plants cant use it.

I too grow lots of plants and sell on trade me, and my lighting is on for 11 hours per day with CO2.

In fact I own more plants than fish in my 9 tanks total.

[phoenix44]

an algae bloom could also be caused due to a high phosphate level - infact in all but 1 tank that i have tested in a commercial environment - it was a high phosphate level that caused the algae to boom.

perhaps you could try testing for phosphates... sunlight also causes algae to bloom and send spores all over. the plants on the other hand need a certain duration of light and this is so that they can photosynthesise. a second reaction is the conversion of phytochrome from one for to the other so in the day when you have lights on - for at least 12 hours the chemical gets converted to PFr (Far red). then at night the far red get converted again to the normal form. this also has effects on auxin and cytokynin ratios that lead to plant growth and flower formation.

ive also noticed that some plants do not like high temperatures and wither away in my tank which is kept at 30 deg C. what sort ofplants are in your tank?

reds need more light and stay a greeny colour if there is lower lighting. greens generally need less light - but that depends from plant to plant.

hope this helps. :bounce:

[whetu]

The tanks are in well-lit rooms so get plenty of natural sunlight, which I would have thought would be better than unnatural halogen lights.

A room that is "well lit" to the human eye will not be bright enough to grow most aquatic plants. Is the tank in direct sunlight?

As you will not be able to provide enough "natural" light (unless you keep your tank outside), you will need to use additional "unnatural" light to compensate.

Don't get caught up on the words "natural" and "unnatural." The whole thing about keeping a fish tank inside a room is that it's unnatural! Therefore you have to do a whole lot of things to compensate for this unnatural situation.

I also made enquiries about how much unnatural light the plants would require before I bought them, and was told 2-3 hours per day would be fine. I now have green water from too much light apparently - so figure that one out.

Whoever advised you that 2-3 hours of light would be enough to grow plants was incorrect. It's as simple as that. And green water can be caused by a lot of things other than too much light.

As it is, I'm home late (often 8pm) so the lights don't go on until then and then off again when I go to bed. On days I'm home early (5pmish) the lights are on for longer. I don't believe in leaving lights on all night in fishtanks - it's not natural and fighters, which prefer brackish, darkish waters, wouldn't appreciate it.

You don't need to leave your lights on all night. It has been suggested that your plants would like about 12 hours of light, not 24 hours. How about leaving them on all day instead?

Still more information required:

To identify what kind of lights you have, look at any printing on the tube and post it here. There are codes on the tube that will tell us what the wattage, spectrum, etc are and that will help people to tell you whether the light is suitable.

It is vital to know what kinds of plants you are trying to grow as they all have different requirements. Can you ask the person you got the plants from? Can you look through pictures of plants in a book or online? Can you post photos of your plants for others to identify?

[Dixon1990]

Ok, you should get a automatic timer, they are cheap as.

And you should get your tank out of the Natural Sunlight, Thats how i get greenwater. And halogen lights are no good for tank i dont think, you are better off with flourescent.

[pink_fish]

Hi Jaide,

It can be done with less than 8 hours of light (although I think it works better with more!) - my plants get about 5 hours of artificial light Mon-Fri & up to 10 hours Sat-Sun, and they all seem to be doing well. I found that they grew better when the substrate is quite fine (I now use grit) and relatively deep (no less than about 1 1/2 inches). Liquid fertiliser weekly has also helped heaps.

I think the more light you can give them the better and changing your bulbs might help too.

[Jaide]

Thanks for all the advice people - I know what my next step will be so we'll just leave it there

[alanmin4304]

It might help to know that algae blooms (as stated above) are caused by an imbalance in nutrient. Usually too much phosphate in relation to the nitrate levals. Some people run very intense light (from metal halides etc) but to do that you need to have a good balance of nutrient as well and they do not have algae blooms. Good luck with sorting it out as a well planted tank is a great thing to behold.