# [Wet Thumb Forum]-All my plants are dieing. HELP!!!!



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

All my plants are doing various things, but all dying. My stem plants are going mushy/(maybe u'd call it rotting) at the bits in the substrate, ie. a few nodes and leaves are going see through and falling off. My rhizomes are doing a similar thing, but stems are affected as well and are going soft and yellow. And my rosettes are going transparent, many leaves are going transparent at the tip and it spreads down the leaf. There appears to be new growth, but i'm not sure if these will die off as well. Basically all my plants appear to be generally f**cked, and I dont know why!!!!

I have recently given the tank an overhaul before the plants were put in, and most of the water was changed, probably 2/3. My tank is about 30 gallons I think. 36x18x12. I know my lighting may be low, only 25 watts, but it has worked in the past, albeit slow growth. Does anyone know what could be causing all this plant death. All the info on various deficiencies or over concentrations of macros and micros dont seem to fit!!!

Please help, I am truly baffled.

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

All my plants are doing various things, but all dying. My stem plants are going mushy/(maybe u'd call it rotting) at the bits in the substrate, ie. a few nodes and leaves are going see through and falling off. My rhizomes are doing a similar thing, but stems are affected as well and are going soft and yellow. And my rosettes are going transparent, many leaves are going transparent at the tip and it spreads down the leaf. There appears to be new growth, but i'm not sure if these will die off as well. Basically all my plants appear to be generally f**cked, and I dont know why!!!!

I have recently given the tank an overhaul before the plants were put in, and most of the water was changed, probably 2/3. My tank is about 30 gallons I think. 36x18x12. I know my lighting may be low, only 25 watts, but it has worked in the past, albeit slow growth. Does anyone know what could be causing all this plant death. All the info on various deficiencies or over concentrations of macros and micros dont seem to fit!!!

Please help, I am truly baffled.

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

You have answered your question. Low light and stem plants generally don't mix. In fact very few plants can survive at light levels under 1 watt per gallon. Most stem plants require a minimum of 2 watts per gallon and won't truly thrive till you get in the range of 2.5-3.0 watts per gallon.

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

Perhaps u misunderstood. I have had plants in the same tank with the same lighting, and they grew okay. The light does not expalin why the plants are all dying. It seems to be the rosettes that are suffering the most. The stem plants are actually doing the best but they are starting to do the same as the rest of the plants.

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

I understood what you were saying. I also know that you don't have enough light. How long did the plants do good? Slower growing plants will survive longer in insufficient light than faster growing plants. They survive on stored energy. Once that energy is gone they start to die. You note that info on nutrient deficiencies don't seem to fit. Have you researched light levels and lack of light levels?

Another thing. How often do you do water changes? Your initial post makes me think you don't do them very often. You speak of a 2/3 water change as it's a big thing. I do 50% a week on a 29 gallon tank.

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

I understand, I know my light levels are kinda low, but, what happened was. 

Grew plants for a few months and they did well. Rosettes doubled in size. (i think they are quite fast growing), so this would constitute maybe slow growth, but growth nonetheless. But now they just seem to be dying. 

I have conducted a little experiment. I have extracted a few plants from the tank, and split the ones in the tank into two areas at diff ends of the 3 ft tank. So i have four samples. I have given plant food/fertiliser (all round) to one of sample in tank and one out of tank. So I have:

in tank/with fertiliser
in tank/without fert
in new tank/with fert
in new tank/without fert

both those in the new tanks appear to be doing well. Oxygen bubbles rising from plants (i gues symbolising photosynthesis). With the fert ones doing better (due to more nutrients). But both the ones in my old tank with and without fert appear to have no change. There are NO oxygen bubbles, and they still appear to be dying. It appears to me that I have something (in the substrate i think) that is harming the plants.

I intend to double the output to 50w, that should make it about 1.5w per gallon I think. But if u know of anything that could cause such s thing. As a long shot, I broke a thermometer in the tank a while ago (cant remeber the exact date but it was around the time my plants started dying the first time i think) I gave the tank a thorough clean. Could it be this?? Maybe mercury oir whatever is in the thermo being taken up, some kind of hevay metal poisoning??

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

ps. I do a weekly 1/3 change of water and 50% maybe once a month/once every 2 months. 

I have looked at low light level symptoms. It doesn't seem to fit whats happening with my plants though. 

Also, I appreciate the help mate. Good to have ppl on hand.

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

Girlthrower,

I don't know why you would have ever been able to grow many plants in a 30 gallon tank with a 25 watt bulb. There are very few plants that will grow at all under those conditions. It would be interesting if you described that experience a little more.

All of the behavior that you describe so far is consistent with insufficient light. In fact, even if you double your light to 50 watts it will still be insufficient for most of the plants grown in the hobby.


Roger Miller


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

If the thermometer you broke contained mercury then it could very well be heavy metal toxicity. Mercury is very hard to remove and it would only take a very small amount to contaminate a tank. IMHO you would be better off to get rid of the tank if that is the case.

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

Well, according to everyone, my low light appears to be the problem. But I did manage to grow plants reasonably fine for a couple of months. My tank is 18x12x36 inches. I think that is about 30 gallons, but I'm not sure. 

I'm not looking for an explosion of growth, I just want my plants to grow at least steadily, rather than die after a few days or less.

My light just says 25watts and is 30 inches long. I have it on for about 11 hours a day.

Thing is Roger, my old plants began to die after a few months with a 25watt bulb. Now they are dieing a few days after putting in the tank, still with a 25 watt bulb. Same light, but different responses by the same plant species. Thats why I think its not the light, at least not the MAIN prob anyhow.

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## girlthrower (Jul 15, 2003)

After one day, my experiment is thus:

both plants in old tank, seem a little worse than yesterday. Lost another 2 large leaves off a good size stem plant. New growth on rosettes now seems to be affected. Leaves at top of tall stem plant are goign brown and dieing.

Both sets of plants in new tank appear to have perked up. One plant hat was on the brink of destruction looks like it might make it. (I'm so happY).

Will increase light levels on plants in old tank! Obviously if this makes a difference, I will invest in a more permanent solution.

Will keep u posted!

Brought to you by the 'Atomic Black Shower'


----------



## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

Don't forget as bulbs get older their spectrum changes as does the amount of light.

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


----------



## gpodio (Feb 4, 2004)

I think Rex has a point there, with such a low light tank a small drop in lumen output could be enough to effect the plants. You also need to take into consideration that plants store nutrients, so when you bring a plant home it may have a full load of stored nutrients which can keep it going for a few weeks before it shows any significant signs of insuficient lighting or nutrients. Personally I do have 1WPG tanks and they do grow plants as long as you know your limits, the plants to choose from are limited. I think if you double your lighting you shuld be just fine in my opinion, you will still have some limitations as to the choice of plants but there are plenty out there that can grow in the 1.5-2WPG as long as you give them a rich substrate. At 1WPG my popular plants are anubias, java fern, sag, wisteria, water sprite, hornwart, ozelot swords, tiger lotus and crypts to name a couple. But it can be tricky and tank dimensions have a big effect on weather or not 1WPG will work for you or not. My current 1WPG tanks are a 10 gallon and 90 gallon. The rest are around 1.5-2WPG with the exception of one at 4WPG.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio


----------

