# Plant dying (New to planted tank)



## Zenora (Feb 21, 2020)

Hi guys, i am new to the planted aquarium and i have recently just started my nitrogen cycle with plants and 2 dwarf gouramis in there. I purchased 3 species of plants, namely the rotala rotundifolia and 2 other species that i am unsure of. As for the cycle, i added PSB probiotics and have been doing 25% water changes everyday and monitoring the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates everyday. Ammonia in water (0.5ppm, nitrites 0 and nitrates 5.0ppm). Does doing water changes affect my plants? My fish are doing pretty well with no signs of stress, eating and resting well. 

However, my plants seem to be suffering. As for my rotala (I hope it is a rotala) its pink and green leaves are actually turning dark green and translucent. As for my spiky plant in the photo below, leaves are turning translucent-transparent and the tips are becoming stringy, but i can see my dwarf gouramis nibbling at the strings. However, this plant problem happened before i placed the fish in yesterday. I brought the plants back on the 18th of february and this is how it looks like now below.

I have a 22 gallon tank, my lighting is the DYMAX REX Aquarium lighting for 60-80cm (shopkeeper told me it was 6500-6700K)

I live in singapore so my temperature is around 27-29 degrees celsius (with cooling fan and desk fan)

Phosphates are at 0.5ppm
Chlorine - 0.01ppm
pH - 7.4

I use seachem flourish tabs, flourish, excel, potassium, phosphorus and trace. 

Flourish tabs - 3 situated within a 15cm radius of plants
Flourish - 2mL
Excel - 10mL initially and 2mL after every day
Potassium - 3.5mL initially and today
Phosphorus - 2.5mL initially and today
Trace - 5mL yesterday
8 CO2 tablets everyday (AZOO brand)

One thing to note is that when i was aquascaping, i have accidentally spilled some superglue into my tank and ive tried to remove all that i could see, there is still bits in the water initially but its reducing now. I believe there is still some in my substrate (sand and gex black soil). Will this hinder my plants growth or is it toxic to them? 

I am really new to this and im really devastated by my plants well being. I really hope i could get some insights on what is wrong with my setup could someone let me know. Have been asking many people and they have been telling me could be my lighting, nutrients etc. I am a student trying to learn, but because of that i bought the new light above to replace my old one, and all the cost into the seachem products. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## Zenora (Feb 21, 2020)

Another thing is that i have treated the tank water (tap water) with prime after planting and for each water change, prime is used before transferring water into the tank.
Any reprimanding and guidance on what i did wrong like overdosing is greatly appreciated by me thank you ><


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Welcome to APC!

Two things stand out, reading your description of what you have done, so far. One is that you are not dosing any nitrates, while plants have to have a good source of nitrogen to grow at all. The second is the PSB probiotics, which I have not heard of being used in any planted aquarium.

The first thing I would do is make sure you are dosing nitrates - typically we dose potassium nitrate, because it supplies both potassium and nitrogen. I suspect that is why the plants are not growing.

Then, I would do some research to see if PSB probiotics is of any value in a planted aquarium. I doubt it doing any harm, but it might.


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## Zenora (Feb 21, 2020)

hoppycalif said:


> Welcome to APC!
> 
> Two things stand out, reading your description of what you have done, so far. One is that you are not dosing any nitrates, while plants have to have a good source of nitrogen to grow at all. The second is the PSB probiotics, which I have not heard of being used in any planted aquarium.
> 
> ...


The PSB probiotics is actually the bacteria for the nitrifying cycle such as nitrosomonas and nitrobacter. It is used relatively often by many aquarists in our country so i doubt that will be an issue to my tank. As for the nitrogen, will seachem nitrogen help? But if it is the case where nitrogen is deficient, why do people still start out with plants during their nitrogen cycle? If its only ammonia and nitrites spiking in the beginning. However, thank you so much for help, it is greatly appreciated. I will continue doing my research in the meantime


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Seachem Flourish nitrogen is a good source of nitrogen, having both nitrates and ammonium in it. When we "cycle" our tank we are establishing the bacterial colonies needed to convert ammonia into nitrites, and the nitrites into nitrates. That ammonia will come primarily from the fish waste products, but it can also come from using soil as a layer in the substrate.


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## Zenora (Feb 21, 2020)

hoppycalif said:


> Seachem Flourish nitrogen is a good source of nitrogen, having both nitrates and ammonium in it. When we "cycle" our tank we are establishing the bacterial colonies needed to convert ammonia into nitrites, and the nitrites into nitrates. That ammonia will come primarily from the fish waste products, but it can also come from using soil as a layer in the substrate.


Alright thank you for the helpful information  another thing is, will the super glue bits in my substrate break down eventually causing my plants to absorb it? Could that be a reason too why my plants arent growing well?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I'm not sure about the super glue bits, but I don't believe they are going to do any harm. They are not causing the plant growth problem. That is almost certain to be a shortage of one or more nutrients, or too little light intensity.


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## Zenora (Feb 21, 2020)

hoppycalif said:


> I'm not sure about the super glue bits, but I don't believe they are going to do any harm. They are not causing the plant growth problem. That is almost certain to be a shortage of one or more nutrients, or too little light intensity.


Alright thank you for the input


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## Iggy8194 (Jan 7, 2014)

Any updates? How are your plants doing now? Did you figure out a solution?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## 2manytanks (Mar 24, 2021)

I use superglue all the time to anchor anubias and other plants to rocks and wood.


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