# stem plants Dying



## DMHdispute (Oct 23, 2007)

I have a stem plant in my tank im not sure what the name of it is but it looks a lot like BACOPA SP. (i looked at stem plants in the plant finder). But im noticing that the bottom of the stem on some of them has turned black and is mushy and easy to break. I want to know why they are doing that, is it a certain nutrient that it needs or something like that.

My specs are 75 g, 130 watt CF Coralife light 11 hours a day, 78 F, 6.8 ph. I also dose a capful of flourish(NOT excel) every other day.

The plants seemed to be doing great until a few days ago, they are growing real fast and have a lot of new leaves at the top, its just looks like the bottom inch or two if the stem is rotting and turing black.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I don't know what the recommended flourish dose is, but it sounds like its starving for nutrients. Maybe if you have a lot of plants in there they are using the nutrients faster than what you are adding. Stem plants can use nutrients from the water column so it doesn't have to root to get fed. 

Another option could be that the top is so crowded that the bottom is just getting no light...

OR - maybe you have a build-up of bad gas in your substrate and it's rotting the plants.....


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## DMHdispute (Oct 23, 2007)

Im thinking they are starving from nutrients because i have a very lightly stocked tank, and my substrate is new. Buy im not ure how to tell what nutrient it is lacking, because if i knew id go out tomorrow and get it. I guess one option would be to go buy all the different bottles of seachem my lfs sells and does them all, but that would be kinda shooting frim the hip, i wanna actually know whats wrong. Any clue?

Thank you very much texgal.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

I am assuming that your stemmed plants have just been planted. If so, it may just be an issue related to acclimitization. I find all my newly stemmed plants go through this. I just cut off the mushy part and float the stem plant in water. As soon as it develops new aerial roots and side shoots, I replant and then it tends to root and grow.

What kind of substrate are you using? I found that this problem seemed to be less of problem with Aquasoil Amazonian II. Is your tank high light, high tech, c02 injected or low light, low tech tank?

As far as deficiencies go, it is pretty hard to pinpoint the deficiency responsible. But based on this chart, if I had to guess, I would say it could be a boron deficiency.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

You could purchase Plantex CSM+B from Rex Grigg  and dose it as your trace element mix and see if it makes a difference as it contains Boron.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I'm not good at how much of what is missing either. I have read that we are not alone - actually a majority. That is where EI dosing comes in. I like it. That's what I do. I read that there was a seachem dosing chart somewhere. Try a search for it. Then do your weekly water changes and voile' - the grass is greener! Of course this is for high tech tanks. If you low tech read Walstead's book- it's GRRRRRRREAT!


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## Mugatu (Nov 14, 2007)

Hope this helps.

Seachem Dosing for a Planted Aquarium:
http://www.seachem.com/support/PlantDosingChart.html

I am actually using the seachem dosing chart with flourish, excel, and iron (minus N, P, K). I figured that with all the fish and invertebrates in the tank, there should be enough nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. My stem plants are multiplying rapidly requiring weekly trimming (ie. Rotala red went from 3 stem plants to filling up 1/3 of my tank in 6 weeks)

My only suggestion in purchasing the Seachem stuff is buy it in bulk from whatever store. It is a lot cheaper and manageable.

The only thing that hasn't done well is the riccia (which is probably from the excel from what I have been reading). I am trying to find the balance once I buy a CO2 tank.

My tank is a 20L, CO2 (Nutrafin system & Excel), regular gravel. Light is about ~110 watts CF (6700K 55 W x 2) for 12hours. Almost like a toaster oven for my tank.


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## DMHdispute (Oct 23, 2007)

Im using eco complete substrate. The plants have been in there for about a month, and they were doing alright until this happened. Im thinking it was not a big deal now because only some did it and it seemed to be ones that diddnt start to root, so i just cut off the dead part and replanted them. 

As of now my tank is low tech and i guess 130 watts of light for 75 gallons is low light, allthough im gunna get a better bulb for my 40 watt fixture and start to run them both together. I have no co2 but prolly after i get my tax return ill give rex grigg an email. 
Im going to assume that it was just a fluke and that theres nothing to worry about because only a few stems did it and it diddnt kill the whols stem.

thanks everyone.


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