# Newby questions--dying wisteria, brown algae



## pisces (Apr 6, 2007)

Hi all!
I planted my tank (my very first) on Saturday, and the water wisteria (which I had planted specifically to soak up nutrients, since most of the other plants are slow growing) immediately began to waste away. Each leaf is turning transparent, one by one, and today stalks detached themselves from the bottom and floated to the top of the tank (they came rooted, but the roots have turned brown and mushy). The only things which are really doing well are amazon frogbit and rotala wallichi (which I thought was supposed to be difficult ). I also have dwarf hairgrass, anubias nana, taiwan moss and weeping moss in there; they seem to be holding their own and neither growing nor dying.

What did I do wrong with the wisteria? Should I yank it out or hang in there and hope it recovers? Replace it with something else fast growing?

Without the wisteria, the tank is pretty full but not exactly densely planted--everything except the frogbit is small and slow-growing. I've already got hefty amounts of brown algae on the driftwood, and some on the moss and the anubias. Can I safely add some otos to eat it, or should I wait till the plants are really growing well? If I just wait, will the plants ultimately use up the nutrients in the water and get the upper hand, or will the algae get out of control?

Sorry for the long post, but I'm brand-new at this and trying really hard to get it right.

Specs:

24 gal. aquapod, 64W on for 10 hours
ecocomplete
DIY CO2
No fish yet, no ferts yet
Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, GH 75, KH 40, pH 6.5

I think the high pH is from the driftwood, which is still leaching tannins even though I soaked it for a long time. I had read that that wouldn't do any harm, but now I think I should have waited. Should I try to make the water more alkaline?

Any ideas would be really, really helpful.

Thanks!

Anne


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## Left C (Jun 14, 2005)

Hi pisces

Your tank has 0 nitrates. I see that you aren't adding any ferts. Are you planning on adding ferts soon?

Wisteria is sometimes grown emersed. It's leaf shape is much different that the submersed form. Does your plant's leaves look like this?
http://www.tropica.com/productcard_1_popup.asp?id=051&mode=close


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## K20A2 (Aug 12, 2006)

I would add a couple otto's to deal with the brown algae. Also, you might want to consider cutting your photo period down to 8 hours or so for a little while. I have found that that helps in the beginning to keep the algae at bay. A little NO3 added to the water should give the plants the fuel they are going to be looking for too.
About the wood.. Don't stress much over the lower PH, its actually preferred by most in this hobby. I did the same thing with a couple pieces of wood in my 29G tank. It stained the water slightly but I took care of it by just doing larger water changes and now its gone.

When you planted the wisteria did you take care as to not to really jam the stems into the eco complete? I have bruised many this way and the whole stem died as a result. I cant say for sure if this is what happened but the brown rotting stems is what mine looked like. I have a small pair of tweezers that I now use to avoid doing this. My approach may be different then others, but I always cut off the roots that come with the plants and just let them grow fresh once planted.


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## snickle (Apr 8, 2007)

No ammonia, I assume.
No Nitrites
No Nitrates

I think the plants, especially the Wisteria are starved for basic nutrients.

I would add a source of nitrogen.

6.5 ph is fine.

I would consider doing some kind of ferts, at least traces and some nitrogen. As a newbie, I would research the system that are on here and pick one for you r approach. You can change later, but an established system is a good start.

I am partial to this approach:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/pps-analysis-feedback/39491-newbie-guide-pps-pro.html

But they all can have good results.


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## pisces (Apr 6, 2007)

Thanks very much! I will start dosing ferts (I thought I had read something about waiting and starving the algae out, but I didn't mean to starve the plants!). K2OA2, I think that's exactly what I did. It was really hard to get the roots to stay in the substrate, so I may have been too rough with them. I'll get some tweezers.

Thanks again


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## K20A2 (Aug 12, 2006)

One thing I wanted to add. When I say I cut the roots off, I don't mean I trim them individually, I just cut the stem at an angle above where the roots are growing out of.


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