# All my plants are dying :(



## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

I know I'm not the first to post about this particular issue, but I've fiddled with my tank as much as I know how and I'm still left with a sad tank full of yellow, melting plants. I have a 5 gallon tank that has been running with a heater and a filter (just ceramic media and floss, no carbon) for about a month now....two weeks ago I switched the old sub-par LED light that came with the tank with a finnex clip-on made for planted tanks. I hoped the better quality light would make a difference, but if anything my plants look worse! The substrate is a competitor to seachem flourite...I cannot remember the exact brand, but it is a soil-like substance in small pellets that is geared toward shrimp. The guy at my LFS swore by it, but I wouldn't purchase it again. It's so light that all of my plants require plant weights to stay in it...that being said, it apparently is supposed to be ideal for planted tanks. I started dosing my tank every four days with seachem flourish when I got the finnex light (which I leave on for 10 hours a day...perhaps that is too long?) My only thought at this point is that perhaps the pennywort I have floating in my tank is blocking too much light, but even the pennywort is starting to go slightly yellow and holes are forming in the leaves. I'm not sure what else to do! The plants seem to be rapidly getting worse despite weekly water changes and everything else I've been doing. I trimmed a few of the most dead leaves and added a betta fish two days ago because all the water parameters I tested were A-okay according to my LFS. I really hope I didn't make a big mistake adding him...he's super healthy and energetic so far! What should I try next? I don't want to lose all my plants...


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## poisonousgiraffe (Jan 24, 2018)

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but you may want to stop dosing with fertilizer and maybe do a few water changes to lessen the amount of fertilizer in the water. Plants can die from too many nutrients just as easily as too few. I know from growing non-aquatic plants that too much fertilizer can actually burn the leaves and cause them to start yellowing and dying. You might need to wait a few weeks to see if the plants improve, and then if they do start sending out new growth, don't give more fertilizer immediately. The plants are probably still using the nutrients from the soil or other things in the water, so they don't necessarily need liquid fertilizer. 

leaving the light on for a few hours less might help too. Plants also don't take to sudden changes in the intensity of light too well, and plants that are used to lower light or shaded light can actually get sunburnt lol. Plants are both the easiest and the hardest things to take care of because they will do okay if you leave them alone and don't mess with them except to make sure they have water/soil/light in just the right balance. 

as long as your plants' roots are okay, they'll probably recover very, very slowly.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

We need a list of plants and how long you've had each species. 

What is the tank temperature? I find my plants grow best at about 77.

Get a timer and cut the lights back to eight. If you have low-light plants (Anubias, Java Fern, etc.), too much light will zap them.


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## aefeather (Dec 19, 2017)

Pic of the tank? Species of plants you're trying to grow?

Agreed about the fertilizer. I only dose once a week or every other week and only did so after half a year of my substrate depleting. Im sure your brand new substrate still has plenty of nutrients in it! All good  

Also agreed- maybe curb the lighting down to 8 or 9 hours. 10 seems a little long. 

I struggled too when I first introduced live plants to my relatively new tank. In my experience, even if your tank is cycled, I had the greatest success with planting in very well-established tanks. At this point you can just see which plants hang on and which melt and allow your tank to establish itself. Plants love stability. For some people certain plants grow like weeds while other people can't keep the same species of plant alive for a day. lol Could be tap water conditions or who knows? 

Live plants are a struggle at first. Especially since they're so expensive! lol Hang in there


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## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

Thank you for your insightful replies, everyone! To answer your questions, I had to bacopa plants in there, a sword, a crypt, pennywort, and then two recently added plants that I admit I cannot remember the name of. I told the guy at my LFS about my setup, and he recommended those two...I think I went a little overambitious with all the plants, but I love the look of a heavily planted tank. My tank is at about 78-79°. I removed the two bacopa plants because even though the tops still looked okay, they were completely yellow and soft at the bottom and starting to foul the water. It looks like they never took root--honestly, it looked lile they never even had roots at all. I don't know what to make of it. 

I'll definitely stop adding ferts for now and I'll reduce the time the light is on...the reason they were on so long is because I work, and I have yet to invest in a timer. I'll remedy that by turning the light on right before I leave for work, not when I wake up. 
I also trimmed off all the dead leaves I could find last night, plus I thinned the pennywort out just a touch. I could probably snip off a few more leaves so that more light can reach the bottom of the tank. I just have to pray that some of them will survive!


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## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

Here's a couple of pictures....M'baku swam over to see what all the fuss was about, haha!
I can see now I missed one or two dead leaves in the back. It looks so empty without the bacopas in the back! I wish I had taken a picture before I went to town pruning the tank....there were yellow leaves with brown holes, thin and mushy like wet tissue paper. It looked horrible.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

A lot of bunched plants that LFS sell are emersed grown. This means they sometimes "struggle" to adjust in the submerged environment. It can be one of the reasons why your plants are not doing well. 

The stem plants with reddish leaves are a variety of Ludwigia. They are hard to grow in low tech tanks. Don't blame yourself even if they die. I've lost most of mine slowly and surely while other plants were doing pretty well. The best way to keep them alive is to keep floating them. They will grow roots, then you can plant in the sand one by one so that each of them can get more light. It'd be a good idea to plant them in where they can get more light. (Mine still melted though...) 

Most of crypt melts when they are introduced to new tanks. It's a part of their nature. Be patient and try not to bother the root system. When they are established, they will grow new leaves and babies eventually. 

As others suggested, you don't need to add any ferts until all the plants are settled and started growing. Sword and crypt will need root tabs. Sword will also need iron tabs. But again not until they started growing.
I have a 5.5 gallon with some crypts, mixed moss and skimpy lotus. All I do is to insert root tabs once in a while. The photoperiod is 7 - 8 hours a day. I do 50% water change very week and it seems a single betta is producing enough nutrition for the moss. I haven't dosed Seachem Flourish for months.


P.S. Growing aquatic plants can be a big challenge. You'll feel better if you know how many times I killed plants and replaced them. I think I was able to purchase and try most of low tech plants for small tanks... When I first started one of my tanks, I had an algae bloom. I ended up throwing away all the plants and broke the set up. I still had to replace some plants when I restarted the tank. Finally, I found plants that can do well in it.


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## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

...that actually _does_ make me feel a lot better, thank you. I had my concerns about the ludwiga, though I didn't know anything about it at the time. I just knew that anything with red/purple in it was to be avoided at all costs...the guy at my LFS felt confident that it would do well under my finnex light. Looking back, I should probably have reiterated that my finnex light isn't of the powerful variety....oh well. Somehow it's doing better than any of my other plants so far, but it is relatively new. 

I'm just going to do my best to be patient and hope that my plants bounce back. It's just stressful seeing all the leaves decay...


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

I bet the LFS guy meant well. It's just...every tank environment and water is different. You'll feel even better to know Brazilian Pennywort didn't survive in my tank when I started. It was covered with diatoms and I had to throw it away. I see it's green and pretty in your tank 

Keep us updated!


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## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

I have GOT to stop uploading from my phone to here...it always butchers the quality so bad that it looks like I took the picture with a potato. Omg. But yes, thank you!! The pennywort is a little brittle on top, I don't love that, but it's sending out new buds and seems to have stayed a nice deep green color. It's my favorite plant in the tank, so even if it's all I can manage to keep alive, I think I'll be happy enough.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

As ryry2012 said: Let stem plants float until you see roots. I also remove anything from just above the rubber band used to hold them together. I now bite the bullet and buy potted plants where available. And do not plant Hornwort as it does not develop roots.

Next time you buy look for Anubias. Tie them to decor. I weight mine down with plant weights until they develop roots and establish themselves.

I agree about the fertilizer with new plants; however, if the plants were potted and have an established root system start right out with general root tabs and for red plants and Swords add Iron tabs.


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## ryry2012 (Mar 31, 2015)

I remember you were interested in Golden Pothos in another thread. Someone on another forum mentioned that Petco had recently started selling Anubias nana Variegated. It looks like variegated Pothos. I thought I should let you know.


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## McroftH (Oct 11, 2017)

Thank you for all the advice! The tank has seemed to stabilize a bit for the past couple of days...I don't usually measure progress in just days, but I was easily losing 2-3 leaves a day there for a while so a day where nothing seems to be decaying before my very eyes is a good one! I think I'll wait a month or two before adding more plants, but once I do I think I will probably go for an anubias or two. Pothos may be in the future, too! I think if I trim back the pennywort significantly I'll have a better chance of keeping other plants alive.


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