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Help with plants.

4K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  WisFish 
#1 ·
Hi all. I have problem... problem that has tormented me for some time now.:cry:

My set up is.

2 year old 29 gallon tank:
8 fish
Amazon sword plants 4 of them
Anubias nana and some other anubias
Penguin 150 filter
130W of lighting (usually only 65w on)


Here is my problem. All my plants have little black spots on them after which a thin layer of... what looks like algae appears on the leafs prompting plants to look bad and stop growing.
New leafs come out... but as soon as they stop growing they are attacked by this unknown foe. It does not kill the plant.... but rather prohibits the growth.:roll:


It happened with my old plants ... when they succumbed I bought new plants and thinking that this might be aggressive algae growth, I reduced the hours of light to the plants from 10 to 8 .. When that did not help I reduced to 6 that did not help ether.. I was getting lots and lots of algae on the glass... Than I decided to give it 4 hours of light and ...my plants stopped growing but that thing on leafs remained. I do not add any iron or any other fertilizers to the tank. Only liquid co2. Could it be the intensity of the light? ( My lights had little feet to keep the fixture above the tank about 3 inch ) I had removed them and placed the light fixture directly on to the versa top to get more light to my plants. If you will need pictures I will gladly try to attach them here.

Anyone...? any one has any suggestion as to what it is and how to fight it?


Thank you.
 
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#2 ·
Sounds like BBA to me, that's alot of light on that tank with no CO2 injection. BTW, what is your liquid CO2? Excel? Excel is somewhat effective, but nowhere near as much so as injected gas. You may be able to get away with DIY CO2 on a tank that small, but it's tough. I'd suggest leaving the extra 65W off all the time and spot treating the algae with Excel and consider dosing some ferts. Also, the HOB filter probably doesn't provide very good circulation, another potential problem. Maybe consider a powerhead to help with that. HTH!
 
#4 ·
I had BBA in a tank that I'm in the brocess of tearing up. I basically just left the lights off and didn't think of the tank for like 4 days, but then I decided to try and save (and sanitize because parasites were the main reason I was tearing the tank down) some of the plants. I turned the lights on for a day and the plants still looked pretty droopy until I took them out to bleach dip them, but the BBA on the driftwood started releasing air bubbles! That is some tough crud! The bleach solution completely annihilated the black spots on the plants though. I don't know if they will make it, but when I took them out after 3 minutes all the algae was gone, it just dissolved!
 
#5 ·
Yes I will use Excel to try and remedy that problem. I had a lot of BBA in the past, I mean that stuff was really hanging down off plants like in the jungle. I changed my filter pad and added charcoal, and BBA went away.. but these black spots are what is left off major BBA invasion. Thank for reply guys, I will follow you advise and #1 lift light fixture above the canopy back to 3 inch, #2 will start adding CO2 #3 get new filter with more flow #4 Added some fers.. Root tabs to be exact.
 
#8 ·
Ok.. here is the weekly update on the situation.

I did all of the above and increased the duration of light to 10 hours a day + I started dosing Co2 with Jungle Co2 system.

Right now I see huge decrease in algae on my glass and I started to see small oxygen bubbles on my plats which is good. Still, black spots on leaves remain, I guess it's permanent, lets see if new leafs will get effected.
 
#9 ·
You may have to remove the affected leaves as the adjustments you've made will discourage future growth of BBA, but probably not kill what's there. The good news is once you eradicate it, it generally will not come back as long the conditions remain favorable for strong plant growth. HTH!!
 
#11 ·
My guess there is nutrient deficiency of some kind, I can't remember offhand which nutrient(s) are indicated by discolored veins, if it's on new leaves I would suspect a micro, but you may want to check that out or someone who knows more about that specifically may chime in on that.
 
#12 ·
Alright... algae on the glass is coming back but not as much as it did before all the changes, but plants are still getting affected by "black spots on the leafs" I will post pictures. Maybe I should change my lamps..? I have 65 W CF square pin lamps that are about 8 month old. maybe more... should i change them?
 
#13 ·
Here is few pictures of my poor leafs.







I'm thinking taking my snails out and putting them in small tank with gravel and food and putting massive amounts of algae destroyer liquid in to my main tank.... what you guys think about that?
 
#15 ·
The anubias at least is BBA, I'm pretty sure it's what the rest is too. Getting CO2 and nutrients in check will stop new growth, I'd kill what's there by spot treating with excel since trimming off affected leaves on the anubias would be pretty much all of it. It's real hard to keep off anubias since they're such slow growers, try to get them in a darker part of the tank if there is one.
 
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