# Help, my HC is melting too. New nano tank.



## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

I probably posted too much information to get any useful help. Ah well.


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## CheyLillymama22 (Jun 9, 2013)

Ive heard youre supposed to split it up into very small bunches to hget the best growth.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

This is a simple fix. HC is a high light plant and your 50/50 bulbs are no good for plant growth. The actinic side of the bulb is utterly useless for freshwater plants. The 10k is somewhat useful but even this tends to be on the edge of the usable spectrum. Your stem plants don't show issues because they have lower light demands and are closer to the bulbs.

Also, you said these bulbs have been used before. If they are older than about 8 months then their intensity has diminished a lot. Fluorescent bulbs have a useful lifespan of about 8 months.


The withering you describe fits with low light conditions and the time it took to get to what it looks like now fits as well. Honestly 2 new 24 watt bulbs cost like $10 each max. If you can afford HC and CO2 you should be able to buy new bulbs?

I did the research for you and found some places you can buy 6500 K bulbs at 24 watts straight pin CF. Search 24 Watt 2G11 Base 6500 kelvin and you get a lot of results.

$3.90 each bulb
Eiko 49292 - DT24/65/RS - 24 Watt - 4 Pin 2G11 Base - 6500K - CFL
http://www.1000bulbs.com/category/24-watt-4-pin-2g11-plug-in-compact-fluorescents/

$3.99 per bulb
http://www.planetbulb.com/products/dt24-rs-24W-Duo-Tube-2G11-Base.html

$12.99 per bulb (*I have personally ordered from this site before and he sells good quality stuff)* Item number 11246 is the 6700K bulb which you want to buy.
http://www.ahsupply.com/bulbs.htm

$16.50/bulb
http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.co...623_prd1.htm?gclid=CJy6q_bPhLoCFYmf4AodCiQA-A


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## PortalMasteryRy (Oct 16, 2012)

CheyLillymama22 said:


> Ive heard youre supposed to split it up into very small bunches to hget the best growth.


Correct but unless you get the plant growing then any planting style is pointless. Zapins is correct the light is too low. I came from the traditional compact fluorescents until I got frustrated with the HC growth. After switching to a finnex ray2 18" DS for my 10 g, the HC grew and carpeted the front of my tank in less than 2 months. 

You already have the C02 injection then why not buy a good LED light and make all your plants happy. If you look at my sig that is the old version of my tank using a single Ray 2.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

I would not place HC as a high light plant. I have it growing in moderately low-medium light. Growth is moderate, not fast, but it is growing well. I consider high light as like 70 PAR and up. As a reference, I run 1x 24w geisiemann 7000k and 1x 24w Geisimann lagoon blue (purely for aesthetic reasons) and it's a TEK fixture hung about 2.5 feet from the substrate. And the 7000k bulb has been used for a while since i got it used from Tom Barr himself (thanks Tom, its working really well). This is over a 60p. 

To the OP, Melting is most likely more of a CO2 issue. Planting HC, I took small bits and actually Dry started it, but chopping em up into small clumps and planting those will help keep it down and less chance of liftoff. Welcome to your first struggle with CO2. It is probably the hardest thing to get a grasp of. Try to increase the CO2 slowly and steadily over the next few weeks. Increase it a bit, look for a few days for stress on fish. Then if its good, increase it more. Lights will drive CO2 demand so if you reduce your light some, you can reduce the CO2 demand that plants have. Sure plants will grow slower, but its better than melting.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

I disagree with puopg. HC does not melt without adequate CO2 it just doesn't grow. It stays static for weeks. I've grown it this way before without CO2 addition, but with high lighting (55 watt power compact over a 5g tank). The visual symptoms and the timing of each symptom match exactly with light deprivation not with CO2 deprivation.

HC is a carpeting plant that grows at the maximum depth of the aquarium, unless you are getting enough light to it it does not do well whatever your definitions are of high light.

Old 50/50 actinic bulbs do NOT make enough light to grow HC. I would put this amount of light into the low light category possibly even very low light depending on the age of the bulbs and the reflector type.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

Zapins said:


> HC does not melt without adequate CO2 it just doesn't grow. It stays static for weeks. I've grown it this way before without CO2 addition, but with high lighting (55 watt power compact over a 5g tank).


HC is fully capable of melting. Look at the OP. Search the forums and HC Melt. You will find plenty of examples of HC melting. And whats the reason in all those cases? CO2. Not light. Look here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=194187&highlight=hc
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=129771&highlight=hc

Oh yea, ninja edit. I specifically stated that his issue was most likely due to insufficient CO2. I'm not sure the PAR you had or what kind of light you used with that 5gallon tank, but 99% of folks who try to go "high-light" without CO2 supplementation of any kind will probably fail. It's possible, but you hear more stories of "why do i have so much algae" rather than "man my plants grow so fast" when you put high light without CO2 in the same tank. 



Zapins said:


> HC is a carpeting plant that grows at the maximum depth of the aquarium, unless you are getting enough light to it it does not do well whatever your definitions are of high light.


Yea, this is true if you have like 10 umols of light. But that's super low. In this scenario, you are picking the plants you CAN grow, not the plants you want. 



Zapins said:


> Old 50/50 actinic bulbs do NOT make enough light to grow HC. I would put this amount of light into the low light category possibly even very low light depending on the age of the bulbs and the reflector type.


This could also be possible, it would be great if we had the PAR values to know for sure.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

As far as I know there is still disagreement as to exactly what PAR gives you what type of lighting. With 50 PAR I think we can all agree you can grow most types of plants. If you want to call 50+ medium or high who knows exactly. I consider 50 fairly high as plants go. Most agree that below about 10-20 PAR and you will only grow the most shade tolerant plants, so it seems we agree on the low light term at least.

That said here is some reference data from a thread on APC where a 96 watt 50/50 bulb (6 months old) was tested in a 35g tank. At the substrate the PAR was a mere 19 from a 96 watt bulb. Based on this I'd estimate that the OP's 2x24 watt bulbs (of unknown but old age) are probably not putting out even 10-20 PAR worth of light at the substrate. Perhaps higher up in the water column there is more PAR for the stem plants, but not at the substrate level. In addition, we still don't know what his reflector situation is like, so he might not even be getting most of the available light into the tank, or it might be distributed directly down the center and not up against the glass where the HC has been planted.



> Aquarium size: 35 gallon Hexagon - 23 1/4 x 20 3/16 x 24 3/4
> Type of light fixture AND reflector: Coralife PC Quad Compact Retrofit
> Number of lamps, bulbs, or tubes, and wattage: 1x96w
> Age of lamps, bulbs, or tubes: 6 months
> ...


http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...b/80982-par-data-collection-3.html#post615969

On top of that, the OP is adding CO2. It isn't at 3 bubbles per second (or more) as some might recommend as optimal, but it is being added. Having CO2 added even at 0.6 bps means there is a source of CO2 in the tank. The HC is not starved of CO2, there should be enough in the tank to sustain the plant, or at the very least keep it green. It would not crumple up and turn brown within 7 days if the CO2 was adequate to keep it alive but not allow it to grow. However, having the plant in too dark of a tank would do exactly that, which is what we see from the photos and the detailed description. 

This is why I feel it is clear that the HC is melting from lack of light.

Even if you still believe it is CO2 related I doubt anyone would recommend an old 50/50 bulb as being the best bulb to light a planted aquarium. At the very least he should change them out for a more appropriate bulb type as part of general good plant conditions (or add extra bulbs if he likes the actinic color).

I also want to add for the OP that while there is a general theory that bluer light helps red plants grow better (as they reflect red light), this does not apply to Actinic light which is the primary wavelength of light found at over 10 meters deep (30 feet). No freshwater aquatic plant grows at these depths. Don't you think they would if they could use actinic light? 10 k is usable by freshwater plants, but it is at the edge of usable light for them. Freshwater plants use light generally between 5-8k best.


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

Wow, thanks folks for the discussion. I appreciate the thoughtful responses. As with all things in this hobby, it takes some deliberate experimentation. 

I am going to go buy some new lights, but will have to wait a couple days because my LFS is about 10 mi away (I live in Boston) and I have a day job to attend to. You are right, they are likely quite old, but I do have a reflector, with the front of the tank being the brightest spot. 

6500k or 6700k lights here we come! Plus the tank color will look nicer, I'm not partial to the blue cast. My rosette sword plant is growing in nicely, but I guess that is a lower light plant, so consistent with Zapins observation. I refuse to spend $200 on a PAR meter for new bulbs that will cost me $20.

I measured my pH last night at lights-out and found it to be around 6.4, and I fear if I crank the CO2 more to a whole 3bps (about 5 times more than I'm dosing now) my water will turn to vinegar and melt the shells off my shrimp. Another amano shrimp molted... when I got home it looked like a carcass, and had a sinking feeling the fish had a nice dining experience, but I eventually accounted for all the amanos. 

My fish are said to be ok down to a pH of 4.0 but lets not test that. Fish are loving it in there, color has intensified even more, now showing some red and black on fins, and when its calm, they break out of the shoal.

FYI, the HC was potted in stone floss, and I cut it up into several "plugs" so they could be grounded and grow into the surrounding substrate.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

So a couple things. The OP has stated that his sword and rotala wallichi are growing well. They are clearly pearling which is typically due to more light present and seem to be branching off more growth. Ferts seem to be alright since hes growing R Walli. and an echinodorus in flourite fine. He has pointed out that the HC is NOT growing upwards which plants will tend to do when lighting is insufficient. I have had a portion of my HC shaded by a huge floating Rotala green bush for the past month, and it is definitely growing up more than the other patches. 

Now i will not discredit the possibility that his light is not providing the required PAR for photosynthesis, but it sure seems that his other plants seem to not care. We must also keep in mind some plants have higher demand for CO2 and the flow/ distribution of CO2 in his tank might be lacking. HC is a CO2 hog. But for light? 99% of plants in the hobby can be grown in medium light without issues. CO2? Fluctuates very easily, different demand by different species, requires good flow, dissolution efficiency, changes with plant biomass. Much more possibility for errors here. 

I still argue as CO2 issue since I have been in the situation with plants melting from low CO2 (S Repens being one of my opponents), and there are many cases where HC has melted due to low CO2 levels. BPS is not really that accurate of a measurement for CO2, instead volume/time can provide a better estimate to CO2. I do notice he uses a disk diffuser which should be alright, but if theres bad CO2 distribution, this can very easily lead to melting. 

Arguably the more prominent matter in plant health, CO2 tends to get people more so than light. Based on the behavior of his healthy plants, the behavior of his current HC, and a very low rate of injection for CO2, i still think CO2 is more of the root issue. My suggestion to the OP is this: Its free for you to up the CO2, rather than to spend money on a new light. Makes more sense to me economically to try to increase the CO2 slowly instead of getting a new light.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

pchnts8 said:


> My fish are said to be ok down to a pH of 4.0 but lets not test that. Fish are loving it in there, color has intensified even more, now showing some red and black on fins, and when its calm, they break out of the shoal.


Definitely the 6500k bulbs will be more beneficial and look nicer than those actinics. For $20, go for it. But as for using CO2 to reduce ur pH... Even though those fish can live in very acidic environments, its not the pH thats gonna kill em, its the difficulty to respirate that will kill them once u begin injecting too much CO2. Never ever, ever just blindly increase your CO2 to some BPS. SLOWLY, adjust it. You will kill so many fish if you just blindly up the CO2.

What would be interesting to see is what happens if you leave your CO2 where it is now and only change the lights. Then report back with what you find.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Well, I suppose we will see. The OP doesn't seem to want to increase the CO2 just yet, but will be buying new lights shortly.

When you get the new lights (if the HC hasn't completely died by then), post back progress with the plant. Holding the CO2 as it is now but increasing the light will tell us for certain if it is a CO2 problem or a light issue.

I will stay tuned until then.


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

This is going to sound cute, but I can only use the tools at hand... I have a flourescent desk lamp that I'm going to aim at the failing HC... can't kill it any more!!! I'm going to leave the other half "unexposed".

Lets see if there is any noticeable change after a couple days.


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## puopg (Sep 16, 2012)

Look into the state specific section and see if the local community has anything you might be able to use. PAR meter would be great if they have one.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

The desk lamp will probably help, but they are not very well designed for plants either. The reflectors and spiral bulbs tend to get only a fraction of the produced light into the tank. It might help a bit until you get the proper bulbs. Did you have a look at the links I posted above, you should be able to buy the bulbs online cheaper than at your LFS.


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

Purchased 6500k bulbs from Dr Foster and installed a week ago. I wil not say that the HC has taken off, but all of the old growth has definitely disintegrated, and some of it still remains and is yellowing away... slowly. New growth survived, but growing slowly.

Since changing light bulbs, the HC have since taken on an even closer ground growth habit then before, almost like someone squished them against the gravel. Some evidence of the plants throwing out runners from the main bunch, but not aggressively so. Still feel like they are clinging for dear life. My amano shrimp have picked at the tufts and I've re-planted the stalks that were picked off. There is a minimal level of pearling happening. I'll give this another week to see where it goes. Then I'll start cranking the CO2 to see if that is the problem. Their current position is directly in the path of the "down draft" across the front bow of the tank from the exhaust of the pump after blowing through the path of the rising CO2 from the diffuser.

As for the other plants, some unfortunate algae / diatom growth led to the rotting of the growing leads on the Rotala Wilichii, but is sending new shoots from the bottom. Echinodorus continues leafing and bubbling from its roots. Lilaeopsis mauritana has started to send runners in all directions which I've had to "curb". Hygophila Augustofolia sending out new leaves, and these leaves are thin and red in color (turning into a plant that looks a lot better and dynamic than I thought they would be) sending out a set of binary leaves every two weeks. A couple cherry shrimp died, but the rest are surviving and I found some micro-sized baby shrimp out and about in the gravel / HC. Baldder snails are laying eggs everywhere and I fear an epidemic is about to ensue.

My current nemesis right now is green water. Doing twice-weekly 25% water changes to try to combat the cloudiness. It may have to do with dosing 1ml of Seachem Fluorish weekly; but not entirely sure.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Good to hear the HC is showing signs of recovery.

The green water is a sign that there is ammonia in the tank. Possibly from decaying plants.

Pearling is not a sign of plant health. It is simply a sign that the water cannot dissolve more oxygen so any new oxygen added to the water can't dissolve and forms bubbles. You can trigger this by raising the temperature (warm water doesn't dissolve as much oxygen), or doing a water change (cooler water in the pipes has more O2 in it and when warmed comes out of solution).


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

Thought I would post pics. HC not dead yet! 

Thanks for the note on pearling. I figured as much, not really a sign of health, just an indication of the dissolution of gas in water...

Doing a 25% water change every other day.

Given cooler days, my tank has gone from an average 24-27C back when I started it, to about 23C to 25C. Hoping to keep it there.

No new deaths to report. Rotalal Wilichii is looking sad, with no new growth. But it isn't dying and seems to have heavily rooted itself in the flourite. I tried yanking it out, but stopped when it fought back.... maybe it'll be ok. Will try adding root tabs after this green water is solved.

Given the green water situation, moved from twice daily flake feedings to once every other day feedings.


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## dbot (May 29, 2012)

hehe so green. I'm glad you made a recovery!


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

@Zapins: just tested for ammonia using an API test kit. Appears to indicate between 0.25 to 0.50 ppm. Which I gather means it is the cause of my trouble. I guess thats what makes this hobby "fun": solve one problem only to have another problem emerge. 

While there is some decaying matter, it isn't much. I feel its either due to overfeeding and the resultant growth of sessile algae, which the snails/shrimp fed upon (hair algae and spot algae on the glass was a prior problem about 1.5 wks ago) and now the waste from that feeing is working its way into the water. Maybe its time to add bioballs to the filter. To date I've only had a small pad of floss in the overflow as filtration.

On another note, I've been watering my houseplants with fish water from my water changes, and they seem to love it! Anyone out there growing orchids on fish water?

To keep on topic, I'll post progress when I finally get an HC mat. Thanks for the help everyone. I'm determined to succeed at this.


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## dbot (May 29, 2012)

Stay at it man, we shall all get a mat lol


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Haha yes that seems to be the "Fun" of aquatic planted tanks alright.

Ammonia is pretty short lived though. It generally goes away within a few days once the source of the ammonia stops. A few water changes will help you fight the green water. 

I've heard of a lot of people using aquarium water to water their plants. I suspect it should be fine for orchids. I know they like pretty low fert water and aquarium water generally tends to be quite low in KNO3 (which can burn orchids) and other nutrients. So yes it is a good melding of hobbies/uses.


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

Problems...

Green water hasn't cleared. Doing 50% water changes every other day in the mornings. My change water is treated with Amquel over the two days prior to the water change. Increased CO2 from 0.6 bps to 1.0 bps. Added shards of 1/2 of a Seachem root tab under the rotala, rosette sword and under the HC planting (just to see if it would do something). Dosing 0.5ml flourish weekly. Feeding fish once a day with 2-3 flakes crushed up (they are tiny fish, 12 of them, about 1 cm ea)

Some plant observations:

HC is undergoing die-back phase 2. New growth is creeping around, slowly, under the gravel. Leaves on older growth has yellowed en masse (all of the HC, no matter where it is planted) Yellowing is from the leaf tip and progresses back down towards the stem. Based on symptom charts, this would indicate nitrogen deficiency. This doesn't make any sense since none of the other plants are suffering, and the persistent presence of green water. Is it possible that the light is too intense for the nutrients being provided so its just burning out all the time? Some parts / bits of HC in more shaded regions don't seem to be as effected, but not in all cases.

Sword plant: new growth is now filled in and green, as they were previously coming in fairly transparent and eventually filling in with green. Growth rate looks to have increased. I think the roots have found the root tab. The plant now has around 20 leaves on it, and adds a new leaf prob every three days.

Rotala Wilichii after having all of its growing tips smothered by diatom / algae three weeks ago, has now all of a sudden exploded with new growths coming from the base, prob 7-8 new pink shoots. This stand of stem plants should start to look awesome in a couple weeks.

Lilaeopsis Mauritana still sending shoots all over the place, somewhat uncontrollably. Have started trimming and training the growth. This plant seems pretty invincible, just need to figure out how to make it grow more dense / bushy instead of having runners all over the place.

Critter observations:

Fish are growing up and no longer really school any more, they just sorta hover around. Some of the more dominant fish have actually started to show some aggression towards others, chasing behaviour, high-contrast coloring.

Shrimp population has been decimated. Probably a result of the frequent water changes. First the amano shrimps died, and now a couple cherry shrimp. There are some survivors. I fish out the dead bodies pretty promptly.

Snails, I had a bladder snail explosion with many eggs being layed all over the place, prob two weeks ago. Many of those eggs sacks have now hatched and I probably have hundreds of little snails littered all over the place (all < 1mm in size). Its likely causing a systemic lack of food for them as they have not grown quickly as their parents did. There are very few fully grown snails anymore. I am suspecting that their rotting carcasses are the reason for excess nutrient in the water causing my problems... but 50% water changes every other day for two weeks should take care of this, non?

Should I just reduce the water changes and let it fully green-over to sop out all the excess? Or would that be dangerous? Another alternative is to do drain 90% of the water and add back water slowly over three - four days. I just want to find the fastest way to let this run its course. There is absolutely no visible algae anywhere else in the tank. Another idea I had was whether I could setup a daphnia culture in my filter to eat the phytoplankton / algae in the green water... but how to find live daphnia and a contraption that would allow water to flow through it, but keep the daphnia in? I could then let my fish indulge in the critters every so often.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Lighting will not degrade nutrients. The shaded HC is probably not showing signs because the lower amount of light they get slows their metabolism down and the usage of nutrients. This makes deficiencies take longer to show up.

The dead shrimp might be from all the ammonia your test is showing. But then again, I suspect your ammonia test kit might be incorrect. Try it on a sample of distilled water for a baseline 0 reading.

The plant symptoms you describe do sound like nitrogen deficiency, but you need to post photos of the issues in several different plants to be sure. HC is also probably not the best indicator plant for deficiency symptoms. It can be difficult to examine the leaf closely since they are so small, and it is also difficult to tel what is new and old growth since they tend to become quite dense. How much nitrogen are you adding to the tank and in what form?

Fish spreading out is pretty normal. Generally fish school when they are stressed, so not having a schooling formation means they are not stressed or scared.

What is your water change schedule like? It sounds like you might be doing too many too often. 

What you really want to try and achieve is a stable nutrient concentration in the tank. Swinging from one extreme to another allows nutrient deficiencies to occur quite rapidly and prevents plants from adapting. 

Once green water gets a hold and starts blooming it can be tough to get rid of it unaided. You might want to look into mini UV sterilizers (about $35 on ebay), or even a vortex diatom filter. I have heard that cut willow branches placed in the aquarium will also cure green water (as soon as the roots begin to grow from the cut end). Though I have not tried this method personally. Here is a link to a UV sterilizer I used on my 180g tank to remove green water. It works quite quickly (2-3 days until clear) [Ebay Link Removed] (Search ebay for "13W UV Sterilizer w/ Submersible Pump Filter 150 gal Aquarium Fish Tank" or similar terms).


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

I'm going to stop with the 50% waterchange every other day as it is clearly not working. Hunt is on for a willow branch. The only ready specimens reside in Boston Common (a much beloved public park... I'd likely get linched for taking a branch off a tree) I may be able to get some from the Fenway area.

I don't fertilizer any nitrogen to the water column, had thought fish feeding / detritus would be sufficient. I have added seachem root tabs.

I wonder how intense the UV light needs to be. I have some cheap black-light lamps, wondering if they would work in a pinch.

Pics attached:

Photo 1: overall tank, none of the plants show any obvious signs of a nutrient deficiency.

Photo 2: close-up of a browning clump of HC, its easy to see what is old growth and new as it hasn't formed a mat yet. Green at the tips and any leaves further down are browning off.

Photo 5: close-up of Rotala Wilichii showing signs of a lot of new growth after a couple weeks of dormancy after growing leads died off. Would have thought this plant would show any deficiency first.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Black lights won't work (they are UV-A light which is a longer wavelength with less energy, that isn't as damaging as UV-B or UV-C). To kill algae you really need to use UV-C light. Usually UV-C light is filtered out of our atmosphere by ozone so it never really reaches the ground and therefore critters haven't really developed any coping mechanisms for it. You don't need very high wattage. A 13w bulb will clean out a pond. Even a smaller wattage bulb will clean out a pond given enough time and flow rate.

There are a couple of cheaper UV sterilizers on [Ebay Link Removed] I saw a power head version (instead of filter version) for $25 bucks shipped. That would definitely solve your green water virtually over night and prevent it from ever coming back. Here is some info on the willow branch method: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/73722-success-willow-branches.html I think the fastest way to solve the green water issue you have at this point is to get a UV sterilizer.

The photos are a little bit blurry, but seem to be showing a nitrogen deficiency (though the new growth is a bit pale looking on the Rotala? I can't tell from the photo if it is just the picture or a real paling). If you think about it, nitrogen deficiency does make sense. Your tank is heavily planted which requires a fairly large amount of nitrogen to sustain it, then on top of that you have a green water bloom which also requires nitrogen and other nutrients. Then on top of that you keep doing water changes which have probably flushed out whatever nitrogen was in the tank to begin with.

Good you stopped the water changes for now. Sometimes a few large water changes help get rid of green water and sometimes it just doesn't work for whatever reason and you have to remove it by other means. It seems you have the stubborn kind.

With this plant density you definitely need to be dosing nitrogen and likely other nutrients as well. Do you have some potassium nitrate you can add? You should see a boost in plant growth within the next 3 or so days after adding the nitrate.

Figured I'd add this for comparison, this is a pic from my database of early nitrogen deficiency in HC:

Notice the chlorosis starting from the tip of the leaf in older leaves. Your HC has the same sort of symptoms from what I can make out in the photo except the chlorotic parts of the leaves have progressed and become necrotic and in some places decayed away completely.


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## pchnts8 (Oct 6, 2013)

Seems there is some growth happening since I stopped with the bi-daily water changes. HC still clinging to life. I think my E Parviflorus is growing a flower spike.

Did a 50% water change on Sunday. Bought a UV sterilizer... clear water in two days! A-A Aquarium 9W model. Tonight, I dosed Seachem Nitrogen 0.7ml for my 10G tank. Will watch over the next 3 days. I'm expecting an explosion. I don't like the idea of running the UV constantly, so I think I'll stop that tomorrow, and hope that the GW will be suppressed.

This hobby is draining money out of me.


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## Zapins (Jan 7, 2006)

Good to know your HC is growing again. The frequent water changes were probably removing too much nitrogen & other nutrients from the tank, preventing the HC from growing while the green water eked out a living in the water column.



pchnts8 said:


> This hobby is draining money out of me.


Just be glad you aren't into the salty side of our hobby, now that is a money pit if I ever saw one! $50 for a coral frag? :icon_eek:


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