# New to planted tanks/dirty looking plants



## mikielh1984 (Feb 17, 2012)

Hello Planted Tank Forum,

I am new to the forum as well as new to heavily planted tanks. Although I have been keeping live plants since I started enjoying the aquarium hobby my new 75 gallon tank is the heaviest planted yet.

I will add pictures soon to help show what my issues are exactly but the basic reason for my post is there seems to be a large build-up of dirt/algae on the leaves of all my plants. The new leaves are extremely green for a few weeks and then the build-up begins which turns them a dull green. I can pull the plants out of the tank and clean the leaves and they will be bright again but I am sure there is an easier way to do this. I want to stress that they aren't dying it just seems to be a build up.

Here is a list of my equipment and plants as well as my water parameters. I might be mistaken on some of the plant names as I am new to this but I will try to get as close as I can.

Equipment:
75 Gallon Tank
Coralife T5 HO Dual Light w/ 10k Bulb and a 6700 Bulb
Eheim 2217 Classic
Whisper Air Pump hooked up to bubble bar
DIY Co2 setup.

Plants:
1x Madagascar Lace
Several Broad leaves hygrophyla's (this is based off of me looking at the plant profiles)
Several Java Ferms
A little baby Dwarf Tears (still grown and just recently introduced)
2x Some type of asian anubias. Not sure exactly but I know that is what I was told when I bought it. (it grows very tall and has very large green leaves with red spots)
1 x Large Manzanita Driftwood (36"x14"x18")
1 x small piece of driftwood

Water Parameters:
PH 7.2
Ammonia:0
Nitrates and Nitrites: 0
Temp: 84F

Again I am new to keeping plants on this level so any advice is appreciated to help rid my tank of this problem.

Also I am also open to suggestions on other plants if you have any as I am working on building a very clean nice looking low tech aquascape.

Thanks again!

- Mike


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## ycbs (Jan 30, 2008)

It sounds like you're either running your lights too long or are not dosing enough ferts and algae is out-competing your plants for the nutrients in the tank. How long are you running the lights? Are you dosing any ferts?

Several Otos would be my first course of action if you don't already have any. Are there no fish in this tank?


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## mikielh1984 (Feb 17, 2012)

ycbs said:


> It sounds like you're either running your lights too long or are not dosing enough ferts and algae is out-competing your plants for the nutrients in the tank. How long are you running the lights? Are you dosing any ferts?
> 
> Several Otos would be my first course of action if you don't already have any. Are there no fish in this tank?


There are several fish in this tank. A few corys, a few neons, and 7 Discus. 

Lights are usually on for 10 hours a day and I don't dose with any ferts.

Sounds like I am getting some answers pretty quick!


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

Some plants have problems with the range of temperatures required for Discus. Plant wise, pick a path. Do you want to go high light, high tech with ferts, CO2? If so, why do you want to do this? You can create a very lush tank with lower light plants. If the goal is low tech, switch to one light, ditch the DIY CO2 and pick lower light plants that don't need CO2. HC is probably not going to be in this category for you.


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## mikielh1984 (Feb 17, 2012)

TexasCichlid said:


> Some plants have problems with the range of temperatures required for Discus. Plant wise, pick a path. Do you want to go high light, high tech with ferts, CO2? If so, why do you want to do this? You can create a very lush tank with lower light plants. If the goal is low tech, switch to one light, ditch the DIY CO2 and pick lower light plants that don't need CO2. HC is probably not going to be in this category for you.


Hey TC,

Thanks for the advice. I am definitely looking at a low tech, low light tank. I am definitely not in a place to afford all the luxuries of a high priced tank. If you have advice on higher temp, lower light plants that will do well on discus parameters I would love to hear what would be good.

Thanks again!

- Mike


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