# Everything is dying! *sob*



## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

My tank is in severe distress. :help:Why am I not surprised by this? I've had it planted and running for about 3 weeks now I think? Everything is pretty much dying except my anubias nana petites which I'm sure is just because I only added them last week.

It's a 35g tank, T5NO light, hard water. I have val nana, lileopsis mauritana, fissidens fontanus, one anubias nana and a few petites. It's currently being cycled. I'm using a crappy filter that is already cycled from another tank. I put in a cocktail shrimp which is looking really gross right now. 

I just checked my water conditions today and it's very basic but didn't really see any nitrites or ammonia. I tested it a week ago I think which was just a few days after I added the shrimp and it was neutral then. 

ph 7.6
Nitrate 5ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Amonia 0-0.25 ppm (and it could just be 0 but I thought maybe it was a tiny bit darker than the 0) 

Here are my pictures. I've got some kind of brown algae growing all over. Plants are dying. You can't see the vals but they're really gross and dead looking behind the driftwood. The anubias nana has some white stuff on it:
Again, the petites don't looks so bad because they haven't been around that long.

Note brown stuff on driftwood and my pathetic fissidens:











White and brown stuff on anubias nana:










L. mauritana dying :icon_cry: plus brown algae stuff on glass


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## snausage (Mar 8, 2010)

How many watts of light do you have?

Fissidens mosses prefer soft, acidic water, so they won't do well in your current parameters. The other plants should be ok though.

Are you using a water conditioner?

What kind of substrate is that?

You can probably remove that piece of shrimp.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Pretty much all new tanks go through various algae cycles. No reason to despair. 

Take a credit card and clean the glass from the brown alga. 

Exercise some patience. A beautiful planted tank usually isn't created in a day or even week. I have spent months looking at my algae ridden tanks before they turned out quite nice.

Read up on CO2 and nutrients... you might not need them for low light/low tech but it will keep you occupied. :biggrin:

Maybe buy some more fast growers.


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## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

The substrate is eco-complete. 

The water out of the tap is a pH of 6. I don't use a conditioner because the water is from a well, there is no chlorine in it. 

I'll take out the moss then and get some different moss like java. That's pretty easy right? 

Just last week the pH of the tank was neutral.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

My water is liquid rock and Fissidens does just fine.

Since you're already reading nitrates and don't seem to have ammonia despite the decomposing shrimp, I'd go ahead and add some Nerite snails and some Amano shrimp to help with the algae while you give the tank just a bit longer (checking the water params every day) to make sure the tank is cycled. With your established filter, you may already be ready to start stocking, slowly.

Like Wasserpest said, algae outbreaks are extremely normal for new tanks.

It's also pretty normal for plants to go through a dieoff as they acclimate to a new tank. Hopefully most if not all of your plants will start to put out new leaves soon.

You might also want to get a bottle of Excel for the next algae outbreaks, which in my case is usually hair, staghorn, and/or BBA...


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## ponyo (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for everyone's help. 

So should I put switch to the HOB filter? It's been on my cycled tank for about 3 weeks now. 

And when do you know a plant is dead-dead and you should pull it out? I'm thinking of the vals which look pretty bad.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

Perhaps a split session of you lights would help. Something like 4hrs on, 4hrs off, 4hrs on. It is helping me. 

What is your gh and kh?


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## geekgirl (Feb 4, 2003)

Cut the vals down to a couple of inches or so from the substrate, and also make sure they are not buried too deeply. Roots in, but if you buried too much of the leaf, they'll rot since they're surface runners. 

Wait on the anubias too, when you see new leaves growing, then, and only then, start trimming off the bad leaves. 

Make sure the water isn't too warm. Tropical plants need warm water to survive, but not too warm or they will "melt." And just wait it out. 

Some of your plants may have been grown in tanks with very different parameters than yours, and they've gone shocky. You might lose some, but some should rebound.


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## tankaddict (Jan 19, 2010)

Aww, sorry to hear i felt the same way when my carpet of HC died. I think the problem is the high PH and your tank is fairly new. Can you find away to lower your PH?


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

tankaddict said:


> I think the problem is the high PH and your tank is fairly new.


He said his water out of the tap is a pH of 6. I don't that is high. I think you misread it.


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