Stemmed Vs. Non-Stemmed Plant Requirements

Detrius Maximus

Junior Poster
Jun 29, 2013
13
0
1
In the two months since my six gallon tank has been going, I've noticed my stemmed plants are slowly dying while all the non-stemmed plants are doing well. The carbon source is Excel (soon to be CO2!), (K)NO3 is around 5 ppm, (NaH2)PO4 around 0,5 ppm. I did have very mild brown on the front glass as well as exposed roots and pin-point sized green algae on the glass. A slight increase in my Excel dosing stopped the algae. I have a single otto cat, three Amano shrimp, and three snails (not sure of the names).

I'm not sure of the names of my stemmed plants. The non-stemmed plants include duckweed, two java fern species - one thinner-leafed, the other thicker-leafed, a short grass, and a tall grass.

What could the stemmed plants be missing that's causing them to slowly fade away?
 

i4yue

Member
Nov 3, 2012
44
1
6
you need way more nitrates
I have my tank dosing with probably 60ppm of nitrates but plants take it up so fast it doesn't harm the fish
 

Matt F.

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
May 30, 2009
2,319
4
38
California
I think the main issue here has to do with a lack of CO2. The plants you mentioned that are doing well all do not need CO2 injection to grow. stem plants generally require the injection of CO2. Excel won't do it in most cases for stem plants. Also, what is your light source?
 

Detrius Maximus

Junior Poster
Jun 29, 2013
13
0
1
There's one 7 watt LED. I'll be setting up my CO2 system this weekend so I'll see if this is true. Like yourself, I expect the stemmed plants to spring back to life. I wonder what will happen to the non-stemmed plants - no change in growth rate from Excel dosing or even faster growth rate? I'll find out soon.

I've been dosing Excel for the past 10 weeks. It will be interesting to see the change going from Excel to CO2 as carbon source.