Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 16, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 Hello. I'm going to apologise in advance for the long winded post and also my stupidity lol. I got given 2 fish in a tank I knew was too small for them, so I just bought a bigger tank and some plants, put it all together and threw the fish in. How hard can it be? Lesson learnt. The original plants I purchased were just bunches of mixed types. One of the types of plants in the mixed bunch didn't like the tank and died pretty quickly. Another is the browner/lighter coloured plant in the front of this photo. I recently added new plants (the same type) and you can see the contrast in the colour between the newer green ones and the brown ones. It grows quickly but the longer it gets the browner it goes. Should I be trimming it? It also shoots out tonnes of roots and roots along it's length close to the ground. I'm totally fine with that because I love the natural river look. It has new shoots coming up which are bright green. The plant in the top right if both pics shot up in the past few weeks and were beautifully green but the last week I've noticed the leaves going brown... The two big plants in this pic are new additions. I wanted some height and big leaves for hidey places... I realised when I got them home the one on the right prefers warmer temperatures than my tank and I can already see some leaf browning. At the rate the fish are eating this one I don't see it having enough time to die anyway..... I have a 3cm layer of aqua decor nutrient soil (as instructed on the packet). This is topped with a couple of cm's of rocks/gravel. I'm wondering if I'm damaging the roots when I vacuum the gravel? One of the lights is in the red spectrum. Sorry I know nothing about the lighting other than that. We had a blue light which went out, my bf went to buy a replacement and the website said the red was better so that's what he got. I also bought my first water testing kit last week. It said ammonia and nitrites were 0, but the nitrate reading was strange so I emailed the manufacturer. Someone in the D&D forum said the strips I used were unreliable (which is entirely possible). The manufacturer however, replied and said the reading suggested there is no nitrate present. As my water changing wasn't up to par previously I've been doing 50% water changes every second day this week (just in case the nitrate was high). I tested the water 2 days after a 50% water change. I've read the plants use the nitrate, as the tank has a decent number of plants and only had one little fishy for a while, is it possible this is making the nitrate zero? And if so, does zero nitrate negatively affect the plants? Any suggestions on keeping the plants happier? I am also going to be treating Frank, Fiona and Dudits for flukes this week. I've read on koko's that you need to thoroughly vacuum the gravel to remove eggs etc. how do I do this with the nutrient soil? And the plant roots? Like I said, clearly clueless, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member begemi Posted November 16, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 (edited) Hi! AN experert moderator will probably be along to help you soon. So I'll just share my own personal experience and observations if this is of any help to you. I used to have gravel in my tank the first time I had goldies quite a long time ago. Goldies are little swimming piggies that qould try to eat anything they come across in the tank. Mine ate gravel and died. Rather large gravel or sand is the way to go in with goldfish if you beleive some bottom is a must. My goldfish tank is bare bottom because a lot of poop gets stuck in the gravel as well as food and this makes keeping good quality water very chalanging with this type of fish. Plants are beautiful but goldies eat most of them. Anubias and microsorum (just can't remember what the laic name of this plant is, sorry) appear not to be much of their liking. I keep my plants in small glasses, slightly larger than the ones for shots. Anubias and the other plant I mentioned can only be tied to a root or stone and do not require substrate. They also do well at low temperatures. This is a link to two youtube chanels that have helped me great deal in learning how to keep goldfish properly. There's also loads of info here on Koko's awesome site you should read. Edited November 16, 2015 by begemi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted November 16, 2015 Admin Share Posted November 16, 2015 So this is the new tank with all the stuff from the old tank right? If you can I would like you to test your water for us Ammonia nitrites nitrates ph kh/gh How many gallons is this new tank? What is the light source on the tank? How many fish in there ? and what is the filtration? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporter Helen Posted November 16, 2015 Supporter Share Posted November 16, 2015 my 5 year old plants started dying (Anubias).. after very many suggestions from members, none which worked, a suggestion to change the light bulbs did the trick... apparently although they are still efficient in lighting... they are no longer good for the plants after a year or so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted November 16, 2015 Admin Share Posted November 16, 2015 my 5 year old plants started dying (Anubias).. after very many suggestions from members, none which worked, a suggestion to change the light bulbs did the trick... apparently although they are still efficient in lighting... they are no longer good for the plants after a year or so. lights will burn out in a way that the rays that my omit when they are new are gone later on.. I found that if you want to keep them strong is to change them every six months. Now thats on the normal lights and compact. I havent yet figured out the led lights... but Im working on that now as I have them on my 36 gallon planted tank ... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 16, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 Hey thanks for replying. The tank and filter are 2nd hand and everything in it is new. The filter is aquafishpro super fish 800L/hr. Interestingly we bought the tank as a 200L tank.... But I'm about to start treating for flukes and I'm assuming I need to know the actual water amount so we measured the tank. Turns out it's only about 140L and approx 120L of water is in there (accounting for the substrate). Smaller than we thought! I'm not too worried as we paid €50 for the tank and filter, still a bargin! And I believe the filter now meets your specs for the size of the tank there are 3 fishes in there. I checked my parameters 5 days ago and they were pH between 7.2 and 7.6 Ammonia - 0 Nitrite -0 Nitrate reading was iffy, twice, company said the reading indicates no nitrate. I used test strips so I'm ware it might not be spot on Gh between 142 and 285 - much closer to 142 Kh 107 I've since done 3 (what I thought were) around 50% water changes but they must have been closer to 70% given there's much less water volume. I did this because I realised I hadn't been changing enough water and I was worried the weird nitrate reading was from having too much. The light source I'm unsure of. It's at the top of the tank, one normal light and one red one. Flurescent tube things. Lol I'm very technical I think that answers everything 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 16, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 The red coloured light is only about 2 months old. The normal 'light' could be years old, i have no idea how long the previous owner had it before we bought the tank. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted November 16, 2015 Admin Share Posted November 16, 2015 Hey hun.. if you can give us a Video of your tank and such so we can better see and understand... That light the white on I would replace it if you can.... Do you use any kind of plant food in the tank? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 16, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 No plant food, just the nutrient soil. Should I be feeding them? Let me work out how to get you a video. In the mean time, this is a photo incase that helps 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted November 16, 2015 Admin Share Posted November 16, 2015 All you have to do is upload it to youtube and place the share link here hun Helps alittle I would suggest for now hun.. the ones that are browning, let them float for a while... I would also replace that bulb and if you can get some Flourish Excel... Great stuff 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member shakaho Posted November 16, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 First get good lighting. Then remove most, preferably all, of the gravel, replacing it with a thin layer of sand. I find the hornwort (the first plant you showed) works best as a floater. I have it floating in my ponds. It grows fast to practically cover the surface if I don't control it. I pull it all out, snip off everything but the thick bright green (or sometimes pink) growing tips. I toss the tips back in the pond and the rest goes to the compost pile. This plant purifies the water as it sucks up lots of nutrients so I'm removing that stuff from the pond by discarding the old plant. Goldfish don't like to eat it unless practically starving. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 16, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 I will upload the video, I'm just having google/youtube signin issues... Lol. Great tips. I'll let them float. They have roots, do I just gently pull the roots up? I'll look for the plant food and lights as soon as I can Thanks guys 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member shakaho Posted November 16, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted November 16, 2015 Snip them off at "ground" level. They may grow from the "roots". I didn't remember seeing any roots on the ones that float in my ponds, but I just went out to check. No roots. Here's an article on the plant that describes "rootlike structures" on planted hornwort. Another source confirms that it has no roots. If you keep pruning the hornwort to just the growing tip, you won't have the leaf shedding that makes people hate this plant. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member ChrissieA Posted November 17, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted November 17, 2015 Mine definately has root like structures. Hundreds of them! But that's definately the plant and the article describes it perfectly. I'm going to remove some of the gravel and nutrient soil today so I'll snip the longer browner hornwort and float it, thank you! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Daniel Posted November 19, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted November 19, 2015 Your other plant in the last photo is hygrophila corymbosa (commonly traded as temple plant). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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