Brown or transparent plants?

[mistahoo]

I noticed that some of my plants are browning or turning transparent. Some of them lost leaves, stems, and one completely deteriorated. The Cory cats also looked very stressed. As soon as I noticed this I did a 75% water change and the Cory cats look very happy and active. What could be the problem?

Equipment specs:
5g fluval chi
Zoo med 501
Eco complete African cichlid substrate
Ecoxotic stunner strip (on for about 10 hrs)
Aqueon mini heater
Manzanita wood


Livestock:
Rcs shrimp
3 Cory cats
1 chocolate tylo snail
2 nerite snails
5+ assassin snails

I do 50% water changes weekly. Feeding is very minimal. One pinch of nls 1mm every other day. I placed 2 flourish tabs in the substrate when I first put the plants in and 2 two weeks ago. I just put 2 more after the water change. I dose seachem flourish as directed on the bottle.

I will post pics shortly.

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[BrAin]

How long has the tank been setup and how long ago did you put the plants in? Could be new plants are just "melting" from the change.

[mistahoo]

[mistahoo]

[mistahoo]

How long has the tank been setup and how long ago did you put the plants in? Could be new plants are just "melting" from the change.

Tank's been setup for about month and a half? I put most of the plants in last Saturday. They seemed fine until today. Some of the ones I had in there for about two weeks started to brown and become transparent as well.

Edit: I used a cycled filter and some filter padding from a established tank to jump start this tank for about a week when I first set up the tank.

[mnemenoi]

It takes a bit of time for the plants to adjust to the water parameters and they should bounce back. My guess is that they are losing some of their foliage due to slightly different water parameters and lighting differences.

[Totenkampf]

many plants will go through transplant shock, plants keep a ratio of leaves to root mass and when they loose some of this root mass during transplants they will shut down leaves to compensate until the roots get stronger. the crypts especially are intolerant of changes in water chemistry but they will bounce back. the anubias is a slow grower so its hard for it to repair damage from shock but it too will bounce back. the swordplant leaves i see are the emmersed form (stiff and more teardrop shaped) and so they will die back as submersed forms grow in (more pliable and a long lance shape). the stem plants look like they are just undergoing what i might expect in a new tank that isnt mature. i see very little new growth however.

for what its worth, i am not sold on the ecoxotic stunners for plants at all. arent those supposed to be 8000k? although i often mix in 10000k lamps in with more redish bulbs on multiple lamp fixtures, i would want to use something this blue as the only light source. i dont have any experience with them personally though. i tried the current usa LED strips and was not impressed.

[mistahoo]

Thank you guys for the input. I was worried something was going wrong. The fish are happily exploring their jungle right now and the shrimp have completely disappeared in the plants.

although i often mix in 10000k lamps in with more redish bulbs on multiple lamp fixtures, i would want to use something this blue as the only light source.

I'm assuming you meant wouldn't? I had originally planned on using a lamp alongside with the stunner strip as the main source of lighting and the LEDs just for the shimmer. That idea was trashed once the lamp fell in the tank and overheated the tank while I was asleep.

I will be getting a few 6500k-6700k LEDs eventually and rigging it along a mounting bracket with the stunner strip. Would this be okay?

[Totenkampf]

yes wouldnt lol, not enough coffee yet

[mistahoo]

Hahah well I came up with a simple MSPaint drawing of how I want the mounting bracket to look like with the LEDs. There's a break in between the bracket so there's two rows that I will attach the LEDs to.

The first pic is an old one that I just added a drawing for LEDs.

[Mike&stef]

I have a similar stunner 10k led strip on my 6gallon edge so far I have not seen awesome growth from it if anything it seems to be bare minimum to sustain life haha. I got it because I have heard good things from it

[mistahoo]

Re: Brown or transparent plants?

The stunner strips are nice for a fish only tank. I wouldn't use them for a planted, but I got it with the tank so I might as well use it and save some money. I agree with you there. The strip us enough to keep my plants alive but I've noticed very little growth

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