Trouble with Plants!

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Kriltex

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Hello, i have been keeping 2 axolotls with 4 fancy goldfish in a 3 foot tank for one year. They are all growing well and healthy so please dont comment on not having enough room for goldfish and the likes.

I came here for help with plants because the 'strictly aquariums' shop kept telling me to buy all these different plant foods/medicines.

Whenever i buy a nice cold-water plant, it is nice and bright green or red, but after a few weeks in my tank, it turns into a duller green or darker brown. I do not understand why, i clean the water every week, scrub the brown algae off the glass and keep the aquarium light on for 6 hours. I have a feeling it is the brown algae which is killing the plants, but i do not know how to stop that either. I just rlly want to have a nice planted tank for my axolotyl and goldfish to hide and swim in.

P.S I do not know the names of the plants, but i got a variety. All of them eventually get covered in this hair like algae and wither away. Even if i give plant food every time i do Water changes. PLEASE HELP
 
What substrate do you have? -are the plants able to take up the nutrition from the tank.
What are the plants you are using? I find the easiest plants to keep are the more robust ones like java ferns and anubias. The plants with larger leaves also tend to do better in my tanks as the thin little leaves of other plants just break off and end up littering the whole tank...

Also, its not really a good idea to keep goldfish with axies as they may nibble the axies gills and cause stress/illness plus the axies may try to eat them and choke etc...
 
i have a 40mm deep layer of small gravel, heaps to hold down any plant. I do have a few java ferns in there, and they have turned an ugly brownish green colour, the roots dont seem to be growing anymore since the leaves have been vanishing into these hair like things..... same with my other plants, i have small broad leaved ones which again.. were nice and bright light green when i bought them, but now an ugly green with brown spots... Is it the cold temperature of the tank? since all the plants i buy come from heated tanks.. i dont know. Its just one thing i cant get right
 
Small gravel isn't an appropriate substrate for axolotls. It can be ingested, leading to impaction and ultimately the death of the animal.

As for the plants, if you have an algae problem, there are too many nutrients in the tank. This is probably from overstocking, as a 3 foot tank is appropriately sized for no more than 2 or 3 animals, while you have 6. Goldfish are notorious waste-producers.

The algae in the tank are taking up the nutrients before the plants are able to, so you have a proliferation of algae and the death of your plants.
 
Thanks for the advice, i just took all my plants out, washed them off and cut them back short. certainly makes it look cleaner. Now with the brown algae, since my tank looks alot more visible without the bushy brown plants, i notice algae gathering on the back glass and also on the decorations. Why is the brown algae forming? what actions should i take?
 
Could it be that my lighting is too strong? i wish i kept the packet xD, It cost me $100 AUS dollars and just lays across the top of the glass. It is fairly bright.. so maybe keeping it on 6 hours a day is way 2 much?
 
Kriltex said:
Thanks for the advice, i just took all my plants out, washed them off and cut them back short. certainly makes it look cleaner. Now with the brown algae, since my tank looks alot more visible without the bushy brown plants, i notice algae gathering on the back glass and also on the decorations. Why is the brown algae forming? what actions should i take?
Click to expand...

Brown algae (most often a type pf diatom) is very common in freshwater tanks. It is nearly impossible to get rid of, but it can be controlled by regular cleaning of the glass with a scrubber made for the purpose.

You can lessen your lighting schedule, however this will affect your plants. Good tank maintenance, regular water chemistry checks, and a scrub of the tank sides once a week will keep it in check.
 
SludgeMunkey said:
Brown algae (most often a type pf diatom) is very common in freshwater tanks. It is nearly impossible to get rid of, but it can be controlled by regular cleaning of the glass with a scrubber made for the purpose.

You can lessen your lighting schedule, however this will affect your plants. Good tank maintenance, regular water chemistry checks, and a scrub of the tank sides once a week will keep it in check.
Click to expand...

Sounds good but if i scrub the algae off the tank sides... wont the algae just go free-floating and attatch onto my plants... Its easy to get off when its on glass, but when it gets onto my plants, i dont know what to do. pleasee hellppp . should i use a de-algesizer lol, chemicals?
 
Kriltex said:
Sounds good but if i scrub the algae off the tank sides... wont the algae just go free-floating and attatch onto my plants... Its easy to get off when its on glass, but when it gets onto my plants, i dont know what to do. pleasee hellppp . should i use a de-algesizer lol, chemicals?
Click to expand...


Some will "escape" back into the water, but this cannot be helped.

Do not use any chemicals! The stuff that kills algae will kill all of your plants. Most of them will kill your amphibians too.

By keeping your water chemistry balanced the algae will not be a problem. As mention in previous posts, your tank is overloaded with animals for it's size. Goldfish really are huge waste producers, and they will continue to keep your algae bloom well fed.
 
one thing you can do to stave off a little bit of the algae is to have a hour or so long ciesta period around 2, though I have mine at 3. I got this out of one of my aquatic plant book and is explained to work due to the algae require a warm up period to photosynthesize where as complex plants do not, and thus the ciesta period causes the algae to waste more energy starting up then they will gain though the rest of the day causing them to weaken.
 
I think i figured out what was wrong with my whole algae problem. After talking to a few people, a friend asked me.. "How high is your water level?", and i think thats what did it!.

I have a overhead ( i think ) filter, The one that hangs onto back of aquarium glass.

I had my water level covering the 'mouth' of the filter so there was not much circulation going on in the water.. just pushing the surface of the water around.

After siphoning out some of the water to have more of a 'waterfall' effect. I noticed heaps of air bubbles throughout the tank from the impact of the splashing!

Im not sure if this will fix it as i only did this yesterday, but i think it makes sense. No oxygen = no plants right? i think that would explain why the algae was goin everywhere .. cause the water was stagnant.

Please comment on this theory!!!
 
Cold water absorbs much more oxygen that warm water so I doubt that its a low o2 problem. As long as the water is only a foot or so deep, the surface alone will absorb enough o2, without any agitation. The filter does not need to drop water from high up it just needs to ripple the surface to help absorb even more o2.
I think 2 axies and 4 goldfish in a 3 foot is a bit much tho and think the algae is just booming because of all the waste produced. They are all creatures that exrecte a lot of watse... A greater volume of water will help, ie a bigger tank full up with water...
If the water was low in o2 both the fish and axies would be hanging at the surface gasping the air?!?!?
daryl
 
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