# will adding fish to my tank help?



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

Some of my plants are starting to fall apart and die... and it isnt a drastic thing, the lighting im sure is ok because the plants have been fine for several months but I just noticed that they are starting to look ugly and are starting to fall apart in my tank. Would adding more fish help my tank?


----------



## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

are you dosing any ferts, have you made any recent changes to the setup, how often do you change water?

sometimes plants will melt a little just from being moved around in the tank


----------



## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

What kind of plants are they? What is your light and the schedule? Ferts and stocking/ substrate? Pics of the plants?


----------



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

Marshall said:


> are you dosing any ferts, have you made any recent changes to the setup, how often do you change water?
> 
> sometimes plants will melt a little just from being moved around in the tank


Ummm no I stopped dosing ferts. And I havent made any changes. Also I have one t5h0 bulb and one regular t5 bulb both that stay on for 6 hours. Do you think adding fish would help make the plants healthy?


----------



## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

if its the tank in your sig, you are already pushing max stocking with the SAEs


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Nope, the right kind of ferts and lighting will help but fish don't give enough nutrients to really make them do good.


----------



## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Doesn't actually prove it but if the plants were doing good and you stopped dosing ferts and now they don't look fine any more
it would seem like you might start the ferts back as you had them. This is not going to happen over night either.
The parts that are bad looking will probably stay that way.
Once a plant is damaged the parts which are will stay that way most likely. But if putting the ferts back does help them
it will only show in the new growth.
If you stopped dosing the ferts cause you were getting algae it's not the fault of the ferts but you have med light level
in there which is too high for that tank without the other things to go/w it. You can cut the light by raising the fixture
higher above the tank or placing screen wire between the bulbs and the water.
If there is some other reason you stopped the ferts...let us know.
Pictures of the whole tank and of the plants from close would help.


----------



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

Raymond S. said:


> Doesn't actually prove it but if the plants were doing good and you stopped dosing ferts and now they don't look fine any more
> it would seem like you might start the ferts back as you had them. This is not going to happen over night either.
> The parts that are bad looking will probably stay that way.
> Once a plant is damaged the parts which are will stay that way most likely. But if putting the ferts back does help them
> ...


Ok so I have too much light for my tank? Also there is no real reason for me stopping the ferts, but maybe its time for me to invest in a little c02.


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Yes for the size of tank, you are sitting at high light levels. Raise your lights some, add co2 even if its diy. Also what kind of ferts are you using? Liquid ferts don't contain everything that is needed.


----------



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

susankat said:


> Yes for the size of tank, you are sitting at high light levels. Raise your lights some, add co2 even if its diy. Also what kind of ferts are you using? Liquid ferts don't contain everything that is needed.


Im using liquid c02 and liquid potassium and iron I think...


----------



## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

"Ok so I have too much light for my tank? Also there is no real reason for me stopping the ferts, but maybe its time for me to invest in a little c02."

I have two T5HO bulbs in my ten G tank. I like and try to produce algae just for the record before I say this. I get a fair amount of
algae with two T5HO bulbs and my tank is the same height as yours. If that Avitar picture is anything like the amount of plants
you have in your tank, it might explain why you don't already have algae in yours. Since the ferts you were dosing were at best
minimal, and with lots of plants, the algae has no nutrients to live off of. When you say liquid CO2 I assume you mean Excel.
Really that is not enough if you add any good ferts to the tank/w the light you have.
DIY CO2 is much better than Excel from what I've been told by people here and don't cost much to start up.
There are complete video's on You Tube showing how to make it. Just put DIY CO2 into search on there.
If you look at a list of the ingredients for ferts...Potassium is the main one which explains why your plants were doing well
but also why they got bad when you stopped cause you took away all of their food.
But I will say that Excel does cut down on the amount of algae you might/could have. So I would use that till your plants
are growing well again before stopping it after you add what ever CO2 you are going to use.


----------



## quinn808 (Jul 12, 2013)

Raymond S. said:


> "Ok so I have too much light for my tank? Also there is no real reason for me stopping the ferts, but maybe its time for me to invest in a little c02."
> 
> I have two T5HO bulbs in my ten G tank. I like and try to produce algae just for the record before I say this. I get a fair amount of
> algae with two T5HO bulbs and my tank is the same height as yours. If that Avitar picture is anything like the amount of plants
> ...


I recently trimmed a bunch of those plants out... which I regret but I will continue with the fertilizers and maybe someone could link me to a good c02 kit that I could order.


----------



## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

For ferts you need a good comprehensive, micros and macros. Dry ferts are the cheapest way to go, but it would last you for years on one small tank.


----------

