# Sorry-looking Plants



## wet_and_wild (Jul 19, 2012)

I'm doing a fishless cycle on a 55g. I put some water wisteria in it from another tank. The wisteria is doing great in the other tank, but in this one the leaves are turning brown; they look almost like they have algae on them, but nothing else in the tank is getting algae on it. There's a lot of new growth, but it quickly succumbs to the brown.

I've taken to cutting back the light to 3 hours. I have to think that it may be that the light is too intense. I have a test kit coming next week to determine the water parameters, so I don't know if that could be a factor.

This is the light I have:

AquaticLife dual lamp 48" T5HO
One bulb is 6,000Km the other a roseate lamp that produces light in the red (650nm) spectrum. The two lamps are 54 watts each. The fixture was sitting flush with the tank frame, but I've moved it up 4" - so far it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Does someone care to venture as to what might be going on?


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## Brian757 (Sep 24, 2012)

Not enough CO2? Is it open top? What does your water test like/quality?


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## scooterlady (May 10, 2011)

You say you're doing a fishless cycle...how much ammonia are you adding to the tank? Extremely high ammonia levels can harm plants


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You'll want more lighting than 3hrs, even for Wisteria. I would cut a fresh stem off and plant it and see how it does. If you are removing from one tank to put in other and removing roots and all, trying to replant a plant with massive root systems can injure the plant. You could also trim roots to about 1" and I would recommend that for any plant. I have never had an issue doing this.


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## wet_and_wild (Jul 19, 2012)

Umm..er...well... I guess I misunderstood what fishless cycling is about. I had thought if I set up the tank and let it run for a while it would be okay.

As for the plant, I took it out, but was amazed at how strong and plentiful the roots were. I'm thinking I'm going to do a massive water change and put it back in, along with some goldfish to help the tank cycle. (I can then use the goldfish, assuming they live, for water trough for my horses - there's one who'd been in there for years, and is absolutely huge - it needs a bud or two.)

So, not understanding the fishless cycle, I'm curious as to how the chemistry aspect of it works - especially adding ammonia to get rid of ammonia.


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## rogue909 (Sep 14, 2012)

idea behind fishless cycle... (I have not done, but have learned the jist of it while learning about ammonia cycles and such)
Over dose tank with ammonia (Like cleaning ammonia, no additives though) 
From what I've read, havnt done, some people go as high as 5ppm, a quick scan of my API chart states .5 stresses the fish... so you can see where this would be a serious overdose for a normal tank (to maintain at anyway)
Anywho, OD with the ammonia, plants and bacteria start to cycle the ammonia to nitrite.
Important part here** keep feeding the bacteria/plants ammonia, less they die and you lose your cycle, i've read that people dose the tank on a daily basis
then it cycles the nitrite to nitrate
mean time you are growing all of your plants & bacteria in the tank to prepare them for the fish
eventually when you are ready for fishies, back off the ammonia, perform water changes as needed to gain control of cycle and introduce fish

Adding the fish after you prep the cycle guarantees (as much as you can guarantee in this hobby) that the fish will be safe and not die from ammonia

Look up for more details, don't just pour a gallon of ammonia in your system then come back and tell me that I killed everything ><


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## clep.berry (Mar 4, 2012)

The fishless cycle is about building a colony of bacteria that can handle the conversion of the amount of ammonia produced by fish in the tank into nitrites and then nitrates. The bacteria use the ammonia for food, creating nitrites. A different set of bacteria then converts the nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates being the least harmful of the 3 Nitrogen based waste products is removed when it reaches much larger concentrations from the tank.
To maintain the environment in the tank this is far more efficient as you would have to change more than 300x the water than you would without this cycle happening.
cb


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## jaybourne074 (Sep 19, 2012)

I have just complete the fishless cycle with amonia about a week ago. Follow the steps as described into the "New to Aquarium" sections by adding amonia. 
Pretty easy when dosing properly and my plants react really well with the cycle as the nitrates built into the process has kept my plants growth and green color. However I realized I need to add some fertilizers since the cycle is completed as my fish does not produce enough nitrates yet. I made a half load of fish only.


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