The Puffer Forum

I've got this white stuff on my live plants. Don't know what it is. My tank has been cloudy lately. It looks worse in person than the full pic of the tank. Treating ich again. Using some melafix and I have polyfil in my filter during treatment. I finished treating for gill flukes a few days ago. Anyone know what the problem could be? Are they related?! :/

IDK.. Looks like your hornwort is melting away.. What's the temp and sg of your tank?

scpion wrote:IDK.. Looks like your hornwort is melting away.. What's the temp and sg of your tank?

Temp is about 83º. I'm treating ich so I rsised it. I keep sg around 1.004.

Here is another pic...I don't know if it's related to other white stuff in my first pic post.

I warned you the plants wouldn't fare well with salt.

Pufferpunk wrote:I warned you the plants wouldn't fare well with salt.

You think it's the salt? I thought algae or fungus. I read your thing on brackish water plants...

Your article talked about hornwort, java moss and fern, & swords and how they do good in brackish tanks....that is what I have in my tank. So now I don't know what to believe!?

Do yyou supplement tho plants with fertz?

I dont think those plants are a guaramtee but increased odds.

That is not my article, I just posted it. I personally have had poor ecxerience with anything other than Java fern/moss in even low-end BW. Even my anubias melted.

defool89 wrote:Do yyou supplement tho plants with fertz?

I dont think those plants are a guaramtee but increased odds.

Yes, I use Seachem Flourish and Excel. All plants seem to be doing good after I finally got rid of all the diatoms and brown algea. Lots of new growth on everything. Swords have tons of new leaves. Only thing that isn't doing good is the anacharis? And like I showed in the pics I have some white stuff on some of them. I actually took most of plants out today and cleaned them really good. Did an excel soak and cleaned them gently with a tooth brush. Water is cloudy as heck right now but hopefully I got most of it off

Allow me to give you a likely solution, some info and my opinion. Excel is far too unatural and can only picture them making this stuff in double layer haz mat suits, not saying its bad its just not great IMO although success is found in this product. Kinda like mothers natural chemically created breast milk vs formula. Both good but ones the obvious healthier choice, again IMO. To an extent all plant fertz are basically "formula".

Excel for some reason at regular doses weakens anachris. Even through seachems admission. They also admit it blooms brown algae, then kills it througj a cycle.

My suggestion is to reduce the amount youre dosing, and or the amount of times. Excel thoretically is awesome, even has a carbon source which is important on the plant food pyramid bit its hazeradous to life if you over dose, and I dont like that too much. In the long run, it be more cost effective if you invest in a Co2 system, and much healthier for your plants than excel, or any liquid carbon source.

Sorry for typos on phone.

I really cut back on my fert use because I think it was the cause of so much brown algae. You now have confirmed that! I thought about doing a diy co2. Seems very easy and cheap. So if I do it do I still need to do a little seachem now and then? Also I've read that you need certain lighting or a certain amount if you have a co2 set up. I have the led that came with aquarium, & I recently bought a t5 6700 K light. But the bulbs are 18 watts. That was the biggest I could get. My tank is 46 gallon. It has helped my plants a lot but I still don't know if it's enough. Thanks for you help

In regards to lighting I dont think it matter co2 or no co2 bht dont quote me. I recently imquired on diy co2 system and only found one upside, cost. Low low cost, but in exchange you risk a lot.

Co2 brings down your water hardness. Your kh as far as I know also goes down at night, but I havent gotten much confirmation on that or denial. Either way, the fact that your water hardness goes down with co2 is true.. So with that said aa diy co2 system isnt so easy regulated, or measured. What if you mix too much bakers yeast and sugar? You will get too much of a reaction and risk a system crash and death of all will shortly follow. Also, you dont get a shut off swittch or knlb, it just keeps going and going untill the yeast runs outta sugar further more risking a crash.

The obvious downside also is an explosion, and your bottle syphoning the water outta your tank leaving you with nothing less than a disaster. But im not a chemist, a guru or diy practitionet so take what I say with a grain of salt, or two. But do what thou wilt

Thanks defool. If anyone else has any input or experience on the diy co2 please chime in!!!

On the diy co2, couldnt you just take it out at night? Put the tube back in during the day?

I suppose maybe you could, but to forget would be possibly fatal. I.cant tell you how many times I forget to grab my wallet leaving the house even though its a routine.