my silk plants are dying!

[nkh]

okay, i KNOW this sounds crazy but here's what's happening. i have a 29
gallon tank with an emperor 280 filter system and sand on the bottom. i do a
50% water change at least every two weeks. i've had this set up now with my
three goldies (orandas) for 1.5 years now and everything was great. water
was crystal clear, water looked great, and the fish were happy and healthy.
about five weeks ago, one of my silk plants inside the aquarium started
drooping. a week later, it was practically laying on the floor! at about the
same time, the water started turning murky within days after a water change.
then, last week, a second silk plant did the "droop" and this week, another!
what is going on here?!? i'm so perplexed. the fish still seem healthy and
have not changed their behavior. and, my water now gets murky within 2-3
days after a water change. help!

[[email protected]]

I wonder if the plastic in the plants lasts that long. Have you tried
new plastic plants???? Also bacteria infections can occur so that maybe
the problem with the water.....do you salt the water?
Larry
Carmichael/Sacramento

[nkh]

hi larry, thanks for the reply. yes, i do add salt to the water. the plastic
plants i have in the tank are fine but it is the silk plants (marineland's
sea garden plants) that are all droopy. i've written to marineland to ask
them if they've heard of this. it's entirely possible that the silk of the
foliage just breaks down and it loses any buoyancy i suppose.




> wrote in message
oups.com...
>I wonder if the plastic in the plants lasts that long. Have you tried
> new plastic plants???? Also bacteria infections can occur so that maybe
> the problem with the water.....do you salt the water?
> Larry
> Carmichael/Sacramento
>

[E.Otter]

An unbelievable number of things absorb water, even cement. Some things
fast (bounty the quicker picker upper) some things very slowly. So its
possible that the silk has done just that and its "weighed" down with water
and lost its ability to retain its shape. If they weren't cheap plants I
would be ticked and certainly not inclined to buy more. However, if you
take the plants out and let them dry you'ld probably get more life out of
them. Leave them on stack of paper towels for a week...

[Disko]

nkh...

Conventional wisdom would say a 50% water change is waaaaaaay too much.
Have you been carrying out this big a change every two weeks since you set
the tank up? If so it's possible you're disrupting the Nitrogen cycle and
that the tank is in a constant state of breaking in. Often during the
Nitrogen cycle a tank will turn cloudy fo the last few days before it
becomes stable. If you're taking that much water out you may well be
depleting the levels of bacteria to the point where this final stage keeps
looping over and over and over....

If your tank is firmly established you should be looking at a 25% change
per month. Try easing off a little and perhaps do a 10-20% change every two
weeks and see if this remedies the situation. Could be why your plants are
biting the big one so quickly. Then again, I might be entirely wrong!
That's the joy of being an Aquarist!

Disko

[nkh]

how interesting...based on what else i've been reading, i should have been
doing water changes more often! but, in answer to your question, yes, i've
been doing these water changes since i set up the tank and i didn't have
these problems until recently. the tank is cloudy again but i'm going to
hang on and wait it out to see if it is the nitrogen cycle thingy by
clearing on its own.

also, as a followup, i wrote to the manufacturer about the plant droop and
they sent me replacement plants for free! what great customer service! it's
still a mystery why my plants did the droopy thing in the first place
though.

thanks all for the help so far.


"Disko" > wrote in message
43.38...
> nkh...
>
> Conventional wisdom would say a 50% water change is waaaaaaay too much.
> Have you been carrying out this big a change every two weeks since you set
> the tank up? If so it's possible you're disrupting the Nitrogen cycle and
> that the tank is in a constant state of breaking in. Often during the
> Nitrogen cycle a tank will turn cloudy fo the last few days before it
> becomes stable. If you're taking that much water out you may well be
> depleting the levels of bacteria to the point where this final stage keeps
> looping over and over and over....
>
> If your tank is firmly established you should be looking at a 25% change
> per month. Try easing off a little and perhaps do a 10-20% change every
> two
> weeks and see if this remedies the situation. Could be why your plants are
> biting the big one so quickly. Then again, I might be entirely wrong!
> That's the joy of being an Aquarist!
>
> Disko
>

[fondoo]

how can silk plants die??

"nkh" > wrote in message
m...
> how interesting...based on what else i've been reading, i should have been
> doing water changes more often! but, in answer to your question, yes, i've
> been doing these water changes since i set up the tank and i didn't have
> these problems until recently. the tank is cloudy again but i'm going to
> hang on and wait it out to see if it is the nitrogen cycle thingy by
> clearing on its own.
>
> also, as a followup, i wrote to the manufacturer about the plant droop and
> they sent me replacement plants for free! what great customer service!
> it's still a mystery why my plants did the droopy thing in the first place
> though.
>
> thanks all for the help so far.
>
>
> "Disko" > wrote in message
> 43.38...
>> nkh...
>>
>> Conventional wisdom would say a 50% water change is waaaaaaay too much.
>> Have you been carrying out this big a change every two weeks since you
>> set
>> the tank up? If so it's possible you're disrupting the Nitrogen cycle and
>> that the tank is in a constant state of breaking in. Often during the
>> Nitrogen cycle a tank will turn cloudy fo the last few days before it
>> becomes stable. If you're taking that much water out you may well be
>> depleting the levels of bacteria to the point where this final stage
>> keeps
>> looping over and over and over....
>>
>> If your tank is firmly established you should be looking at a 25% change
>> per month. Try easing off a little and perhaps do a 10-20% change every
>> two
>> weeks and see if this remedies the situation. Could be why your plants
>> are
>> biting the big one so quickly. Then again, I might be entirely wrong!
>> That's the joy of being an Aquarist!
>>
>> Disko
>>
>
>