Plants Dying

Nikki Casali wrote:


MP wrote:

Hi everyone ... we bought an aquarium for our school about 6 months
ago and everything's been going swimmingly until this last couple
weeks. There were duckweed growing crazy ... I kept thinning it out
with a net ... and several leafy plants growing anchored to the
substrate. Then 2 weeks ago I noticed the duckweed dying off ... and
now they're virtually gone. One leafy plant has died completely ...
and the other has leaves that look like they're rotting.

I did some water tests today ... pH was 7.2 ... nitrates, nitrites,
hardness were all "healthy" ... but the phosphates were off the colour
chart. I did a major water change ...

My question is: would extremely high phosphates be responsible for
the plant's deaths? What would cause the phosphates to get so high in
the first place? Is there anything to do besides changing water?


What are your nitrates? It sounds like they are too low. Are you using
any type of fertiliser?

Nikki

I also wonder about potash, if there's adequate nitrate and high phosphate.

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__ Elaine T __
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