# Dead plant



## nixx (Nov 10, 2010)

My tank water condition was fine for a week. But then now the nitrate and nitrite are rlly high. The only difference that i can see that some of my moss are brown, so i assume dead? 

so my question is can dead plants that are left in the tank can cause spike in nitrate and nitrite??? should I remove it?


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

If the moss is brown, it likely is dead.

Decay plants can cause an increase in ammonia, which will cause a spike in nitrite and subsequently nitrates as well.

What are the values of each parameter?

How long has the aquarium been set up?


----------



## Tark77 (Sep 6, 2010)

In other words, yes, you should remove any dead organic matter.


----------



## nixx (Nov 10, 2010)

The aquarium is already 2 weeks now. 
after the 1st week the reading are pH: 7.8, ammonia: 0.25, nitrite: 0.25, nitrate: 20 for 2-3 days but now for the past 3-4 days it become pH: 7.8, ammonia: 0.25, nitrite: 2, nitrate 40-80.

I also use nutrafin Cycle btw


----------



## Tark77 (Sep 6, 2010)

The cycle could still take a couple weeks to finish, but you are well on the way. Give it time, and the perameters will come back down.


----------



## nixx (Nov 10, 2010)

I forgot to mention I have couple shrimps in it. so since you say to give more time, should I do water change since I have shrimps in it?

I dont get why my plant died so fast tho. I bought moss from Big Al, i then go home & tied it to driftwood and put it in tank. now they died...


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

nixx said:


> I forgot to mention I have couple shrimps in it. so since you say to give more time, should I do water change since I have shrimps in it?
> 
> I dont get why my plant died so fast tho. I bought moss from Big Al, i then go home & tied it to driftwood and put it in tank. now they died...


Yes, shrimp are particular adverse to poor water conditions, so you should be doing water changes to bring down the ammonia and nitrite levels.

As for the plants, Big Al's does not always keep the plants in best condition. In addition, some die back of the plants is to be expected as they adapt to new conditions.


----------



## waj8 (Jun 30, 2010)

It would help if you gave more info, like lighting, fertilizer, CO2, type of moss, feeding schedule and amount of food. I just don't see how you went from 20 to 60 ppm Nitrate in one week. Could be over feeding? Too much food will do in your pets a lot faster than no food at all. Ammonia is very toxic to shrimp and fish and will kill them pretty quickly. Cycling a tank tanks takes time. Patience is required. A lot of people say it happens in 6 weeks or so. I have never had that experience. I think it takes a lot longer to become fully cycled.


----------



## Cravenne (Nov 6, 2010)

I also purchased some Java Moss from BAs a while ago. I attached it to some drift wood and thought I was done. I had a lot of die off. 
I've actually read on a few forums that some people have a hard time keeping that stuff alive..
I took it out, removed the dead stuff and used elastics to attach the moss in a THIN layer over some driftwood. It seems to be doing a lot better. I'm not sure what kind of moss you purchased, though.

I had all my plants in while cycling and other than the moss, everything else did great. Like you, I also used the Cycle product and found that it does NOT cycle the tank in 3 days..lol. I cycled with a few fish and did small water changes every other day, feeding them as little as possible. My tank readings were safe after about 3 weeks and I didn't lose any fish.

Be patient and watch those shrimp!


----------



## nixx (Nov 10, 2010)

waj8 said:


> It would help if you gave more info, like lighting, fertilizer, CO2, type of moss, feeding schedule and amount of food. I just don't see how you went from 20 to 60 ppm Nitrate in one week. Could be over feeding? Too much food will do in your pets a lot faster than no food at all. Ammonia is very toxic to shrimp and fish and will kill them pretty quickly. Cycling a tank tanks takes time. Patience is required. A lot of people say it happens in 6 weeks or so. I have never had that experience. I think it takes a lot longer to become fully cycled.


I bought java moss for BA. I dont have special lighting, fertilizer or CO2 for them cuz everyone from forum said it's the easiest plant to grow and they grow like no there is no tomorrow, appearantly they are wrong lol. Half died so far, i dont know the other half. They are still green so hopefully they grow. Is there a way to reduce the shock for plants when introducing to new environment?? cuz they are pretty expensive for a small bunch.

I got like 7 shrimps in 1st week when the reading was low. after a week, i bought like 80 juvi shrimps from forum member here and i dropped some algae wafer. a couple days later nitrate & nitrite spiked. I removed the left over algae but could they be resulted from bioload shock? I added quite a lot at once. The shrimps are growing well actually, I see lots of new molts everyday and 1 of my shrimp had eggs and hatched couple days ago and i saw 1 more that has eggs on it. in my opinion they are doin well, i mite be wrong

I bought a lot cuz I want them to be bigger when the tank is cycled and I introduce new species. The shrimp may become its food source.


----------



## BettaBeats (Jan 14, 2010)

well, thats strange that you didnt cycle your tank before putting in shrimp.

best of luck, hope they make it out alive.
any of the brown bits of moss are dead. you can clip those parts off and try to get the green spots to grow.

do you have any light on your tank at all?


----------



## nixx (Nov 10, 2010)

I figured since my shrimp gonna be food anyway, i would just put it in to i guess in a way visualize the water quality by observing their behaviour. They are definately growing and reproducing, tats for sure lol

Yeah I have light but it came w the tank so I am not sure the details. I am guessing its a pretty weak/low fluo bulb


----------

