The hygrophila in my aquarium seems to be developing root rot. The planted
roots turn brown, then the stim slowly turns brown and decays. Floating,
they are perfectly healthy. The plants are obviously not to blame. They
can be planted in my other 20 gallon with no problems. However, the other
20 gallon has been setup for almost 8 years. This "problem aquarium" is
only three weeks old and has just finished its cycle. Could this be a
factor? Anyway, my water specs are below...

PH: 6.9 (Via Aquarium Pharmaceuticals PH Down [non-phosphate]), GH: 7
degrees, Temperature 76F, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0 , Nitrate: 10-12ppm, CO2:
..8ppm.

Water additives: Aquarium Pharmaceuticals - Tap Water Conditioner, Stress
Coat, Stress Zyme, PH Down, Leaf Zone, Root Tabs (8).

Substrata: Natural Gravel 4-6mm, three inches deep, implanted with Root
Tabs (Iron, Potassium, Magnesium)
Filtration: TetraTec PF150 using activated carbon - 150GPH, DIY CO2 Injector

I decided to hydrovac out the a sample of water from the substrata and run
some test on that water. Found it!! The PH in the substrata was 5.4 as
apposed to the 6.9 that I keep the rest of the aquarium. I guess is was
most likely due to the cycle producing ammino acids thus lowering the PH
where no where flow exists.

"Martin A. Gross" wrote in message om...
I decided to hydrovac out the a sample of water from the substrata and run
some test on that water. Found it!! The PH in the substrata was 5.4 as
apposed to the 6.9 that I keep the rest of the aquarium. I guess is was
most likely due to the cycle producing ammino acids thus lowering the PH
where no where flow exists.

You may want to do this:

Vacuum the old tank's gravel and get all the deep dirt/mulm and add it
to the other new tank. Add the old water from the old tank to the new
one(say 50%).
= Instantly cycled tank.
Substrates in new tanks will go sour sometimes.
If there's plenty of nutrients in the water column, the plants will
anchor as a rule. Make sure there's enough CO2/light/nuytrients for
the plants to grow roots.
Things might look the same etc on the test kits but go back and double
check to be sure.

Regards,
Tom Barr