seems to be the big topic. just wanted to say that since i added the three bigger discus the ph level in my tank has gone up, have kept my feeding the same as before, and changed my filter media, the problem i think is with a plant having rotting roots some where, i really don't want to have to pull all of my plants out and check the roots for signs of rot, i regularly clip any leaves that show any signs of rot. i try to take meticulous care of all of the plants, i did a ten % water change with r/o water and am going to do another 10% in the morning with r/o water hopefully this will bring it down, have yet to ask my partner if he's been feeding the fish while i am at work checked my params ammo 0, nitrites 0, a bit of a jump in nitrates, from 5ppm to 15ppm. a ten point jump is something that prompted me to check my ph again, ph currently at around 7.0, bought some ph down and am adding that to the tank a little bit at a time so that i can gradually bring the ph down to the 6.5 i was previously at. i think i may go through the tank with a kabob stick and see if it easily pushes into the root system right near where the leaves grow out of the substrate. any suggestions or ideas would be great.
Thanks in advance.
Brandon

Brandon i haven't done research on this... but when i was having rot issues with my wood it made the water much more acidic, not alkaline... do you think it could still be the rotting leaves or another factor?

Yeah my wood has always lowered my ph... so don't take the wood out just yet, test the other factors first, cuz the wood is a pain to reintroduce, with you having to water log and cure and such. Oh, by the way, i just emailed you something

I sometimes go on www.plantgeek.com When I have questions about co2 boosted tanks. I wonder if the plants are missing some key ingredient? Co2 boosted tanks cause the plants to use up nutrients much faster than tanks with out co2. Maybe some of the plants are dying because there is a certain missing nutrient. These plantgeek people are always tweaking all the different nutrients in their tanks. It could be that, other than the high temp you use for the diskus, you may need to add something to the tank.

Also, I've heard that there is a product called R/O Right, which should add the trace elements R/O water is devoid of.

ok after some mass investigation of my tank i found what i believe to be the culprit, there is this unnamed bunch of plants that i believe is related to the cobamba family of plants, i am using it as background in the tank, however due to the step down to the front of the tank i found that i couldn't see the bottom six inches of this, well i pull my mother swords out and was able to look across the back of the tank, this plant or atleast the bottom six inches of it was brown and dead and rotting in the tank, about fifteen inches total i had to cut from the plant and discard due to it being dead, what a pain, the top of the plant and what i can see looked healthy as all get out, just a pointer to those keeping live plants, keep all your plants where you can see the whole thing this will allow you to in advance see any issues and act immediately with out having to go through the painstaking processes that i have had to go through, keep searching when you have an issue it sometimes is not always right in front of your face, it may be hiding behind a leaf somewhere. thank you all for your help and caring, my tank is now settled back in at 6.6 and maintaining steady, lots of r/o mixtures and water changes has allowed me to bring the ph down quite considerably over the last 32 hours, thankfully all of my fish have survived this ordeal and now are starting to act normal and happy again.

Brandon
learn from your mistakes, and learn from others as this will make your life much easier in the end

lol my tank looks a bit bare again, out of worry i took out anything that didn't look like it was growing right if i could tug it and it pulled up with ease it came out and is now in a quarantine tank with my older metal halide bulbs ultra dose of heavy liquid ferts i try to do things 100 % natural but sometimes things need a boost. so i have separated about 25 of the larger plants, also another note for planted tank owners and future planted tank enthusiasts when buying potted plants, remove the plant from the pot as carefully as possible and peel away the foam that is in the pot, as much as you can. i am finding that all my potted plants were struggling with root growth as the pots inhibit the roots from being able to spread naturally, also when you get larger root balls, the roots start to strangle each other out and the roots will die off very fast. this is a major issue as rot causes waste and waste causes ph spikes
please head this and take this into consideration when purchasing plants. also consider your water current, you need to have enough current around the base of your plants to move water and waste freely. because i have two diff co2 water pumps aiming through the base of the jungle that i have, it keeps stuff from building up at the bases and causing food and other (poop) to get caught up and causing those unseen issues. even after almost completely rearranging my tank the clarity of my water is phenomenal, you would think that it would turn gray or white in coloration however there are not many particles to be found. once i removed the culprit plant everything else seemed to be better than normal.


hahahahaha even when you are doing everything right if something can go wrong it will, don't get discouraged, just make sure you act appropriately and not too rashly. take time to sit back and consider all options carefully and move forward from there. many lessons to be learned here with this experiment in playing (god) not being god but if you think about we are all striving to recreate what (god is suppose to have created in the world) if ou believe or don't it's the cold fact, that for our enjoyment and curiosity we are trying to create what is already existing in nature. in doing so we have to consider all things and if we are to do this in a perfect sane and natural way we must consider what nature is comprised of.

Just a few rambling thoughts that i had today while pondering the issue at hand. (also after work over a few vodka cranberries) woooooops have to work at 8 in the am LMFAO
hope all can take something away from this.
Brandon

Will update regularly over the next few days regarding the stability of the tank.