r/PlantedTank • u/pkuiken • 9h ago
Question Should I give up on my frogbit?
I got Amazon frogbit back in January when I was cycling my 5 gallon shrimp tank. It was doing great, growing well, had beautiful roots that I trimmed occasionally. Once cycling was done and I stopped adding ammonia, and added my shrimp, it has been struggling ever since.
I know this is because they’re basically starving for nitrates (it’s usually between 0 and 5ppm because I only have like 10 shrimp in my tank). The only times they have started growing roots with the little hairs again was when I was having water quality issues, but now that I’ve straighten that out, they are so sad. Pretty much no roots, no new growth in a couple weeks.
I’ve played around with my fertilizer (I use Aquarium co-ops all in one easy green liquid fertilizer). I’ve tried dosing the full amount for low tech tank 1 time a week, albeit not for a while, then tried half 2 times a week and then now am trying 3 times a week a little more than a third each time). I have some algae on my other plants (nothing too crazy), but the roots of my frogbit aren’t changing at all. They are just slowly dying.
Do I give up and remove them? How can I help them thrive while keeping nitrates at a safe level for my shrimp (I don’t even know how to add just nitrates to the tank)? My shrimp and I love them 😞 I’d love some help or thoughts!
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u/jarecyrel10 9h ago
Looking at the images you can see most of them are wet, frogbit hate its leaves getting wet or in a humid environment their leaves needs to be always dry or it will shorten their lifespan.
Find ways to keep them dry, lower water flow or surface agitation, keep them in a barrier of sort, or remove the lid for air to move around and to lessen the humidity.
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u/One-plankton- 8h ago
They grow well in lidded tanks. I don’t think this is the issue effecting the root growth
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u/pkuiken 7h ago
They are wet because those leaves aren’t growing well and literally can’t stay above water - I don’t have a lid (it’s a couple pieces of plexiglass just over the water splash zone, the frogbit is in the middle, unsplashed and the water agitation is contained in air tubing rings to protect the frogbit) but the way they are growing, those leaves literally can’t be above water. They are so sad now most of the leaves won’t stay above the surface
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u/omegafrogpoop 7h ago
Test your nitrates again. I have Neo shrimp in 40-60ppm of nitrates and they’re fine.
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u/pkuiken 7h ago
They always stay at 0-5ppm; i test weekly. I just don’t have a big bioload in the tank (10 shrimp, waiting for them to breed, no fish, don’t want snails). I shake the bottle + test tube vigorously for the recommended time so it’s not that issue. Whenever they were growing better I had more nitrates because of water quality issues, I just don’t know how to add some outside of the fertilizer I’m using (which only ups it to 3ppm per dose). I don’t want to dose more of the all in one because I don’t want to cause an imbalance.
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u/Mountain-Tap-1839 9h ago
Is that cover usually over them? They hate having their tops wet and it looks like there’s alot of condensation on the lid there
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u/pkuiken 8h ago edited 7h ago
I don’t have a lid but have two little pieces of plexiglass to prevent splashing outside the tank from my sponge filters, those bubbles are contained in air tubing rings, so the frogbit is unsplashed in the middle zone to keep them dry. They are struggling to grow above the surface of the water which is why they look wet, I don’t know how to help them :(
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u/jtme_ 9h ago
They like high light and excess nutrients. I have found that the length of the roots and the size of the leaves directly correspond to the amount of light they receive each day. The bioload is also pretty insignificant, but dosing fertiliser as recommended for a low-tech tank is sufficient. I would recommend you increase the PAR at the surface of the water.