# High Amonia Killing plants?



## GumboJones (Mar 6, 2006)

My Girlfriends tank is having a bit of a strange problem, that I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about. The first sign of problems was when I put one of those prepackaged plants from petsmart (Guaranteed snail free), which happened to be a fern. The next day, it was all but gone. There was one leaf left, and when she touched it, she described it "instantly disolving". So, a little while goes by and then we see her ghost shrimp have died, do I do a water test, and her amonia is off the chart, 8.0+. We've taken action to restart the biological cycle and so far no fish have died, only shrimp.

1) My question to the forum is this, can high concentrations of amonia destroy aquatic plants? It seems that some of her other plants have haven't been doing well either. 

2) Has anyone baught an aquatic fern from petsmart in one of those pre-packaged cases? I like the idea of guaranteed no snails, but won't buy them again becuase it was expensive and fell apart so quickly. 

3) Does anyone reguarly vacume their planted tanks? Someone suggested this to me to combat the high levels of amonia in the tank, but I have usualy been under the philosophy that the more crap in my substrate means the more food for my plants.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Yes high ammonia will kill anything (plants included). What type of fern was it? There are many species and not all are aquatic.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Most of the "aquatic" ferns sold at pet stores in those packages are not aquatic at all, will die and rot and foul up the tank. Chances are pretty good that you got a borneo fern.
http://plantgeek.net/plant-281.htm


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Thats what I was thinking to Boxermom.


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## GumboJones (Mar 6, 2006)

I think you might be right about the fern, it looks very similar to the one in the picture. What a terrible scam!


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## girth vader (Apr 24, 2006)

some plants will melt off leaves as well in new water parameters. they will come back if they are aquatic. my lotus melted the first week, but are now growing like weeds. keep using plant tabs and that will speed up recovery as well.


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