Experience with Echinodorus species?

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bhavik95

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was thinking of getting either the Echinodorus Paul Kloecker or Echinodorus red flame just wondering how easy it is to keep these plants?
also would the redness still come out with the 2x30 watts t8 that i have?

also do these tend to melt when dosing liquid carbon like amazon swords?

atm i have keep the normal amazon swords



thanks
 
was thinking of getting either the Echinodorus Paul Kloecker or Echinodorus red flame just wondering how easy it is to keep these plants?

also would the redness still come out with the 2x30 watts t8 that i have?



also do these tend to melt when dosing liquid carbon like amazon swords?



atm i have keep the normal amazon swords







thanks


Besides Echinodorus "Vesuvius", all the Echinodorus that I've kept have been easy to keep (Amazon Sword, Ozelot, Red Hadi, Horizontalis Mini, Parviflorus). If you provide the swords with root tabs, either of those should be a nice pick. The red will be more intense in high lighting, but it should still be noticeable in low light. I dosed Flourish Excel long ago with Amazon Swords and I never noticed any melting. I'd say as long as you dose to the recommended amount, it'll be fine.
 
With my lighting would this still be the redness on the leaves.

Also I wanted to ask I have had Amazon swords since I started the tank about 5-7 yrs ago and I ended up removing quite a lot of leaves from the plants about 3-4 months ago and now the leaves don't get as tall as they and bushy as they use to :/

I add root tabs liquid ferts and started dosing liquid carbon
 
Assuming nothing else has changed, then I'd say it is the lighting. Replace the T-8 bulb. There is a decay in lighting over time with fluorescent tubes. I think you are supposed to replace them at least once a year maybe sooner. That is one of the reasons I went with an LED fixture (no bulbs to change).
 
I find the same on bulbs - I replace mine after 9 months due to general PAR loss. In a shallow tank, I'd think longer like a year ok.

Might be ok on a T8, on the T5 I've been told to replace some bulbs and then rest after a few weeks so as to allow plants to adjust to higher light again.
 
Yeah nothing else has changed that I can think off. I mean all the plants I think are growing short but that might be because I have just recently added them to the tank and they are all trimmings.
If they are growing short would that be a lighting issue?

Was thinking of going for the fluval led lights as I have a fluval tank so thought it would fit in the hood.
Is there and cheapish leds that I can add and maybe that will fit in the hood of the t8s?

Thanks
 
I find plants not growing are not enough light (assuming ferts and CO2 and they like the tank), plants staying low and going sideways is plenty of light, plants slow growing / no algae is just good light. Some plants will just sit there for several weeks while they adjust.

Best led I find is a dimmable one - go more for white light over blue and hopefully says for planted. Or cheapest might be two banks of white light LEDs (not sure on US).

I'd get dimmable LEDs so you can control intensity as well as duration but I'm sure others can suggest options.

How deep is the tank?
 
I mean I'm not sure if it is all the plants or just the Amazon swords as the new plants were just recently added so they might just be getting use to the conditions and lighting

As for lightings I'm not sure which one to go for...

Ive had a look at the fluval leds as these can fit into the hood of t8s that I have atm
Are they are others out there that are like that and are sort of cheap?

Also want to ask what is the point of the red and blue lights? How does it help the plants and how much of it do you need?
 
I mean I'm not sure if it is all the plants or just the Amazon swords as the new plants were just recently added so they might just be getting use to the conditions and lighting

As for lightings I'm not sure which one to go for...

Ive had a look at the fluval leds as these can fit into the hood of t8s that I have atm
Are they are others out there that are like that and are sort of cheap?

Also want to ask what is the point of the red and blue lights? How does it help the plants and how much of it do you need?



Got a link for the fluvals? They might be too strong for what your after. As dela suggested it's best to get a fixture with a dimmer so you can find the sweet spot for your lighting [emoji106]
 
Assuming nothing else has changed, then I'd say it is the lighting. Replace the T-8 bulb. There is a decay in lighting over time with fluorescent tubes. I think you are supposed to replace them at least once a year maybe sooner. That is one of the reasons I went with an LED fixture (no bulbs to change).



I agree with you
 
here is the link http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/freshwater/aquarium-lighting/series/aquasky/

it says its dimmable

there is also this one http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/freshwater/aquarium-lighting/series/eco-bright/ but i dont know what the difference are between the 2

do you have any suggestion for leds that are cheap and would fit?

wow i see there is alot of difference is that t8s your using?



They look awesome [emoji106] id be sending them a messaged and asking what PAR you would have at your aquariums depth so you have an idea where to start with your lighting. Low tech you'd want about 10-20 par at substrate [emoji106]
 
Sure thing i'll message them!
I was thinking of getting on of these and fitting it in the hood and running this and the left over t8 that I have so would this be fine?

Also do you have any recommendation for new leds that I could get
 
Sure thing i'll message them!
I was thinking of getting on of these and fitting it in the hood and running this and the left over t8 that I have so would this be fine?

Also do you have any recommendation for new leds that I could get



I wouldn't bother with the t8. I'd imagine the new fluval would be more than enough. I recon you'll end up having to dim it due to it being to strong.

There is heaps of options when it comes to LED's.
Finnex planted plus
Finnex planted plus SE
Finnex fudge Ray or sting ray
Chirhiros a series
Chirhiros RBG
Beams works planted 6500k
Kessil tuna sun
Fluval Sky panel
Ada sky panel

Heaps and heaps on the market. Just make sure the one you get has a dimmer. Most of these fixtures are very intense so you'll only need to run them on 50% power for a low tech.

If u want the plant to stay red you will need to play with your lighting so it's just bright enough to colour it and also I'd dose a little bit extra iron to help.

A trace element based root tab will help also [emoji106]
 
So what I ended up going for was 2 fluval aquasky led so just wanted to ask is that enough light to grow the plants that I have?
I'm not doing any co2 only ferts
 
So what I ended up going for was 2 fluval aquasky led so just wanted to ask is that enough light to grow the plants that I have?
I'm not doing any co2 only ferts



Are they dimmable? May end up being too much light without co2. You'll soon know as algae will become a big issue [emoji106]
 
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