Advice for These Plants

[BarleyBear]

Have a Fluval Edge 12 Gallon using the "bright white" 42 LED light system that came with the tank. I have my lights set on a timer for 14 hours. I've had the tank going for two months. My ammonia and nitrites are 0, and my nitrates are at 20. My Ph is 6.5. I have a small gravel substrate. I just started using Nutrafin Plant Gro. My tank is home to a betta, cardinal tetras, corries, a pleco, snails, and shrimp.

My plants are the following:
Amazon sword
Aponogeton
Water wisteria
Crypt
Cabomba
Dwarf hair grass
Marimo moss balls
Java moss

The swords have been in a while and are growing and producing shoots with baby plants. However, I just pruned away several leaves that we're spotty, brown tinged, or turning yellow. The younger ones left look green and healthy. Was the plant adjusting to a new environment, maybe?

The moss balls have been in since day one and still look fantastic.

I had to remove one of the aponogetons and cut the other one back to the bulb because it took over the tank.

The wisteria has been growing very well, and I just planted some cuttings.

The hair grass has remained healthy looking but isn't spreading. I broke the clump up and planted it in several patches.

The java moss looks okay.

The cabomba and crypts are brand new.

I'm looking mainly for advice on how many hours I should have my timer set. Worried that the swords aren't doing their best because of too much light. Also, what's a good temperature for the plants I have? I currently keep the temp at 78 for my betta, but he can tolerate a little higher if I need to. I also want to make sure the new crypts and cabomba get what they need. I've read some posts on crypts that stressed they do better in tanks at least 6 months old.

Any other advice will be helpful as well. I don't know anything about Co2--how to set it up or anything. Honestly, if it's too costly, complicated, or looks ugly in my tank, I wouldn't be interested in doing that, anyway. I plan to read the articles on it soon, though, and see if it's a doable option for me.

Thanks in advance!

 

[tiger terror]

Try cutting your light cycle down to between 8 and 10 hrs,I got better results when I reduced my light cycle..how about some pics? I have a fluval edge 6g with upgraded leds& DIY co2...love my fluval!

 

[BarleyBear]

Try cutting your light cycle down to between 8 and 10 hrs,I got better results when I reduced my light cycle..how about some pics? I have a fluval edge 6g with upgraded leds& DIY co2...love my fluval!

I'm on my phone right now so can't post pics, but I have pics in my albums. I will post some pics tomorrow. I love my Fluval, too. Thinking about getting a 6 gallon now. Just love them.

I read a post somewhere that 12 to 14 hours was ideal, which is why I went with 14. How do you figure out what is ideal?

Cutting down from 14 to 10 or 8 hours will be pretty drastic. Should this be done in increments over several days? Or is it okay to just do it immediately?

 

[Scouser]

Don't know if these are the ones you wanted to show from your album but here ya go

 

[BarleyBear]

Yep. Those are the ones. Although, I made some changes while pruning last night and adding the new stuff. I'm still not at home, so thanks for posting them for me.

 

[BHead707]

ive read swords can be a pain if you dont have any kind of root tabs or some type of food within the substrate, that has been the case for me but other have grown them without anything.

mine sprout new leaves but as they get bigger the leaves die off and dont look very good, im going to do DIY root tabs within the week so ill see how it turns out in the next few weeks

 

[BarleyBear]

ive read swords can be a pain if you dont have any kind of root tabs or some type of food within the substrate, that has been the case for me but other have grown them without anything.

mine sprout new leaves but as they get bigger the leaves die off and dont look very good, im going to do DIY root tabs within the week so ill see how it turns out in the next few weeks

I grew swords years and years ago with a 50 gallon aquarium, and they were very healthy and vigorous growers, and I never used root tabs. I am using two kinds of liquid fertilizers right now, just started the second one yesterday, so we'll see.

Someone on another forum suggested that most swords are grown emersed instead of submersed, so the initial spottiness from mine could have been the old leaves dying out. I cut all the spotty ones out last night, and they were, indeed, all older leaves--and thicker than the new ones. So maybe the swords are just doing their normal thing converting to a submersed plant. I dunno.

If it is a matter of the old leaves simply getting ugly looking, I guess that will be okay, since I'm going to need to prune these plants every couple of weeks to keep them from getting too big for my tank, anyway.

How are you making your root tabs? Sounds interesting.

 

[BHead707]

I grew swords years and years ago with a 50 gallon aquarium, and they were very healthy and vigorous growers, and I never used root tabs. I am using two kinds of liquid fertilizers right now, just started the second one yesterday, so we'll see.

Someone on another forum suggested that most swords are grown emersed instead of submersed, so the initial spottiness from mine could have been the old leaves dying out. I cut all the spotty ones out last night, and they were, indeed, all older leaves--and thicker than the new ones. So maybe the swords are just doing their normal thing converting to a submersed plant. I dunno.

If it is a matter of the old leaves simply getting ugly looking, I guess that will be okay, since I'm going to need to prune these plants every couple of weeks to keep them from getting too big for my tank, anyway.

How are you making your root tabs? Sounds interesting.

you take your choice of dry ferts and mix them with some clay then just place them under the substrate and they work quite well from what i hear. if you feel like it search "DIY root tabs" on the forum and some threads will come up if you interested in it

 

[BarleyBear]

you take your choice of dry ferts and mix them with some clay then just place them under the substrate and they work quite well from what i hear. if you feel like it search "DIY root tabs" on the forum and some threads will come up if you interested in it

Cool, thanks.