Dinghy looking ants

[EMS Chris]

Hello everyone. Happy Sunday


So I've posted in the past about how I can't get the combo to get my plants to flourish nicely. They always look brown and dinghy. I'm planted in Eco complete. I'm currently using 5ML of Excel twice a week. Flourish 5 ML a week and leaf zone 5 Ml a week. That is it for ferts and carbon. I did notice they look even worse in the morning when I turn he tank lights back on. They are on usually 15 hours a day. My next idea is root tabs or leaving the light on longer. It's a 10 gallon tank. Maybe higher wattage T5's also iv seen the purple colored plant lights in the past. Iv noticed my setup came with one white and one purple. Is that good? Thanks!!

CB











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[EMS Chris]

And that was Plants....not ants.

 

[EMS Chris]

Light setup

 

[EMS Chris]

The ferts

 

[Surfer]

I'm no plant expert but I use cfls and the result was much better than those hoods with the t5 lighting. No browning/dinginess/etc.

And I thought you had started an ant colony, which brought me here haha.

 

[EMS Chris]

LMAO Surfer,


And what is the clfs?

 

[foster53]

Will the brown color wipe off the plant leaves? If so it's diatoms. One thing that works well for some people is cutting way back on the photoperiod, and dosing more excel. The Excel is expensive to use a lot of. You might want to check into getting glute by the gallon, and mixing it yourself. Glute is the ingredient in excel.
One sure way to perk the plants up is with co2 injection. For a 10, DIY co2 would work fine.
Just some thoughts!!

 

[Surfer]

Compact fluorescent lighting. LEDs are a great choice too, but they can get expensive. Also, do you have enough CO2 in your tank? It doesn't really look stocked with many fish

 

[EMS Chris]

I only have 4 small "Minnow" type fish. Will adding more fish help the plant growth? Also does the Eco complete do anything for the plants? Is their a beneficial factor?

 

[EMS Chris]

I was considering the CO2 DIY. I work in fire protection so I have a 4 tom co2 filling station 10 feet from me for recharging fire extinguishers. I just don't know much about the uses for plants. May have to check out YouTube university for a crash course.

 

[Surfer]

Lol YouTube University. more fish will increase the level of nitrates for your plants to use, resulting in healthier growth. Also, they produce CO2 so a DIY won't be necessary. I've always been wary of using them incase I overdo it and kill my fish. That's just me though, many people are successful.

 

[EMS Chris]

If that particular plans gets its nutrients through the roots the leaf zone and flourish comp wont do too much anyway?

 

[Surfer]

I don't dose my plants with liquid ferts, I just drop in root tabs and call it a day. Not sure how much more beneficial it would be to use flourish as well.

 

[Surfer]

My tank literally has miracle grow underneath the fluorite gravel, so you can try that but it's alot of work setting up. Ill try to post a pic here.

 

[EMS Chris]

You still need the root tabs when using the miracle grow?

 

[Surfer]

I had them left over from my previous project, so I don't need them but I'd rather not have them just lying around.

 

[Billbug68]

With how long you're leaving your lights on, and your current dosing, you're plants are probably covered in algae. Which is probably why they're suffering. It's hard to tell from the pics though. I'd say immediately reduce your lighting to 6-8 hours, amongst many other things you need to fix.

Edit: oh and most of your plants are stems so they won't benefit much from root tabs.

 

[Billbug68]

Upon further reading in to the thread and looking at your lights... That fixture is a TON of light for a 10g. Just a single t5ho bulb puts you in high light on a 10g and would require pressurized co2 and either ei or pps pro dosing...

How long has this tank been set up?
Can you provide info on the bulbs?
You can try using that light and only dosing excel but it's gonna be hard to keep the tank balanced.
Try dosing 1ml of flourish 2x a week, 1-2ml of excel DAILY an hour before the lights come on, and whatever the recommendied dose is for the leaf zone(I've never used it) put the lights on a timer and only run them for 6 hours. Clean any algae you can, keep up with weekly water changes, and hope for the best!

 

[EMS Chris]

Great info! I thought I had too little lighting lol. Thank you!

 

[Billbug68]

Great info! I thought I had too little lighting lol. Thank you!

Lol, no, you have WAY too much... Haha