Light, CO2, and nutrients???

[Cammywammy]

Hello I have a 10 gallon planted tank and I wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right. My main concern is the lighting are the bulbs I'm using giving off enough lights for my plants?

Lighting: I have 2 18 watt daylight cfl bulbs in an all glass aquarium hood with reflectors and the plastic light covers removed.

CO2: aquatek 3 in 1 diffuser with DIY CO2.

Nutrients: Green fertilizer pack from green leaf aquarium(PPS formula).

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Sounds good to me... what's your substrate and what are you planning to grow?

 

[Cammywammy]

I have petco's black sand and I am growing 3 Hygro. Sperma, green combomba some type of rotala and narrow leaf Ludwigwa. Also some Xmas moss floating around. The hygro sperma seems to be wilting and the plants aren't as green as I would like them to be(especially the moss). So my first conclusion was not enough light. Btw I haven't starting dosing fertilizers yet because I need to first get my ammonia down after moving fish due to overstocking.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well the sand is inert. My suggestion would be to add some root tabs (I prefer Flourish tabs). Both heavy root feeders and water column feeders such as your stems can benefit from both nutrients in the sediment and water column. By having the root tabs, this can serve as a backup anyway if your water column dosing via the PPS-Pro method isn't on point.

 

[Cammywammy]

I have a about 6 root tabs in the sand but I don't know if they are helping. Most of the plant are sprouting new stems but the old stems don't look as good :/. The sand looks like it's darker deeper down below the surface could this mean the sand is compacted?

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Could be... You should get Malaysian trumpet snails... They'll help with the sand.

Is your co2 diffusing adequately? Are you using a drop checker to get a visual indication of that?

 

[Cammywammy]

I don't have a drop checker only a bubble counter

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I would suggest getting one. Amazon had some cheap ones. Also try dosing excel to supplement the DIY system, especially when you see the DIY system tapering off.