Planted 55 gallon Major Frustration

[UZOTANK]

Alright Forum... Your help is needed.

I have been a planted aquarium hobbyist for 10 years. Up until 2 years ago I havebeen veryr successful growing Val's and ferns. I wanted to step it up two years ago and bought a T5 light with 1 48" 10 K lamp and one 48" 420/460k lamp. Since I have bought this light my Val's have died off and my java ferns are barely alive let alone growing.
I started doing flourish excel this past month and have not noticed any differance. I am ready to rip out and go fake! An suggestions?


55 Gallon
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 10
Ph 7.8
Tap water for PWC with water conditioner added

 

[mudraker]

Many people experience melting Vals using Excel. I have heard some say Vals can acclimate to it after a meltdown though.

Sounds like you might have a little too much light for the Java ferns.

Mine have never done well in higher light, but they do okay if I hide them under larger, leafy plants or driftwood, etc.

Just my two cents

 

[UZOTANK]

Many people experience melting Vals using Excel. I have heard some say Vals can acclimate to it after a meltdown though.

Sounds like you might have a little too much light for the Java ferns.

Mine have never done well in higher light, but they do okay if I hide them under larger, leafy plants or driftwood, etc.

Just my two cents

Really appreciate your input. I am starting to think it is the high light and am wondering if I should block some of it to see how it does. I would raise the light but my tank is already raised and it would be like looking into a light bulb everytime you went to look at the tank This morning I attached all of the java to a piece of driftwood to get them out of the gravel. And I'm thinking of taking a piece of wood and blocking off some of the light to see what happens over the next week.

 

[UZOTANK]

Many people experience melting Vals using Excel. I have heard some say Vals can acclimate to it after a meltdown though.

Sounds like you might have a little too much light for the Java ferns.

Mine have never done well in higher light, but they do okay if I hide them under larger, leafy plants or driftwood, etc.

Just my two cents

As far as the melting Val's. I have heard that but tho Val's died off long ago before I even started using excel.

 

[jmazz11]

It's been my experience that the actinic lighting your using isn't beneficial to anything other than algae. And maybe step down from 10000 k to a 6700k bulb.

 

[jmazz11]

Also try using Ada products instead of seachem. They're a step above. ( aqua design amano)

 

[UZOTANK]

It's been my experience that the actinic lighting your using isn't beneficial to anything other than algae. And maybe step down from 10000 k to a 6700k bulb.

Thank you for your feedback. I was thinking I would step down the 10K but I was not sure to what. I just bought replacement bulbs too. For now until I can get to the LFS I am going to block out half the light and see how the plants do.

 

[Coursair]

Also try using Ada products instead of seachem. They're a step above. ( aqua design amano)

But also very pricey. Seachem works fine for most people IMHO.