What is your fert routine?

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Bert2oo1 said:
I'm not sure what effects air stones have on excel carbon but I know that air stones will deplete the co2 in your tank there for making the co2 next to nothing, well that's how it is with pressurised anyway. Caliban will be able to tell u more about that though. People tend to go t5's rather than t8 due to the k rating of them but I have seen people on this forum grow plants with t8's.

If u go on the watts per gallon then your under 1w per gal so that might be a factor. I'm not an expert on lighting though and to be honest it confuses the hell out of me haha. Someone should be able to help u on this.


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank
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I can't comment on the effects of air stones on liquid co2 because I don't know how liquid co2 works. Only a select few will have access to that information. There are many hypotheses though ranging from removal of leaf boundary layers to allow better diffusion of co2 to direct metabolism. I could have a guess and say surface agitation will not disrupt the effects of liquid co2 on plants. One thing is for sure with liquid co2 is that it works. It definitely has a positive impact on growth. Just depends on how much you put in.

People go with t5s over t8s because the t5 emits more photons over a given area per second which forces the plant to photosynthesis at a quicker rate. K rating is not even that important when it comes to lighting, neither are wavelength peaks or colour rendering indexes or any of these marketing terms. The only thing that is relevant is that the light emitted from the bulb is within a specific spectral range (PAR) and is emitting photons at a rate that is above the plants light compensation point. If these two parameters are met you will get positive growth. The higher above the light compensation point you go the faster the plant will grow.

You will probably struggle to find cases in aquariums where lighting is limited but it certainly helps to keep plants that naturally grow slower because they do not require as much co2 and are better adapted to lower co2 environments.

The higher the light the more co2 is required and if it is not available the plant cannot make the sugars required to grow and the plant begins a process called photorespiration. O2 molecules enter the Calvin cycle at a higher rate than co2 which forces the plant to waste energy creating a compound that cannot be used called phosphoglycolate. The plant then sheds older leaves using the stored co2 for new growth or just to keep itself alive.

OP these are all classic symptoms of co2 deficiency. You are either not putting enough excel in or not not using it often enough. Co2 has to be available during each and every photoperiod.

What's your excel dosing regimen?
 
Excellent explanation, Caliban97.

If I understood the instructions in the bottle correctly, I'm doing what they recommend. 1 cap every other day. (They recommend 1 cap per 50g)

FYI, there are 43 g of water, and the rest of the volume is taken by the gravel, decorations, etc. 6 hrs of light. It's fishless cycling, so I don't want to be taken over by algae......

I bet I need to increase Excel to daily. Flourish and iron should arrive Friday.
 
LizG said:
Excellent explanation, Caliban97.

If I understood the instructions in the bottle correctly, I'm doing what they recommend. 1 cap every other day. (They recommend 1 cap per 50g)

FYI, there are 43 g of water, and the rest of the volume is taken by the gravel, decorations, etc. 6 hrs of light. It's fishless cycling, so I don't want to be taken over by algae......

I bet I need to increase Excel to daily. Flourish and iron should arrive Friday.
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It's really is hard to find that balance to grow plants well. It took me a little over 3 months to understand what my tank needs and how to grow plants at a nice rate. In this time I battled 4 different types of algae until I found that balance spot and now I'm algae free.

If u do run into algae don't worry just try to find out why u are experiencing it and ajust things slightly until u find out what levels of what your tank needs to grow plants successfully.

If u fail abit don't worry with research and playing around u will work it out. It's all part of the game ;)

Hope your plants get better soon and remember, things won't happen over night. Sometimes it can take weeks for things to fix themselves.

"Focus on healthy plant growth and algae will fix itself" - Tom barr


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank
 
LizG said:
Excellent explanation, Caliban97.

If I understood the instructions in the bottle correctly, I'm doing what they recommend. 1 cap every other day. (They recommend 1 cap per 50g)

FYI, there are 43 g of water, and the rest of the volume is taken by the gravel, decorations, etc. 6 hrs of light. It's fishless cycling, so I don't want to be taken over by algae......

I bet I need to increase Excel to daily. Flourish and iron should arrive Friday.
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You are welcome. You know what to do. Speak to other excel users. I think you will find you can be a little more liberal with the excel dosing.
 
Bert2oo1 said:
It's really is hard to find that balance to grow plants well. It took me a little over 3 months to understand what my tank needs and how to grow plants at a nice rate. In this time I battled 4 different types of algae until I found that balance spot and now I'm algae free.

If u do run into algae don't worry just try to find out why u are experiencing it and ajust things slightly until u find out what levels of what your tank needs to grow plants successfully.

If u fail abit don't worry with research and playing around u will work it out. It's all part of the game ;)

Hope your plants get better soon and remember, things won't happen over night. Sometimes it can take weeks for things to fix themselves.

"Focus on healthy plant growth and algae will fix itself" - Tom barr


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank
Click to expand...


I couldn't agree more. I also battled four different types of algae. It's in my thread.

Finding the balance between light, ferts and co2 in a planted tank is not easy. It's the hardest thing to do. The biggest problem is that the plants adaptation to co2 levels takes time and the co2 levels are changing all the time. Every tweak of the needle valve or lowering of the spray bar changes things. We get it right for a while then forget that plants need more carbon as they grow or we add a new plant that is a co2 sponge and other plants suffer and you end up battling algae to the point of quitting. You have to be one step ahead all the time. I'm not there yet myself but my third time round I think I'll get it.

The quote from Tom Barr is true. It's been observed s thousand times over. Not sure why, no one is as far as I know. But then it's also a lot easier to grow plants when you have lab grade co2 meters, Accurate PAR meters and expensive fertiliser test kits. Oh and a BS in Aquatic Biology, MS in Botany a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences and have studied nearly all of the 400+ species of aquatic plants available to us :) not bad fish tanks too.
 
Thank you for the encouragement, guys!

Another thought.... while I don't have fish in there yet, I could double dose Excel for a few days, to give the plants a boost.
 
LizG said:
Thank you for the encouragement, guys!

Another thought.... while I don't have fish in there yet, I could double dose Excel for a few days, to give the plants a boost.
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U sure can but I'd wait till u get the flourish to go too hard with it. As the more co2 they get the more demand for nutrients they have. So if there's not enough nutrients in your water your plants will get worse. Flourish is definitely your next step!


30g planted, 90g Oscar tank
 
Good point. I will wait until Flourish arrives. Poor plants.... they look very sad right now.... hope I didn't kill them completely.....
 
air stones affect excel very little to not at all. dose recommended amount and slowly go up if you want/need. just plants you get more leeway. watch fish for signs of over dosing. hard/fast breathing, lofting to one side, no appetite, etc... its a slow death vs co2 suffocation. I have not found a way yet to test ppm of it in the water so observation is critical if you go over recommended dose. I have a 29 gal medium/heavy planted(depends on how much I want trim) with medium led lighting running 75% 100% 60% power 16 hr day blue moon 8 hr. educated guess of 40 par substrate. I dose excel around 10 ml a day with out problems. flourish is 5 ml 3 times a week. potash, iron, potassium is around 11 ml daily. 6 root tabs every two months.
 
LizG said:
Thank you for the encouragement, guys!

Another thought.... while I don't have fish in there yet, I could double dose Excel for a few days, to give the plants a boost.
Click to expand...


This is a good idea but I agree with Bert. Dose the excel daily and be a tad more generous with it but wait for your ferts. Do keep this thread going though. I'm eager to see the results.
 
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