Why are my plants not doing well?

[Lohoyan]

Hi everyone, was hoping someone could tell me why my 45G plants are languishing while my 20G plants are doing so well. My 20G looks really nice and lush. It has a single 20 watt T8 life gro bulb and standard colored gravel. Its medium stocked and only recently added any liquid plant fertilizer.

My 45G doesn't look good at all. I recently replaced the single T8 power glo with a dual T5 HO life glo and added liquid fertilizer and was hoping for a huge improvement. Well it's been several weeks and nothing much is happening. The ferns are OK but everything else just seems dormant and ratty looking. Even the wisteria I had in there at one time completely disappeared.

The water parameters are about the same. The biggest difference is the gravel, the 45G has a natural beach gravel, larger in size, 10-12mm. It looks like little pebbles almost. I really like how it looks but is this stuff any good for plants?

I just bought a 65G vicenza bowfront tank and I'm going to tranfer everything from my 45G to the 65G. I'm just wondering if I should go with some better gravel as I would like to go toward a heavily planted tank. Should I use eco complete. I hear its great for plants and looks good too.

Thanks

 

[Vircomore]

You could do that, since you're doing a complete tank tear-down anyways, or you can invest in substrate fertilizer tabs since a lot of your plants are root-feeders.

Liquid fertilizers tend to lead more towards algae problems, unless you have a LOT of water-feeding plants.

Fertilizer tablets can help prevent algae and give great plant growth, AND they don't require dosing every week.

 

[iadubber]

Root tabs and/or a nutrient rich substrate will make a world of difference.

 

[BBradbury]

Your 45 G Lighting

Hello Lo..

I can tell you what I've done with my 45 G tall. Because of the tank's height, I keep very low light plants in the substrate and float a large piece of driftwood with plants attached that need stronger lighting.

I keep low light Cryptocoryne, Anubias and some of the taller Amazon swords on the bottom and attach Water wisteria and Java fern to the driftwood with black sewing thread. I also float a lot of Pennywort.

I didn't think floating the driftwood would work, but the Water wisteria has grown very thick and the Java fern has nice large, very dark leaves. The Pennywort grows well no matter what conditions are.

This tank is very heavily stocked with 100 + Fancy Guppies and three very large Corydoras, so there's plenty of fertilizer. I change more than half the water in the tank every week to keep a high level of minerals in the water and to keep the water chemistry stable. I've always added a little more than a teaspoon of standard aquarum salt to every 5 gallons of the new water.

The tank has been running for several years with just a single 6500 K, T12, 32 watt bulb.

B

 

[Lohoyan]

Ok, I do think I'll go with the good substrate and experiment withthe root tabs. I was wondering how much of a factor the height of the tank was because my 20G is only 15 inches tall while the 45G is 20 inches tall. The 65G I just bought is 23 inches tall. I was wondering before I bought it if that was a little to tall for plants. Interesting idea growing plants on the floating driftwood though. I imagine you need a fair amount of space between the water surface and the lights/ canopy?

 

[BBradbury]

Ok, I do think I'll go with the good substrate and experiment withthe root tabs. I was wondering how much of a factor the height of the tank was because my 20G is only 15 inches tall while the 45G is 20 inches tall. The 65G I just bought is 23 inches tall. I was wondering before I bought it if that was a little to tall for plants. Interesting idea growing plants on the floating driftwood though. I imagine you need a fair amount of space between the water surface and the lights/ canopy?

Hello again Lo...

Height is an issue with lighting, I think my 45 G is 24 inches tall. Obviously, the deeper the water, the less light gets through. You just need low light plants on the bottom of the tank. Taller varieties of Amazon swords will do well in a taller tank.

Never used dry ferts or tabs. Have used some hydroponics liquids. I've never found a chemically processed fert that really worked long term. I just rely on the ferts the fish produce.

When you attach plants to floating driftwood, you do need to allow a couple of inches or so of space at the top, depending on the size and shape of the piece, so I used to fill the tank short by that much. As the the piece became waterlogged, it sank a bit and now I can fill the tank to the top.

B

 

[mohican]

Definitely go with better substrate but you can layer it. Put the good iron rich stuff near the bottom and add ur colored stone on top. By going with better gravel, DON'T waste your money on stupid fert tabs. You'll have to buy a ton and be in and out of the tank every 3 days. The nutrient rich gravel will provide good plant nutrients. Just dose. Theres no root tabs provided in nature. I tried the tab thing on my 150 and burned more $, tore down went with better gravel.

 

[Lohoyan]

Great, thanks for all the advice, my lfs (only one for 800 miles) is bringing in fluval plant stratum, I think it's the same kind of stuff as eco complete. My new 65G comes with the same lights I have now, dual T5 HO 39 watts each. Is that enough light. If I add my existing fixture as well, that would be 4 39 watt T5s. Would that be way too much?

 

[mohican]

Perfect, thats just over 2.5 wpg. You can even slowly lessen that by just taking out bulbs to suite your needs of the tank. With such high light, careful with algae (especially in the beginning). Tank sounds good though!