nothing wants to grow
- Thread starter Damian
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Brian_Nano12g
Aquarium Advice Addict
Is it a dual bulb t5ho? What are you doing in terms of ferts? How about co2 or liquid carbon alternative?
Brian_Nano12g
Aquarium Advice Addict
From the looks of it, most of your plants are low light tolerant, so the dual t5ho should be more than adequate.
The root tabs under the swords and lotus are good. Ferns need a good liquid fertilizer to dose the water column with. Something like Seachem Flourish Comprehensive.
And keep dosing the liquid carbon too. Are you dosing this as directed or less?
How long are you keeping the lights on each day?
The root tabs under the swords and lotus are good. Ferns need a good liquid fertilizer to dose the water column with. Something like Seachem Flourish Comprehensive.
And keep dosing the liquid carbon too. Are you dosing this as directed or less?
How long are you keeping the lights on each day?
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
Where are you buying the plants from?
Brian_Nano12g
Aquarium Advice Addict
The plants you have are slow growth plants... how much time are you giving them to determine if things are working or not? Staying consistent with lights and ferts (+ carbon) with A LOT of patience should yield results. If you want to see a significant boost in growth, adding an actual co2 system would help.
BBradbury
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- May 24, 2011
- Messages
- 5,011
Hello Damian...
If you've got a bright light level in this tank, then you're telling the plants you want fast growth. Unless you give the plants a level of nutrients equal the amount of light they get, they have no food to grow. A CO2 system is pricey and tricky to set up and run. But, bright light will require such a system.
B
If you've got a bright light level in this tank, then you're telling the plants you want fast growth. Unless you give the plants a level of nutrients equal the amount of light they get, they have no food to grow. A CO2 system is pricey and tricky to set up and run. But, bright light will require such a system.
B
Brian_Nano12g
Aquarium Advice Addict
Liquid co2 is NOT actual co2, but a liquid carbon Glutaraldehyde based product. It's still effective, but in the words of Seachem, where (actual, gas) CO2 would be a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 for effectiveness, Glutaraldehyde (i.e. excel, API co2 booster, or metricide 14), would be a 6 on that same scale. However, Glutaraldehyde has the side benefit of being an algaecide. So by you getting algae, you're either not dosing it correctly, running lights too long, not enough circulation, and/or bottoming out on proper nutrients. You're just not balancing things right.... u know what kind of algae? You can spot treat and do a blackout to try to reset things before you start implementing a 'balanced' approach to your growth cycles.
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aqua_chem
Aquarium Advice Addict
The major problem I'm seeing is that few of these problems address the core issue: what can flat out kill a plant like is describe here?
CO2/micronutrients (ie, root tabs, flourish, etc) will stunt growth or make it scraggly, but you probably wouldn't kill off a plant unassisted with just that.
Low light could do it, but that doesn't appear to be the case, although I don't have much faith in Odyssea products. Considering you're having problems with Java fern, I don't think that this is the cause.
Macronutrients seem like a good option. Am I correct in saying that the later growth looks much rougher than the newer growth?
A few questions:
Do you have much algae growth?
What's the stocking in the tank?
What's the temp of the tank. Do you have a thermometer in it?
How old is the tank? How long have you had plants/been trying to grow them?
When you were using Excel, how were you using it? According to directions? More/less?
CO2/micronutrients (ie, root tabs, flourish, etc) will stunt growth or make it scraggly, but you probably wouldn't kill off a plant unassisted with just that.
Low light could do it, but that doesn't appear to be the case, although I don't have much faith in Odyssea products. Considering you're having problems with Java fern, I don't think that this is the cause.
Macronutrients seem like a good option. Am I correct in saying that the later growth looks much rougher than the newer growth?
A few questions:
Do you have much algae growth?
What's the stocking in the tank?
What's the temp of the tank. Do you have a thermometer in it?
How old is the tank? How long have you had plants/been trying to grow them?
When you were using Excel, how were you using it? According to directions? More/less?
Liquid carbon such as Excel has algaecide properties and is often used to spot treat algae to kill it off. That is not what caused algae. Algae is caused from an imbalance between light/CO2/ferts. A lot of times it's from running lights too long.
