slow growth

[jcarlilesiu]

Hi everybody... so this is my first planted aquarium. I have a few questions regarding some of my plants. First let me list what I have in the tank.

-dwarf sag
-java moss connected to drift wood
-red ozelot sword
-jungle vallisneria
-micro sword
-chain sword
-money wart
-green hygro

My question is in regard to a few of these plants. A quick background. I have a NO flourecent light with makes about 1.5/gal. It has a healthy number of fish (full). And i fertilize twice a week.

The dwarf sag has been great. Growing veritcally, and maintaining nice green colors... but has yet to develop any shoots or new leaves. What is wrong?

Java moss is going nuts, all is good

micro sword... lost the brilliant green when i first bought the clump, and shortly after seemed to drastically shrink in size. Pretty stable now, although the color isn't as green as it has some yellower leaves. Is this a high light plant?

red ozelot sword - very deep red, very pretty and growing alot of new leaves from the center, but no flower yet.

jungle valisneria - new long leaves, huge ones actually but no shoots why?

chain sword - almost died, lost almost all the leaves, replanted it and noticed the roots were all in a ball from the store.. i sorted them out and spread them when i replanted it, and now im seeing new leaves springing up

money wart... growing still bright green

green hygro... the stuff is going nuts, i have to trim it about once a week

my question is.. why am i having problems with a few of these plants. Is there a secret. Are some of them high light that I just don't have enough wattage for? Or why are they stable but not reproducing. All of the ones above that say Why? im kinda looking for some help on

 

[Tiffi]

First of all there are a few questions for you:

How long ago did you plant the aquarium?
Do you know the Kelvin-ratings of the bulbs?
What fertilizers are you dosing?

Plants need a while until the acclimate and adjust from the water conditions they have been in before to the water conditions in your aquarium. For my old tank I had before (under 1.5wpg) I had to wait a several months till vallisneria produced runners.

Some plants grow slower than others and as long as they still grow and don't die I wouldn't be wondering about that too much.

If you want to boost the growth, you can still add some CO2 though, or maybe you're missing some particular fertilizer. (Need to know what you use). Plus I don't think that the growth would be super fast anyway, as long as you don't have high light, lots of CO2 etc..

 

[malkore]

Can you tell me the exact wattage of your bulb, and size of tank? I question if you really have 1.5wpg, simply because most NO fixtures that 'come with the tank' put you well below 1wpg: 15w NO's for 20 gallons, 20w for a 29gal, 2x20w for a 55gallon...etc. You make it sound like you only have 1 bulb.

1.5wpg is low lighting. Most of your plants are technically medium lighting (2+ wpg). CO2 would do this tank good if you are at 1.5wpg.

substrate choice could be the reason the swords and vals aren't doing well, as swords are heavy root feeders, and I found that corkscrew val. prefer a light substrate for good rooting. Vals also need calcium to grow well...if you have soft water, this could explain their lack of spreading.

 

[jcarlilesiu]

its a 10 gal. with a 15 watt NO bulb.. was planted a few months ago, new setup at that time, with "small sized gravel" as the lfs person pointed it. currently I am using "kent" brand "freshwater planted aquarium fertilizer" but I don't have a test kit for the plant levels.

 

[Tiffi]

Do you have any fertilizer in the substrate though, like at least laterite?

 

[jcarlilesiu]

i have no idea what that is.... *runs to google

the answer then is no haha

 

[jcarlilesiu]

ok i did some research, and the problem is.. "says not to put laterite in after a tank has been established. So now what?

 

[Tiffi]

You could still add some Flourish tabs by Seachem for example. They have Iron in them, too, just like Laterite (it only? has iron). The tabs have all other kind of nutrients in them, too. Means they are even better.

One tab is good for a radius of 4-6" and should last 3-4 month. With your light probably four.

You could buy them e.g. here:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=28653;category_id=3143;pcid1=3349;pcid2=

 

[jcarlilesiu]

thanks tiffi