I set up a 50g planted aquarium exactly a year ago using one Zoo Med Flora Sun t5HO bulb and one lower watt bulb of the same brand... I remember the watts being around 200... but I don't remember exactly. I did conclude that it was moderate lighting.
My main plants are water sprite, rotala indica, hairgrass, and wysteria. They were growing pretty well for the entire year until just these past few weeks... Basically, I went lazy and I didn't do a water change or dose ferts/excel in 5 weeks, and within that time, 70% of the wysteria and rotala leaves disappeared... and the water sprite started browning/yellowing... But the hairgrass was always a failure the entire year, which I also am confused about.
I don't have pressurized CO2. I dose flourish excel once every few days.
My substrate is Ecocomplete.
I do have an algae problem... hair algae grows SO FAST in my tank, and I remove them with my fingers once a day. I'd like to note that within the 5 weeks of horror, the hair algae covered all of my plants... not sure if this is the reason. Side question, what's the solution to minimize algae without going high-tech?
So with all this info given, what can be the problem/reason why my plants suddenly all went unhealthy on me? Namely, water sprite has a rep for being super hardy and fast-growing, but mine has not grown AT ALL in the past 6 months.... (which is long before my 5 weeks of horror...) very confused.
ALSO, my dad claims that the t5HO bulbs require a brand new bulb once a year to maintain the wattage... that's expensive. Is this true?
Excuse me for the long post. Overall, my planted tank experience has been a failure, so now I'm looking for answers and tips so that I won't make the same mistakes again.
My main plants are water sprite, rotala indica, hairgrass, and wysteria. They were growing pretty well for the entire year until just these past few weeks... Basically, I went lazy and I didn't do a water change or dose ferts/excel in 5 weeks, and within that time, 70% of the wysteria and rotala leaves disappeared... and the water sprite started browning/yellowing... But the hairgrass was always a failure the entire year, which I also am confused about.
I don't have pressurized CO2. I dose flourish excel once every few days.
My substrate is Ecocomplete.
I do have an algae problem... hair algae grows SO FAST in my tank, and I remove them with my fingers once a day. I'd like to note that within the 5 weeks of horror, the hair algae covered all of my plants... not sure if this is the reason. Side question, what's the solution to minimize algae without going high-tech?
So with all this info given, what can be the problem/reason why my plants suddenly all went unhealthy on me? Namely, water sprite has a rep for being super hardy and fast-growing, but mine has not grown AT ALL in the past 6 months.... (which is long before my 5 weeks of horror...) very confused.
ALSO, my dad claims that the t5HO bulbs require a brand new bulb once a year to maintain the wattage... that's expensive. Is this true?
Excuse me for the long post. Overall, my planted tank experience has been a failure, so now I'm looking for answers and tips so that I won't make the same mistakes again.