Hi from Germany

[uranumo]

Hi there,
First of all, thanks a lot for this option to introduce ourselves. It is a great way to break the ice. So I am based in Germany and am a proud owner of a 20L planted Nano aquarium. It is small but I have restricted myself with 2 male guppies and 4 Neon Tetras. I do have 2 types of plants, the names of which I need to get accustomed to . But I shall let everyone know soon. Though I have not had any disaster, I do notice that the plants do not grow much in height as it should. I shall post photos and parameters later on. It late here..till then goodnight.

 

[Betta keeper]

Welcome

I'm based out of Canada and run three tanks myself

I have noticed that plants that get enough light do not always grow as tall as advertised. Apparently if they have sufficient light, they don't need to stretch out to reach it

 

[nirbhao]

Hello and welcome!

 

[uranumo]

So here goes

My Dennerle 20 L Nano is around 8 months old and it has a 11W Fluorescent lamps with 6000K and a reflector. I have got a few plants, the type of which i have forgotten. I know, I am to blame for that . I have fertilizer substrate below the soil and I do add Easylife Profito and Carbo on a weekly and daily schedule respectively. The general parameters are normal except the fact that the water supply here has low iron and phosphorous as they do mention on their website, specifically for aquariums . So I do get iron added through the Profito to atleast 0.4ppm and phosphorous is presently very low at 0.02 or less.

My doubts are :
1) My plants seem to not grow tall, especially the long foreground plants as seen in the pictures. And the other plants in the background grow but they wilt as soon as they reach a height from below and do not seem to look healthy as it was when i bought them
....So do i need to add Phosphorous as an extra?

2)If I was to add in more plants such as Java Moss and also a hardy carpenting plant like S.repens, would I have to increase the iron dosing?

3)Should I be upgrading my lighting to an LED one such as the one I have an eye on -- Aquael Smart LED 6W with 8000K or should I upgrade to a higher Watt fluorescent lighting? I would like to start with some light aquascaping. Or should i stick to the same.

I have attacked some pictures of the aquarium and also the requirement parameters of my aquarium and lighting parameters in the next post.

If I have to post this somewhere else then do tell me.

Thanks guys.

 

[uranumo]

The requirement and Parameters

So these are screenshots of requirement and lighting parameters from rotalabutterfly.com. Pretty neat site though its in beta version still.

 

[Delapool]

Hi, freshwater planted section would be ideal for a thread on this.

Phos sounds low (I run tank at 2 to 4ppm) and I suspect your iron dosing is too high. If you see browning off in fine leaf plants after dosing iron especially.

Looks like you had some runners spreading out on substrate? If so I'd say light is plenty at substrate and wouldn't add more. Would add CO2 rather.

 

[uranumo]

Hi, freshwater planted section would be ideal for a thread on this.

Phos sounds low (I run tank at 2 to 4ppm) and I suspect your iron dosing is too high. If you see browning off in fine leaf plants after dosing iron especially.

Looks like you had some runners spreading out on substrate? If so I'd say light is plenty at substrate and wouldn't add more. Would add CO2 rather.

Hey Delapool,
Thanks a lot. Yes got couple runners. Unfortunately the Vals do not seem to grow. Just stays absolutely static. It is supposed to grow tall even with no substrate and fertilizers right ? I have pulled them up a little so as to expose the white crown area. Hope that would help. Other than than, like you said, I would have to add phosphorus. So I shall stay put on the lights.

I did try deleting the post here but can't find an option. So I started the same as a new thread on the planted forum.

I just wish the Vals would grow