Need help

[Kents Aquatics]

So im haveing trouble getting my plants to grow, the tank is dirted but the plants just kind of stay the same size. The val will grow runners but wont grow up or thicken its i have dwarf sage it dosent really grow either just kind of stays the same size and color. I have large amazon sword it just grows like crazy it has a massive root system. I dose secheam flourish, iron and potassium about 3 to 4 days a week. The only thing i could see being a problem would be lighting or mabey i need co2, im not sure. I have a cheap 48inch led ebay kind, and the clamp lamp diy. Here are a few pics.

 

[agrasyuk]

Val is a root feeder, it will need fert tabs buried near the roots, although i would think that dirt would have provided all its nutrient needs for at least some time. aside of the ferts that you already dose you could really benefit from source of carbon like seachem flourish excel (or Metricide 14, the "generic"). those are dosed daily. when i was running flourish + excel combo the flourish part of it was dosed weekly (per the recommendations on the bottle). I was running without pressurized CO2 for years and grew easy plants like anubias, swords, ferns no problem.


what is "cheap ebay light" ? there are several, some fit for planted tanks, some not really. sounds like your issue might be the light for the most part. how long are you running it for?

 

[Kents Aquatics]

Lights are on 9 hours, tge light is one of those ebay light with blue white and a few green leds in the strip.

 

[Kents Aquatics]

Its one of the beamswork leds

 

[flitabout]

It sounds like you have a few issues. Lighting is low just looking at your pictures, and yes CO2 is an issue. You also have a problem with Green spot algae. GSA is usually an issue with lighting. Normally I would suggest Seachem excel, but that will melt your vals. I would also look in to dosing with dry ferts. Either EI or PPS-Pro.

 

[Kents Aquatics]

Theres also alot of alage growth on the glass, it dosent really grow much on the plants though

 

[agrasyuk]

that's the thing, there are quite a few varieties of beamswork fixtures. i read that DA FSPEC will grow plants just fine (no personal experience), i imagine that the less intensive EA (2 rows less of emitters) and marine series will indeed not provide the best light for pants. as result algae will grow with all the available nutrients not used by plants.

flitabout, while i wholeheartedly agree on using dry ferts i don't think this is the primary issue here. just using fish poop+flourish+excel combo gave me good results for years. I'm guessing the light might be the weakest link here

 

[Kents Aquatics]

Alright thank you guys, time to invest in some new lights and some dry ferts