Want to take the next step, point me in the right direction?

[jimenezlee]

Hi all,

Long story short:
I bought a bunch of plants that have been dying and losing color. I'm now down to about half the number of plants I had and the remaining ones have shown zero to no growth and some are yellowing.

I recently (2 weeks ago) added a DIY CO2 bottle and I've seen some improvement; a few of the plants got a little greener and one or two are showing a bit of new growth wich was a welcome change. But many are still not improving.

Here's what I got:

-Tank: 55g, Planted since early March this year.
-Substrate: EcoComplete
-Lights: Single strip T8s that I believe are 17W a piece. Just ordered 4x 54W 6500K T5 HO Bulbs, get the fixture this Thurs.
-Ferts: Just started Fluorish comprehensive yesterday.
-DIY CO2, one bottle. Gives about a bubble per second for the first few days, by 2nd week its down to about a bubble every 10 sec. then replace

-Plants:

I had other plants in there, but this is what I'm left with now:

Green Cryptocoryne (Cryptocoryne wendtii)
Amazon Sword Plant
Chilensis 5 Pc (Sagittaria platyphylla)
Anubias Nana
Wisteria
Micro Sword (Lilaeopsis novae-zelandiae)
Ozelot Sword (Echinodorus ozelot)
Chainsword Narrow Leaf (Echinodorus tenellus)
Rotala Indica

This is the fixture I got:

48" T5 HO Aquarium Light Hood Freshwater Plant 216W New - eBay (item 110685443403 end time Jun-07-11 18:08:13 PDT)

48" T5 HO Aquarium Light Hood Freshwater Plant 216W New
4x 54W 6500K T5 HO Bulbs, Extendable Brackets, LED

Will I need a pressurized CO2 system? What about fertilizers, do I need something other than the Fuorish complete?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

The lights are a big reason why the die off IMO. High lighting and co2 along with proper ferts will help too.

Here's 2 links worth checking out:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/read-this-first-resources-and-references-83826.html

PlantGeek.net - Your Aquatic Plant Resource