Help I Miss My Bubbles Part 2

katana750 said:

View attachment 50624Ok I wrote a while ago (couple of months) about my plants pearling less and less, my stem plants growing super quick, slowing down, now they are dead, my Amazon sword are almost dead, and the only thing growing is hygrophila (small brown holes, green veins lighter leaves) and java moss.

I am lacking something but what. I was following the posted ei method for a 120 gallon tank to a T. I have two C02 diffusers; my drop checker is green to slight yellow all the time except when I do a fifty percent water change each week. It takes a while for the diffusers to replace the lost co2 I guess.

Lighting is pretty good 4 coralife cf for 260watts on 11 hours a day. Two inefficient grolux 40 watt bulbs and 2 small 15 watt bulbs that come on early and go of late to make the transition from darkness to light a bit more gradual

I dose according to the recommended ei plan plus 1 tea spoon of magnesium sulphate and 1 tea spoon
Potassium sulphate. When tested my Nitrates and phosphates are on the high side. Iron is 0 but I assume the test is inaccurate (as I dose flourish traces as recommended and some flourish iron just for good measure) my substrate is 3 inches thick with straight fluorite with a little laterite mixed in.

I took some pictures. I have read, followed advice and I can't even grow Wisteria. The only thing I can think of is my water is basically off the hardness scale ie very hard. I have quite a few fish but I wouldn't say it is over stocked...4 Angles, 5 pearl Grammies, 2 4" loaches,2 1"loaches,4 catfish,17 cardinals, 5 cherry barbs and theoretically 9 shrimp, but they are MIA

I only have one bank of lights on right now as the only thing I was growing was some sort of beard algae I guess, but if somebody can tell from the pictures it would be great.

I sure could use some more help here


Thanks

Click to expand...

katana750 said:

katana750 said:

View attachment 50624Ok I wrote a while ago (couple of months) about my plants pearling less and less, my stem plants growing super quick, slowing down, now they are dead, my Amazon sword are almost dead, and the only thing growing is hygrophila (small brown holes, green veins lighter leaves) and java moss.

I am lacking something but what. I was following the posted ei method for a 120 gallon tank to a T. I have two C02 diffusers; my drop checker is green to slight yellow all the time except when I do a fifty percent water change each week. It takes a while for the diffusers to replace the lost co2 I guess.

Lighting is pretty good 4 coralife cf for 260watts on 11 hours a day. Two inefficient grolux 40 watt bulbs and 2 small 15 watt bulbs that come on early and go of late to make the transition from darkness to light a bit more gradual

I dose according to the recommended ei plan plus 1 tea spoon of magnesium sulphate and 1 tea spoon
Potassium sulphate. When tested my Nitrates and phosphates are on the high side. Iron is 0 but I assume the test is inaccurate (as I dose flourish traces as recommended and some flourish iron just for good measure) my substrate is 3 inches thick with straight fluorite with a little laterite mixed in.

I took some pictures. I have read, followed advice and I can't even grow Wisteria. The only thing I can think of is my water is basically off the hardness scale ie very hard. I have quite a few fish but I wouldn't say it is over stocked...4 Angles, 5 pearl Grammies, 2 4" loaches,2 1"loaches,4 catfish,17 cardinals, 5 cherry barbs and theoretically 9 shrimp, but they are MIA

I only have one bank of lights on right now as the only thing I was growing was some sort of beard algae I guess, but if somebody can tell from the pictures it would be great.

I sure could use some more help here


Thanks

Click to expand...

Anybody?

Click to expand...

katana750 said:

katana750 said:

katana750 said:

View attachment 50624Ok I wrote a while ago (couple of months) about my plants pearling less and less, my stem plants growing super quick, slowing down, now they are dead, my Amazon sword are almost dead, and the only thing growing is hygrophila (small brown holes, green veins lighter leaves) and java moss.

I am lacking something but what. I was following the posted ei method for a 120 gallon tank to a T. I have two C02 diffusers; my drop checker is green to slight yellow all the time except when I do a fifty percent water change each week. It takes a while for the diffusers to replace the lost co2 I guess.

Lighting is pretty good 4 coralife cf for 260watts on 11 hours a day. Two inefficient grolux 40 watt bulbs and 2 small 15 watt bulbs that come on early and go of late to make the transition from darkness to light a bit more gradual

I dose according to the recommended ei plan plus 1 tea spoon of magnesium sulphate and 1 tea spoon
Potassium sulphate. When tested my Nitrates and phosphates are on the high side. Iron is 0 but I assume the test is inaccurate (as I dose flourish traces as recommended and some flourish iron just for good measure) my substrate is 3 inches thick with straight fluorite with a little laterite mixed in.

I took some pictures. I have read, followed advice and I can't even grow Wisteria. The only thing I can think of is my water is basically off the hardness scale ie very hard. I have quite a few fish but I wouldn't say it is over stocked...4 Angles, 5 pearl Grammies, 2 4" loaches,2 1"loaches,4 catfish,17 cardinals, 5 cherry barbs and theoretically 9 shrimp, but they are MIA

I only have one bank of lights on right now as the only thing I was growing was some sort of beard algae I guess, but if somebody can tell from the pictures it would be great.

I sure could use some more help here


Thanks

Click to expand...

Anybody?

Click to expand...

No ideas anyone???even a guess to what the brown gunk on the rock is. A systimatic approach to the problem? I throw everything the plants love in and they die. Do nothing and they don't do any better.(gave up for month) Tested the water and it was still full phosphates and nitrates....what gives. Something in my water stopping the plants from eating? It would seem unlikley. I spend months gathering everything testing my rocks, good substrate,good light....plants die.....next step plastic plants with yellow and blue gravel. Start over?

Click to expand...

frozenbarb said:

11 hours of light is too long try 8-9 hours. Looks like Potassium deficiency


I will give it a go, and dump more potassium in.

katana750 said:

katana750 said:

katana750 said:

View attachment 50624Ok I wrote a while ago (couple of months) about my plants pearling less and less, my stem plants growing super quick, slowing down, now they are dead, my Amazon sword are almost dead, and the only thing growing is hygrophila (small brown holes, green veins lighter leaves) and java moss.

I am lacking something but what. I was following the posted ei method for a 120 gallon tank to a T. I have two C02 diffusers; my drop checker is green to slight yellow all the time except when I do a fifty percent water change each week. It takes a while for the diffusers to replace the lost co2 I guess.

Lighting is pretty good 4 coralife cf for 260watts on 11 hours a day. Two inefficient grolux 40 watt bulbs and 2 small 15 watt bulbs that come on early and go of late to make the transition from darkness to light a bit more gradual

I dose according to the recommended ei plan plus 1 tea spoon of magnesium sulphate and 1 tea spoon
Potassium sulphate. When tested my Nitrates and phosphates are on the high side. Iron is 0 but I assume the test is inaccurate (as I dose flourish traces as recommended and some flourish iron just for good measure) my substrate is 3 inches thick with straight fluorite with a little laterite mixed in.

I took some pictures. I have read, followed advice and I can't even grow Wisteria. The only thing I can think of is my water is basically off the hardness scale ie very hard. I have quite a few fish but I wouldn't say it is over stocked...4 Angles, 5 pearl Grammies, 2 4" loaches,2 1"loaches,4 catfish,17 cardinals, 5 cherry barbs and theoretically 9 shrimp, but they are MIA

I only have one bank of lights on right now as the only thing I was growing was some sort of beard algae I guess, but if somebody can tell from the pictures it would be great.

I sure could use some more help here


Thanks

Click to expand...

Anybody?

Click to expand...

No ideas anyone???even a guess to what the brown gunk on the rock is. A systimatic approach to the problem? I throw everything the plants love in and they die. Do nothing and they don't do any better.(gave up for month) Tested the water and it was still full phosphates and nitrates....what gives. Something in my water stopping the plants from eating? It would seem unlikley. I spend months gathering everything testing my rocks, good substrate,good light....plants die.....next step plastic plants with yellow and blue gravel. Start over?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

s007 said:

when your plants look a bit off, they might need fertilizer.
for instance, amazon swords' leaves will turn kind of transparent. How much you need depend on a few things, what type of plants you have, how much light are you providing and how much CO2 you're providing. Most of this are estimates you can use. The more CO2 and Light the more fert is require. If there is a lack of any of the chemical that combine to form fert, your plants will show symptoms to indicate what chemical it's missing. It'll turn yellow, or have brown hole on it leave, or curling leaves, etc, etc. You can read up on chemical deficiency in planted tank on many websites on the Internet. There are two type of fert, one is solid mixture which I call base fert, this is normally add to the bottom of the tank before gravel is added on top of that. The other is liquid fert which is added to the water column. If you have plants that have heavy root system base fert would be a good idea. Otherwise, liquid fert will do well for most.

As for liquid fert, you can buy it off the shelf from an aquarium or you could buy chemical and create the mixture yourself. I you know what to do the latter would be much more economy.

Here is the small description for the causes: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Plants-and-Planted-Tanks/238374/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-238374/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Plants-a...owtopic-238374/[/URL]

Hope it will help

I agree with you 100 percent, but I am following a fertilization routine. well now not so much it would seem I am wasting my time. I cut the light back the algae is a bit better, but it still doesn't allow me to grow stem plants. I suppose I could double or triple the reccomended amount but, there are a lot of people out there that have way more experience than me, Their tanks are great. What puzzles me is what is so different?

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