About To Give Up On Real Plants Again!

[aibo210]

Hi

ive put a few plants in my tank but they dont seem to be doing well! they grow slowly and the leaves are small! all been spaced weights etc toke off.

I have nutrafin co2 system and tetra substrate im using plantamin every 4 weeks as instructed on packet! the lighting is also on more then 10 hours!

So what gives?

I keep thinking its the lighting its a 65 Litre tank with 2 11w compacts (pink arcadia plant growin ones) would it be worth modding the hood I was thinking of putting in an extra 18w t5 compact interpet Tri lamp! makeing a total of 40 watts good idea?

Its the only thing I can think or have I just got crappy plants?

 

[RadaR]

Depends what plants you have. They could be difficult ones or even non-aquatic
More light would help but you could grow crypts, ferns and moss in the tank with the light you already have.
I know you have the tetra substrate but a liquid fertiliser would be good too. Tropica is the bees knees.

 

[aibo210]

Depends what plants you have. They could be difficult ones or even non-aquatic
More light would help but you could grow crypts, ferns and moss in the tank with the light you already have.
I know you have the tetra substrate but a liquid fertiliser would be good too. Tropica is the bees knees.

I dont know about the plants to be honest they was off ebay so most likely non aquatic! i do use liquid fert its tetra plantamin says to refert every 4 weeks but what about water changes? I do one weekly a 10% would I need to add more!?

Current lighting

All I can about grow lol!

 

[frozenbarb]

there is the problem the second and third one is non aquatic looks like something i pick outta my garden

 

[geezer]

Hi

ive put a few plants in my tank but they dont seem to be doing well! they grow slowly and the leaves are small! all been spaced weights etc toke off.

I have nutrafin co2 system and tetra substrate im using plantamin every 4 weeks as instructed on packet! the lighting is also on more then 10 hours!

So what gives?

I keep thinking its the lighting its a 65 Litre tank with 2 11w compacts (pink arcadia plant growin ones) would it be worth modding the hood I was thinking of putting in an extra 18w t5 compact interpet Tri lamp! makeing a total of 40 watts good idea?

Its the only thing I can think or have I just got crappy plants?

I don't think it's the plants mate, and the co2 will only do it good.

The stronger the light, the more the plants will need co2 and ferts.

You don't say how big your tank is.

If it's 10 gallon, then I say 22-30 watts would be great. As that would be between 2.2 WGP (watts per gallon) and 3WPG.

So really the size of your tank, the lighting should be double

10 hours is too much lighting period too, try get it more to 8 hours


Also, some red plants require huge amounts of light to grow well. I had 260 watts and my red plants didn't do that great.

I use TMG fertilser here

 

[DarkEntity]

All those plants are fairly slow growing hence the algae, get some fast growing plants to start off with.

 

[SuperColey1]

The second plant doesn't look aquatic. Not sure about the 3rd It is sold on ebay as Purple Stricta but it doesn't look like aquatic to me.

65 litres is about 12-15G??? 22W should be Ok for the plants you have in there. and with CO2 you should be totally algae free. I'd guess that the CO2 isn't high enough or that there is a lot of dead plant matter (maybe from non aquatics) or that you overfeed.

10 hours is not too long for light. some people use 12 on 12 off without problems. but you say 14 hours if I'm not mistaken which does seem like a long time.

andy

 

[ICEEGRL]

My Mom had that 3rd one in a hanging basket a few years ago... I can't remember what it is called though.
That's about like I have hydrocotyle verticillata growing in my front yard right by the front door!!!

 

[nry]

65 litres I am guessing is around 18 UK gallons, so 22w gives you a little over 1wpg. Sounds low but I have dead on 1wpg at the moment and plants are fine.

Do you have reflectors on the tubes? Can't see any so if not they are a cheap of maximising the light you have available.

I would look into some lower light plants. I've had excellent success with cabomba, bacopa moniera, crypts (recent addition but growing well), things like monosolenium tennerus, even some degree of success with rotala macranda. Anubias also grows well.

I think that for low light tanks where plants do grow slower, lighting periods need to be lower to avoid algae going mad: if algae is a problem then knock the lighting down to ~6 hours in a single period for a few weeks. Keep an eye on algae and if it starts to fade then gradually up the lighting period to find where your balance of light vs algae settles.

Do you have any fish/snails/shrimp in there to keep on top of algae growth? My two nerite snails are excellent at keeping the glass, pebbles and larger leaved plants algae free.

As for liquid fertiliser, I'd suggest ditching the plantamin stuff. I used it for a while and never thought much of it, it is also pretty expensive long term as you need loads: I used to split the dose into a daily amount though. I now use SeaChem Flourish and Seachem Trace, again worked out to give a daily amount. I figure this gives a more balanced nutrient level rather than having a huge dump of loads of it then letting it drop off for weeks before adding loads again. Seems to work well for me.

Initially I would look to sort out the plants with your current lighting. If you can control algae/growth etc with your current lighting then you could look to upgrade lighting: upping lighting now could trigger a further algae problem....

 

[aibo210]

Thanks for your help guys!

Well I decided to get some plants off greenline one of there pre labled packs with positions in the aquarium they came with a free bunch of fast growing plants. is greenline good?

I will dump the non aquatics and rescape the tank! as for the lighting I just got a T5 compact with an 18w tri plus light tube off a website on special offer it was 24 quid all in so ill mod the lid and stick that in in a few weeks when the tank settles! that ok?

As for reflectors im going to get some today I was thinking about it but there hard to find for smaller lamps and PL tubes

Just haveing a look for some seachem now. Im new to this whole planted thank thing lol so I though tetra substrate may aswell get tetra plantamin!

Hopefully things will work out now!

 

[cheesy feet]

Update?

 

[nry]

Can't fault Greenline here, beyond the size of the plants, they were so big I didn't need all the ones I ordered

 

[aibo210]

Got my plants in and im just using the supplied bag of food for now. the plants are great for the money have coverd 50% if not more of my tank gravel! really good size and well packed! also install my new filter ex600 am using the old filter media in with the new for now and also a new interpet triplus light. Hopefully things now should inprove.

Any other recomendations in the first few weeks of this new setup?

 

[nry]

Start with a low lighting period, somewhere around the 6 hours mark. Every week or two up the lighting period by 15 minutes, if algae starts to take hold at any stage then drop back by 15 minutes. I guess it depends on CO2, fertiliser, lighting levels etc, but lighting periods (in my experience and what other very well known aquascapers have written) are as important as fertiliser, watts per gallon and CO2.

 

[aibo210]

Updated pics

My new light with modded hood diy reflector made out of flat air vent pipe
thats used for shower fans

My new plants

A happy gourami (queen of the tank)

One of my 3 shrimp lol! im sure its got eggs!