Algae and spotty java fern

[Essjay]

Ah, I got the wrong ones

Those on/off ones are better than nothing as they allow the lights to be on at the same time of day and for the same length of time every day. But the room should be lit for an hour before the lights turn on and an hour after the lights turn off, either daylight or electric light.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Ah, I got the wrong ones

Those on/off ones are better than nothing as they allow the lights to be on at the same time of day and for the same length of time every day. But the room should be lit for an hour before the lights turn on and an hour after the lights turn off, either daylight or electric light.

I used those when I went away on holiday...gave the impression that someone was still in the house.

 

[Lamie]

Thanks. The Kelvin rating is 6500 K.
I'm going to try to find the GH of the source water.

 

[Lamie]

That is not t all bad, so this should be easy to resolve. I would suggest a dark background to the tank. The simplest that I use is black construction paper; you can buy one sheet and cut it to the size of the tank back glass, and just tape it on the outside. This will really show off the colours of fish and plants.

Get a basic timer for the tank light and have it on for 7 hours, any time of the day is fine, provided it is consistent each day, and there is a period of several hours of total darkness.

Some floating plants would likely help too. Water Sprite, Water Lettuce, or Frogbit. Or allow the stem plants to grow across the surface. Stay with the Flourish Comprehensive once a week, careful not to overdose.

Any more about the Kelvin rating being 6500 k? I turn the artificial light on about 1 and turn them off at 5pm at the moment. Local hardware might have a timer for me. Would be just a basic timer no dimming feature I wouldn't think. I didn't used to turn on my lights at all. Only occasionally because I thought the plants might need them. And I turned them on when I fed the fish so the fish could see the food. It would be good to have the lights on a timer though. It makes sense what you have said to have the lighting more even and predictable for the fish and the plants. Also, the water from what I found out today is soft but I haven't found out about the GH of it yet. Also, I keep my temp of my tank at 24 degrees. I wanted to slow down the breeding. I got info that from a Spotify podcast or internet. Not sure if that's correct.

 

[Byron]

Any more about the Kelvin rating being 6500 k? I turn the artificial light on about 1 and turn them off at 5pm at the moment. Local hardware might have a timer for me. Would be just a basic timer no dimming feature I wouldn't think. I didn't used to turn on my lights at all. Only occasionally because I thought the plants might need them. And I turned them on when I fed the fish so the fish could see the food. It would be good to have the lights on a timer though. It makes sense what you have said to have the lighting more even and predictable for the fish and the plants. Also, the water from what I found out today is soft but I haven't found out about the GH of it yet. Also, I keep my temp of my tank at 24 degrees. I wanted to slow down the breeding. I got info that from a Spotify podcast or internet. Not sure if that's correct.

The timer is important, but you don't need a dimmer. Just have the tank light period (the "day") timed to occur so that there is ambient room light (daylight through the window, or room light) when the tank light comes on and when it goes off, an hour either end is fine. As @Essjay mentioned above.

6500K is good. But having said that, not all 6500K is the same. But it should be a white light that is high in the red, green and blue wavelengths.

The GH and temp is more important for fish, but the GH can impact plants if it is very soft (like my water), but this is less of an issue with Java Fern.

 

[StevenF]

Based on your photos you have a mobil nutrient deficiency. Mobil nutrients are Nitogen, potassium, magnesium chloride, and Molybdenum. Your nitrate reasding is not zero so we can rule out nitrogen. Mybest guess is Magnesium deficiency. Are you using RO or softened water? And is your water soft or hard. Do you know what your water GH is?

Algae is the frequent caused by a mobil nutrient deficiency.

Mobil nutrient are nutrients that the plant can remove from old leaves and them moved to support the new growth. When a mobil nutrient is in short supply it is removed from older leaves and then the old leaf dies. This commonly results in a long stem with a few leaves at the top. I would not time any plants at this time. You need to restore the plants to health first If you don't and trim them they likely will die.

GH or general hardness test measures the total amount of Magnesium and calcium Plants need both to grow but only magnesium is mobil. There are test kits for GH. If your GH needs to be increased you can use a GH booster such as Seachem equilibrium or Seachem Replenish to add calcium and magneisum to your water. you only need to boost your GH by 2 to 3 degrees hardness to have sufficient GH for your plants.

 

[Lamie]

Based on your photos you have a mobil nutrient deficiency. Mobil nutrients are Nitogen, potassium, magnesium chloride, and Molybdenum. Your nitrate reasding is not zero so we can rule out nitrogen. Mybest guess is Magnesium deficiency. Are you using RO or softened water? And is your water soft or hard. Do you know what your water GH is?

Algae is the frequent caused by a mobil nutrient deficiency.

Mobil nutrient are nutrients that the plant can remove from old leaves and them moved to support the new growth. When a mobil nutrient is in short supply it is removed from older leaves and then the old leaf dies. This commonly results in a long stem with a few leaves at the top. I would not time any plants at this time. You need to restore the plants to health first If you don't and trim them they likely will die.

GH or general hardness test measures the total amount of Magnesium and calcium Plants need both to grow but only magnesium is mobil. There are test kits for GH. If your GH needs to be increased you can use a GH booster such as Seachem equilibrium or Seachem Replenish to add calcium and magneisum to your water. you only need to boost your GH by 2 to 3 degrees hardness to have sufficient GH for your plants.

I will take out the plants I just planted. How do I trim the plants.

Based on your photos you have a mobil nutrient deficiency. Mobil nutrients are Nitogen, potassium, magnesium chloride, and Molybdenum. Your nitrate reasding is not zero so we can rule out nitrogen. Mybest guess is Magnesium deficiency. Are you using RO or softened water? And is your water soft or hard. Do you know what your water GH is?

Algae is the frequent caused by a mobil nutrient deficiency.

Mobil nutrient are nutrients that the plant can remove from old leaves and them moved to support the new growth. When a mobil nutrient is in short supply it is removed from older leaves and then the old leaf dies. This commonly results in a long stem with a few leaves at the top. I would not time any plants at this time. You need to restore the plants to health first If you don't and trim them they likely will die.

GH or general hardness test measures the total amount of Magnesium and calcium Plants need both to grow but only magnesium is mobil. There are test kits for GH. If your GH needs to be increased you can use a GH booster such as Seachem equilibrium or Seachem Replenish to add calcium and magneisum to your water. you only need to boost your GH by 2 to 3 degrees hardness to have sufficient GH for your plants.

I really like the limnophila it's growing long stems with plant halfway up. I would like to keep that. And I think the Heteranthera, also the ambulia is ok but none are really thriving. I'd also like to keep the java fern. But I'm not sure about trimming. There is a red one that is not thriving but has good roots. Maybe I take those out they are problem ones. I can take out the plants I planted yesterday. And reduce it for now.

 

[Lamie]

Based on your photos you have a mobil nutrient deficiency. Mobil nutrients are Nitogen, potassium, magnesium chloride, and Molybdenum. Your nitrate reasding is not zero so we can rule out nitrogen. Mybest guess is Magnesium deficiency. Are you using RO or softened water? And is your water soft or hard. Do you know what your water GH is?

Algae is the frequent caused by a mobil nutrient deficiency.

Mobil nutrient are nutrients that the plant can remove from old leaves and them moved to support the new growth. When a mobil nutrient is in short supply it is removed from older leaves and then the old leaf dies. This commonly results in a long stem with a few leaves at the top. I would not time any plants at this time. You need to restore the plants to health first If you don't and trim them they likely will die.

GH or general hardness test measures the total amount of Magnesium and calcium Plants need both to grow but only magnesium is mobil. There are test kits for GH. If your GH needs to be increased you can use a GH booster such as Seachem equilibrium or Seachem Replenish to add calcium and magneisum to your water. you only need to boost your GH by 2 to 3 degrees hardness to have sufficient GH for your plants.

What is RO

 

[StevenF]

What is RO

Revers Osmosis water. filtered water that has almost all minerals removed.

I will take out the plants I just planted. How do I trim the plants.

I suggested that you Don't trim or remove plants. My recommendation is to Solve the nutrient deficiency first! Trimming them when they are weak could kill them.

Determine what your GH is and then lest us know. If it is low consider boosting GH. Another question how often do you do a wterchange and how much water do you change out?

 

[Lamie]

Based on your photos you have a mobil nutrient deficiency. Mobil nutrients are Nitogen, potassium, magnesium chloride, and Molybdenum. Your nitrate reasding is not zero so we can rule out nitrogen. Mybest guess is Magnesium deficiency. Are you using RO or softened water? And is your water soft or hard. Do you know what your water GH is?

Algae is the frequent caused by a mobil nutrient deficiency.

Mobil nutrient are nutrients that the plant can remove from old leaves and them moved to support the new growth. When a mobil nutrient is in short supply it is removed from older leaves and then the old leaf dies. This commonly results in a long stem with a few leaves at the top. I would not time any plants at this time. You need to restore the plants to health first If you don't and trim them they likely will die.

GH or general hardness test measures the total amount of Magnesium and calcium Plants need both to grow but only magnesium is mobil. There are test kits for GH. If your GH needs to be increased you can use a GH booster such as Seachem equilibrium or Seachem Replenish to add calcium and magneisum to your water. you only need to boost your GH by 2 to 3 degrees hardness to have sufficient GH for your plants.

Revers Osmosis water. filtered water that has almost all minerals removed.


I suggested that you Don't trim or remove plants. My recommendation is to Solve the nutrient deficiency first! Trimming them when they are weak could kill them.

Determine what your GH is and then lest us know. If it is low consider boosting GH. Another question how often do you do a wterchange and how much water do you change out?

Ok. I removed what I planted the day before yesterday though. Will this be ok or can I put them back in. The tank was quite full. I was trying to fix the problem by putting more plants in. I won't trim anything. I do regular water changes once a week. I had been doing 1 bucket on Monday and 2 buckets on Thursday (10 litre buckets) but did 2 1/2 on Thursday as have been advised to do 50% of my 70 L tank.

 

[Lamie]

The timer is important, but you don't need a dimmer. Just have the tank light period (the "day") timed to occur so that there is ambient room light (daylight through the window, or room light) when the tank light comes on and when it goes off, an hour either end is fine. As @Essjay mentioned above.

6500K is good. But having said that, not all 6500K is the same. But it should be a white light that is high in the red, green and blue wavelengths.

The GH and temp is more important for fish, but the GH can impact plants if it is very soft (like my water), but this is less of an issue with Java Fern.

Thanks. Is that ambient daylight when the lights go on And when the light goes off it's a bit light and turn off light and let fish have naturally occurring sunset ie 1 hour before sunset. I'm confused. Don't mean to confuse you at all.

 

[Lamie]

Thanks. Is that ambient daylight when the lights go on And when the light goes off it's a bit light and turn off light and let fish have naturally occurring sunset ie 1 hour before sunset. I'm confused. Don't mean to confuse you at all.

Thanks. Is that ambient daylight when the lights go on And when the light goes off it's a bit light and turn off light and let fish have naturally occurring sunset ie 1 hour before sunset. I'm confused. Don't mean to confuse you at all.

I have looked up the posts to essjay and I think I understand about the light now. Thanks

 

[Byron]

I have looked up the posts to essjay and I think I understand about the light now. Thanks

Have a read of my online article on the effects of light on fish. It does go into all the issues to explain them. and it may fill you in on any uncertainties.

Contact Support

 

[Lamie]

Have a read of my online article on the effects of light on fish. It does go into all the issues to explain them. and it may fill you in on any uncertainties.

Contact Support

Thanks.

 

[Lamie]

Revers Osmosis water. filtered water that has almost all minerals removed.


I suggested that you Don't trim or remove plants. My recommendation is to Solve the nutrient deficiency first! Trimming them when they are weak could kill them.

Determine what your GH is and then lest us know. If it is low consider boosting GH. Another question how often do you do a wterchange and how much water do you change out?

I never use RO. I can get back to you tomorrow with the GH is. Thanks