i cannot grow plants

[dutto73]

Hi Stephanie.
If you have an air stone. Leave it off during the day and on at night. This is due to the plants photosynthesis

 

[StephenJewelRio]

Update today
PH before water change 6.0 , 2 hours after still at 6.0 , so a drop of .4. ( after measurement 60 minutes after lights on, so normal time I measure)

Nitrates zero before and after water change. Still dosing 1/2 dosage of flourish.

Algae on glass, none after 7 days, hairy algae on plants further improvement and nearly disappeared.

Floating plants, seem to be losing roots and some going a brown colour. Surface agitation is high and I know floaters prefer little flow on top of tank.

Starting to i see a little plant growth as well.

All the help and guidance you have given seems to be making a difference. Which brings me to today's questions

Should I now slowly increase Flourish/ lighting

To answer earlier question re air hose, I stopped using that about 3 weeks ago when I first started posting.

 

[Byron]

Back in post #19 I explained the slowly lowering pH, this is normal and good here.

Leave the light duration, do not increase it. Eight hours is plenty, and if you are not seeing an increase in algae it may be balanced now.

I would increase the Flourish Comprehensive Supplement, for the Salvinia. Hard to pin down precisely but it seems you are dosing it once a week at half strength? I would do one full dose (the level recommended on the bottle, but only once not twice weekly). And on the day following the water change.

 

[StephenJewelRio]

Thanks Bryon ... yep had read your earlier post on Ph, not worried about it lowering now . and still only dosing the Flourish 1/2 per week as previously suggested. Will start dosing to the recommended volume for my tank (180ltrs)

Thanks for confirming the lighting, some earlier posts had recommended increasing once stabilised. But I shall leave as is at 8 hours.

any thoughts on the Frogbit - no growth and leaves going brown

 

[PheonixKingZ]

The Slavinia is looking a little sad...

I keep my light on for 14 hours a day (in both my 10g and my 29g), this is what mine look like:

 

[Byron]

Frogbit, or Salvinia? The brown plants in the last photo are Salvinia. The increased fertilizer may help, as all surface plants are faster growing and with so many lower plants you may need more to balance. It's hard to tell from a photo, but there does not appear to be much of a surface disturbance problem.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I find that they grow better with more light, but that could just be me. I never use ferts.

 

[Martyn87]

Agree with @Byron you need to bump up the ferts, the floating plants normally show up deficiencies first as they receive more light and can openly absorb co2, so they hit nutrient deficiencies faster. Also you have a lot of plants, watch for the deficiencies then bump up the ferts by 1/2 dose.

 

[StephenJewelRio]

So 2 weeks on, parameters remain stable. PH 6 ( although this is the lowest the test reports) Nitrate remains at 0. Have been dozing 5ml once a week now for a few weeks with the Flourish Comprehensive with no visible algae on plants and only a small amount of algae on glass after a week. This is easily wiped away with my finger.

Plants seem to be growing and healthly.

Floaters remain the last sticky. No growth from them still.

What do people suggest?
1. Give up and remove. I know you can't win at everything
2. Remove most to give a couple of plants a chance to grow
3. Increase frets to twice a week and seen how the tank reacts to the extra nutrients
4. Any other options

 

[Byron]

When you make changes, you need to do them one at a time, and then give it time to "change." You can remove any dead (brown) Salvinia.

 

[Martyn87]

The plants are doing well now which is good to see. How are the fish? There has been quite a lot of change for them and you don’t want to overlook them. Growing healthy plants can be an obsession and one plant alone can really give you a headache which is why I always suggest grow whatever works for you, keep it easy.

You currently have salvinia as a surface plant. You could try frogbit or anacharis? Or a lotus type plant?

As @Byron noted you just need to do small tweaks now and monitor the change.

 

[Martyn87]

I would also just get a low range ph check just to be safe.

 

[Retired Viking]

I think your tank looks good, I had to pull my anacharis out on my 55 gallon tetra tank because I was softening the water and it had started to have a negative impact on my anacharis. I just replaced it with salvinia.

 

[StephenJewelRio]

The plants are doing well now which is good to see. How are the fish? There has been quite a lot of change for them and you don’t want to overlook them. Growing healthy plants can be an obsession and one plant alone can really give you a headache which is why I always suggest grow whatever works for you, keep it easy.

You currently have salvinia as a surface plant. You could try frogbit or anacharis? Or a lotus type plant?

As @Byron noted you just need to do small tweaks now and monitor the change.

 

[StephenJewelRio]

Fish are doing well, yep agree conversation has been on the plants not the . I did loose one of the red drawf gourami 2 weeks ago, no obvious reason. Litmus test for me, no change in behaviour, they remain active and all seem to be eating and swimmimg around the tank.

The shrimps do seem less visible, normally I can see them all other the plants at the front of the tank, but they have taken to be in the background more and hidden.