Live Plant Help

[Byron]

Thank you for the explanation. Do you happen to have any LED brands that you would recommend?

I will leave that to those who have LED. i tried five units and all went back, so I repaired my old T8 fixtures which I do at least understand! But there is some very good LED for planted tanks, though expensive.

 

[Silencedogood]

Thank you for your help!

 

[StevenF]

In my opinion your fertilizer is the primary problem. As stated leaf zone has only iron and potassium. And it is highly unlikely your tap water has all to of the other nutrients plants need to grow. Lighting and CO2 will have no affect on the plants until you switch to a fertilizer that can supply all the nutrients plants need. Also a different fertilizer would likely cost less than a new light.

Also test your water for the GH level ( General hardness) of the water.. Very soft to soft water often doesn't have enough calcium and magnesium for good plant growth and most fertilizers don't have calcium and those that do often don't have enough The GH Test tests for the presence of calcium and magnesium only in the water. You want about a minimum GH of about 3 or 4degrees hardness for good plant growth. If your GH is too low increase it with a GH booster. such as sachem equilibrium.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Thank you for the explanation. Do you happen to have any LED brands that you would recommend?

I'm impressed with my Nicrew LED fitting. It basically straddles the two sides of the tank although I'd actually like it to be a little higher so will be doing some tweaking to make that happen.
The model I have has white and blue LEDs. In hindsight I wouldve bought a full-spectrum one that has red LEDs too, but in any case, I would recommend Nicrew

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I will leave that to those who have LED. i tried five units and all went back, so I repaired my old T8 fixtures which I do at least understand! But there is some very good LED for planted tanks, though expensive.

Same here. I only have 1 actual LED light, and I don't know the brand to it.

My other lights are desk clip lights with a bright LED bulb

 

[Byron]

I agree with @StevenF in post #18 concerning the nutrients. If you change over to one of the fertilizers I earlier recommended you may solve the issue.

Once we know the GH we can asses the need for additional calcium and magnesium. I went down this road, and if you have soft water fish you do not want to be increasing the GH, but until we know the source water GH we cannot offer much more.

 

[Silencedogood]

I have livebearers so my gh is on the higher side; between 100-200 ppm. I moved my live plants to my nursery tank that has blue and white LED's and they are thriving now. I found a LED light that seems good; the brand is Koval. I'm also planning to change my substrate to sand.

 

[Byron]

I have livebearers so my gh is on the higher side; between 100-200 ppm. I moved my live plants to my nursery tank that has blue and white LED's and they are thriving now. I found a LED light that seems good; the brand is Koval. I'm also planning to change my substrate to sand.

Your GH is fine with respect to "hard" minerals for plants.