Not a lack of lighting, maybe the WRONG lighting

@ombomb

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I have recently added a CO2 injection and doubled the lighting in my tank, leaving me with a respectable 2.5 WPG. I was hoping this would make a big impact on my plants in the two weeks it's been set up, but the plants are still developing blackness on the leaves are really aren't flourishing.

I have been adding Interpet Floraboost when I do my weekly water changes and have been sticking to the recommended dose. Could this be increased without harming the fish?

The bulbs I now have in my lamps are 2 x Hagen Aqua Glo and 2 x Hagen Sun Glo and I have a suspicsion that I would be better off changing at least two of them to Life Glo.

Also I have been wondering whether it would be a good idea to add some peat based filter media. Do you think it would help at all?

Water parameters:

Amonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: >5
pH: 8
GH: 16
KH: 15
Temp: 78 (rising on hot days)

Doesn't look like the CO2 injection is doing much to me...
 
the co2 is almost definatly the problem. whatever the light you'll get good growth as long as the co2 is there.

what system are you using?

i'm not too sure about the kelvin ratings of Hagen tubes. your looking for 3000-7500K, no higher than that or algae will take off. even if you had all 10,000K tubes your plants would still grow well just a little too fast (and covered in algae) black spots would not be caused by excess light. that is a nutrient deficiency of some kind.

your NitrAte is a little low as well, optimum for plants is 12.5
 
I think that the Sun Glo are 10000k and the Aqua Glo are about 4000K, so I am really either side of the optimum range.

The C02 injection is one of these: http://www.theaquariumshop.co.uk/ishop/1029/shopscr355.html

Which looking at it is too small for my tank, which is 180 litres. Is it better to add another unit or start again with a DIY system?

My nitrates are NEVER high, never have been. Is there anyway to bring them up without suppliments? If not can you recommend something suitable?

Lovely pictures by the way Jim, just the sort of thing I am aiming for...
 
thanks for the compliment.

firstly the left side of my sig is a Juwel Rio 180 (180 Litres, same as yours)

that has 2 Co2 units identical to yours (they do up to 20 gallons each i think) so yes buy another.

the 4000K is perfect.

i have 4 tubes

3000K
4000K
6000K
7500K

replace the 10,000K with something around 7500 (Arcadia Freshwater tube is perfect) and another at about 6000K (hagen do something not sure which one though) if you haven't already, fit reflectors to all tubes.


My nitrates are NEVER high, never have been. Is there anyway to bring them up without suppliments? If not can you recommend something suitable?

yes but i'll get moaned at... add more fish.

the trick is to have anough poo in the tank for nitrates to sit at 12.5 without rising above this value. too many fish and the plants wont be able to keep the nitrate level stable, too few and you need to add dry fertaliser (which i really cant be bothered with).

follow my advice very carefully though as i dont know your current stocking levels. adding one big poo machine (bala Shark, Plec etc..) will likley throw the whole lot off balance. a few neons or cories however would raise the level gradually
 
Sun-Glo is 4200K and Aqua-Glo is stated as 18000K. Both are not ideal for growing plants as neither is full-spectrum nor high output. Colour temp. is less important than most people think. Intensity is more important and as long as the bulb doesn't have too much blue light then most full-spectrum bulbs are fine. I have had good results with 3000K up to (stated) 14000K.

The Life-Glo is the best Hagen tube - 6700K and full-spectrum, high output.

Check out my lighting article for more detail - http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=96754
 
Thanks for the input, looks like another trip to the fish shop this weekend!

My tank is well stocked at the moment, not over stocked, but the load on the filter is fine, so maybe a small shoal of tetra / adding more Killifish would work well.

2 X New tubes = £20
1 X CO2 unit = £20
5 X Killifish = £6

Why couldn't I have picked something cheaper to get addicted to!

:dunno:
 
What do you think about adding some peat to the filter, would this make any difference or would it need to be under the gravel to be of any use to the plants?

Also, is it better to add Nitrates or add more fish? I suppose more fish would be a more stable method. Would intentionally over feeding work?
 
People usually only add peat under a substrate only if its a special plant substrate, flourite, ecocomplete or gravel mixed with laterite, and even then its only a sprinkling, it sort of acts as an activator to mature the substrate a bit better, if you just have ordinary gravel it wont make any difference.

Others use it to try and lower the Ph of hard water, but this can be unpredictable, and if you are useing co2 charts they make them less reliable.

Personally i would add potassium nitrate to up my nitrate levels, as you can control this more easily, but some get by with fish alone.

Some people also use the fish food, but again you dont have that much control, and im not convinced of the benifits.
 
K, I'm not an expert on lighting specs etc etc.
But, I can tell you this based on my experience with hagen tubes:

Lifeglo tubes suck.

:blink:
 
Well I only have Hagen at the moment, as they came with the tank. I'll buy whichever on this list the LFS on my way home from work stocks, ideally a cold white one:

Dennerle - Special-Plant 3000K Warm, yellow/orange
Hagen - Life-Glo 6700K Bright, cool white
Arcadia - Freshwater Lamp 7500K Cool white/green
Zoo Med - Tropic-Sun 5500K Warm white
Zoo Med - Ultra-Sun 6500K Bright Cool white
Interpet - Triton/Triplus 8300K Bright white/purple
Interpet - Daylight Plus 6500K Cool white
 
Just remembered I ad this tea-bag thing in that was supposed to remove Nitrates.

Had completely forgotten it was there.... :*)

Will hold fire on adding any for a few days.
 
@ombomb said:
Why couldn't I have picked something cheaper to get addicted to!

:dunno:
[snapback]845128[/snapback]​

You want an expensive hobby? try motorsport. I bought an eight year old car for over £10k and a year later sold it for £8500. In that time I spent over £5000 on maintenance and it did about 12mpg around town.

WK


P.S.
I also crashed it and lost a big chunk of my 9 years no claims bonus! Fish keeping is relatively harmless to my wallet!
Also found out I'm going to be a father to twins next year. Now THAT'S goin to be an expensive hobby!
 

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