Plant problems

[kty]

Hi there. I'm hoping someone can advise me. I was advised to change my lighting in my tank which I have about a week ago but things are getting good worse with my plants. I have plant substrate under the Gravel and I add a monthly nutrient liquid. I also give 2 boosts of co2 per day. The light I bought is an interpet daylight bulb which said it was for fish and plant growth. I have a 140ltr tropical tank and the light is a 30 inch and I think 24w. Any advice would be great. My fish are thriving by the way and my guppies are breading like mad. I have attached photos. X

 

[SnailPocalypse]

Is it flourescent?Really you could just go to Lowes and buy a 6500k or 5000k bulb that is flourescent and your plants would be fine.

 

[StevenF]

lighting and CO2 are seldom a problem for plants. Most plant growth problems are macro and micro nutrient deficiencies. What liquid nutrient are you adding to your tank (brand name, and contents as listed on the label)? With that information I might be able to advise you further.

 

[Byron]

There are other threads on aspects of this same issue.
http://www.fishforums.net/posts/3762405/
http://www.fishforums.net/threads/how-much-light.444609/

The initial issue was light, see above threads. The second was the latest, and we didn't finish for some reason. You need to keep all this together to get advice that will help.

Byron.

 

[kty]

Thank you again Byron. I'm still getting used to thus forum and I didn't see your latest comments on my last post. I think I have a T8 fitting for my strip light so have found this http://www.arcadia-aquatic.com/classica-led-lamp/ I was thinking of the tropical 30" one. What do you think? I have a 140ltr 36" tank. I don't want to buy anything else unless I know it's right.

 

[Byron]

That link is something new to me, LED lighting in a T8 tube. I don't want to lead you astray, so I won't say much about it. I would however consider only the Sunlight LED 8000K as anywhere near suited (the others are all out) but this is still lacking the red and I frankly doubt it would work. You may see the red in the Tropical and wonder, but this is 10,700K and I have used 10000K and 11000K tubes in combo with 6500K and found algae problematical because of so much blue and so little red and green. Personally I would forget any of these.

So back to your 30-inch T8 tube over a 3-foot 140 liter (36 gallon) tank. This is what I had over my 33g, which was also 3 feet. With a Life-Glo T8 tube, 30 inches, 25 watts, I grew some lovely plants. Low and some moderate light requiring plants, like swords, Java Fern, Java Moss, crypts, Anubias, and floating. I'll attach a few photos of this tank over the years, it has changed a lot as I went with different aquascapes, but the plants in these photos all thrived in this tank for months and even a few years. The tube was a Hagen Life-Glo (may be Life-Glo 2 now), 30-inch, 25w, on for 8 hours daily.

 

[kty]

Thank you . I will look into that.

 

[kty]

Hi Byron.
I have found the hagen life glo. And they seem to be advising that I use it in combination with the Hagen flora glo which I don't mind doing if it will be better. I'll just need to buy a double fitting that's all. What do you think. X

 

[Byron]

Hi Byron.
I have found the hagen life glo. And they seem to be advising that I use it in combination with the Hagen flora glo which I don't mind doing if it will be better. I'll just need to buy a double fitting that's all. What do you think. X

Two things. First on the Flora-Gro...no. This is not a particularly good tube. I know what they are thinking, but they are not really on track. I'll come back to this.

Second thing, a dual fixture...this may not be so easy to find, depending where you live. The fixture over my 33g which takes the same tube died a couple months back (I'd had it since 1995, the ballast gave out). I could not find these anywhere, online or stores. I finally went to Home Depot and got a shop light taking two 24-inch tubes, and managed to fit this into the empty housing. If you're mechanically expert this is not difficult...I am not, and it was not at all easy, but I had no choice, and I finally got it. Remember that two tubes means more light, so this can sometimes be problematical. However, it does increase plant options.

Now, back to the dual tubes. Plants need red and blue light to photosynthesis; red is the more important of the two. Studies have proven that adding green light to this mix also improves plant response, considerably. The Life-Glo tube is high in red, blue and green. The Kelvin is the colour temperature, and at 6700K it is very close to sunlight. So on its own, the Life-Glo is perfect light for aquatic plants. And the colour rendition is true.

The Flora-Gro is high in red and blue, period. This casts a purplish hue which some like; I don't. It is also for some reason much weaker light, which is why on its own it would not be sufficient. It may be the total absence of green light. But these Flora or Aqua type tubes do not work well.

Combining tubes can be good. On my tanks where I have two tubes, I use one 6500K (or Life-Glo 6700K) and for the second either another the same or one slightly warmer (warm means more red, less blue; cool means the opposite). My larger tanks have one 6500K and one 5000K and are perfect. I have tried the Aqua- type with the 6500K and it didn't work. It also looked horrible.

 

[kty]

Brilliant thanks for that. I'll order the life glo and hope it does the trick.
Thank you for being patient. X

 

[DoubleDutch]

The plant in the first pic looks like Java Fern. That one shouldn't be planted.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G925F met Tapatalk

 

[StevenF]

While the discussion of lighting is helpful to improving your aquarium, In every picture you have posted I see significant evidence of a nutritent deficiency. If that nutrient deficiency is not corrected no amount of lighting improvement will help. A good fertilizer to use is Seachem Flourish comprehensive. What is your monthly nutrient you are adding to plants. Also if you are using a liquide CO2 boster be advised that it can damage some plants and it can kill everything in your tank if you don't correctly follow the directions from the manufacture. What are the brands of the nutrient and CO2 you are adding?

 

[kty]

Just to update. I added my new light last week and I am already seeing signs of new growth. Thank you Byron for all your help.

 

[Byron]

Just to update. I added my new light last week and I am already seeing signs of new growth. Thank you Byron for all your help.

Light is the primary issue, always. I have had healthy plants in tanks with no additives (depends upon plant species) but you cannot grow plants without sufficient light. You will need fertilizers here, but the light was the first thing to fix.

 

[DutchMuch]

While the discussion of lighting is helpful to improving your aquarium, In every picture you have posted I see significant evidence of a nutritent deficiency. If that nutrient deficiency is not corrected no amount of lighting improvement will help. A good fertilizer to use is Seachem Flourish comprehensive. What is your monthly nutrient you are adding to plants. Also if you are using a liquide CO2 boster be advised that it can damage some plants and it can kill everything in your tank if you don't correctly follow the directions from the manufacture. What are the brands of the nutrient and CO2 you are adding?

Hate to say it but Byron only helped with certain aspects that really aren't detrimental for the most part. Steven has been asking the questions we absolutely need answered and you have been avoiding them completely.

• What fertilizers are you dosing?
• What is your dosing regime?
• Dry or liquid?
• Lighting currently?
• Plant list?
• Stock?
• parameters?
• Do you have pressurized Co2?

Where there is water, there is life. And usually there is darkness where that life is, most aquatic plants aren't even aquatic. They grow on shores and such so lighting is either Very low, or very high with unlimited Co2.