Poor Growth

[KPD]

Hi all
I'm hoping that someone can suggest a likely cause for some poor plant growth in my tank.

The growth I'm currently getting is slow, and the most notable characterisitic is that the new leaves of the Aponogeton crispus grows in pale, slightly pink and deformed. Older growth looks OK, but slow growth has allowed for hair algae to move in. Many of the other blade-leafed plants are also covered in hair algae, whereas the frilly-leafed plants such as cabomba don't seem to do as badly.

The tank is about 10 months old with 3" mixture of sand and a clay-gravel planting base with some laterite added. I use carbon-filtered tap water to top up (pH~7.5, TDS about 350). I do around 10% to 20% water changes each week...EI isn't really practical for me as the tank is ~620 litres. My nitrates are high at about 40ppm, but my tap water seems to be about 30ppm, so I just have to live with this. Lighting is t5 at about 1.5W/gallon, plus some natural light as the tank is in a conservatory.

I add iron about once per week to bring the level up to about 0.5ppm (although it appears to drop to about 0.1ppm by the next day). Phosphates I don't have a kit for at the moment, but I would have thought that they were quite high, given that I feed the fish and the plants arn't growing to remove them. I would have thought that most of the minerals would be OK as my water is very hard....but I don't know for sure.

Sorry about the essay...any suggestions of what I should try would be great
Thanks
Kev

 

[blue acara]

You dont mention co2, are u adding any?

 

[aaronnorth]

1.5wpg of T5 is a lot on your size tank, your plants are probably starved of CO2 & nutrients.

Why isnt EI suitable? it is designed to help reduce costs of larger aquaria, i wouldnt wanting to be buying something like tropica plant nutrition @ £15 to last you a couple of week!!

 

[SuperColey1]

Aaron - Practical as in 310ltr water changes. Thats 26 buckets in my house. lol and then 26 back replacing it (52 ouch.) I would say the same as this user. I left EI because 5 (10) buckets was more than I could be bothered with. lol

I would suggest looking at other regimes where lower water changes would suffice, or getting a python thingy and going for the EI. That is if you're not on a water meter.

Ac

 

[KPD]

Aaron - Practical as in 310ltr water changes. Thats 26 buckets in my house. lol and then 26 back replacing it (52 ouch.) I would say the same as this user. I left EI because 5 (10) buckets was more than I could be bothered with. lol

I would suggest looking at other regimes where lower water changes would suffice, or getting a python thingy and going for the EI. That is if you're not on a water meter.

Ac

I'm on a water meter...but I don't mind that. My problem is more a case of having to warm up around 300ltr of water for each water change.

I'm adding CO2...but with the lack of growth I'm getting I'd say that it wasn't really needed until I get whatever the real problem is sorted.

It seems to me (bearing in mind that I know very little about growing aquarium plants) that I have either an excess of something or a shortage of something that is preventing the plants growing. A bit of a hunt around on the internet suggests that calcium shortage might produce pale and deformed new growth....but this doesn't seem very likely given how hard my water is.

By the way...shortly after starting my tank up I joined this forum and posted a couple of questions. I mentioned that my last tank had been a reef tank (and a very sucessful one) and someone suggested that keeping a planted tank should be easy in comparison......they were wrong

The main success with the tank so far has been that I have 4 RTBS's living in harmony....this never seemed to work in smaller tanks.
Kev

 

[aaronnorth]

Aaron - Practical as in 310ltr water changes. Thats 26 buckets in my house. lol and then 26 back replacing it (52 ouch.) I would say the same as this user. I left EI because 5 (10) buckets was more than I could be bothered with. lol

I would suggest looking at other regimes where lower water changes would suffice, or getting a python thingy and going for the EI. That is if you're not on a water meter.

A

you could always rig up a water changer get a water pump of ebay £10 pump it out, then get a hosepipe to fill it back up! sorted

I'm on a water meter...but I don't mind that. My problem is more a case of having to warm up around 300ltr of water for each water change.

it doesnt matter about heating it, aslong as it isnt freezing cold then it should be finie.

the only thing i know of that excess can cause damage is sodium (Na) it can stop the uptake of magnesium & calcium but unless you add Na then it wont be this!

planted tanks can be esy, it dpends on your set up, if you go low tec then you will only have to dose minimal amounts, no co2, and chop a few leaves of every week! perfect for some

 

[SuperColey1]

Planted tanks are funny really. You can buy everything you need without skimping, get the dosing and CO2 sorted correctly. Have all the equipment laid out the same as another identical tank. Then 1 plant in yours grows differently to the other tank and instantly the flow is different between the 2. lol

You need the CO2 wether the plants are growing or not. You have high light for a large tank and therefore removing the CO2 will not allow you to access what you are defficient on. Excess will not have caused any algae.

Hard Water can be almost totally from Magnesium as equally it can be from Calcium. I would however guess that in virtually the whole of the UK Calcium is high in the water. Boron, Iron and CO2 defficiency can produce similar results.


I would suggest initially that it is a mixture of a dosing and CO2 problem.

The dosing problem is easy to correct. I always recommend the following dosing regime but in your case it does fit in with lower water changes.
http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/PMDD.htm

Then we come to CO2. What filtration are you using on the tank? total lph? What colour is your DC showing etc. the more details given the better. If the filter/circulation is not good enough this will also affect the delivery of nutrient to the plant.

Can I ask why you are filtering out the carbon from the tap water before putting it in the tank?

AC

 

[KPD]

I would suggest initially that it is a mixture of a dosing and CO2 problem.

The dosing problem is easy to correct. I always recommend the following dosing regime but in your case it does fit in with lower water changes.
[URL="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/PMDD.htm"]http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/PMDD.htm[/URL]

Then we come to CO2. What filtration are you using on the tank? total lph? What colour is your DC showing etc. the more details given the better. If the filter/circulation is not good enough this will also affect the delivery of nutrient to the plant.

Can I ask why you are filtering out the carbon from the tap water before putting it in the tank?

AC

Filtration is an Eheim 2250, which claims to be OK for ~1000ltrs. Its filled mainly with siporax. Water movement around the tank is from the filter return and a 1400lph powerhead. I have loads more powerheads if they are needed from the old reef tank.

The DC is spot on green. I use two carbon cartridges (granular and block) to remove chlorine from the tap water before adding to the tank.

I'd be a bit concerned about doing a 50% water change without heating the water....the plants might not mind but my fish might. My tap water is about 10oC to 15oC depending on the time of year, which would bring the tank down to around 19oC to 21oC .

I think the nearest I can get to the size of water changes needed would be to rig up some kind of autochanger that did a 75ltr change each day. This would give me a 50% change each week, but not in the one big reset change for EI. Do you think this would work? My tap water had nitrates of around 30ppm though...so this is never going to be lower than this.
Kev

 

[aaronnorth]

the water changer wont work for EI, when you do a water change, you need to add the nutrients you have taken out so it wouldnt be suitable,

 

[KPD]

the water changer wont work for EI, when you do a water change, you need to add the nutrients you have taken out so it wouldnt be suitable,

Could I add them manually each day after the water change?

 

[aaronnorth]

it might be bettr to do 3 x w/c every week then add the nutrients back on the days likee you are supposed to?