Problem With Plants.

[Aj321]

My plants mainly hygro and wisteria, towards the bottom to the middle all the leaves are gone and its only on the stems left... Where as its only the top thats growing... (If that makes sense) haha

Anyone have any idea why this is?

I have a 29g tank with 40watts of light
Any advice that anyone has would be great

 

[Aj321]

Anyone?

 

[danski]

maybe you dont have enough light for the plants..i run 85watts over my 29gallon..

 

[SuperColey1]

I have a 29g tank with 40watts of light

You may have listed your own problem, although under this lighting you should still be able to grow the plants in question quite nicely.

Are the plants in question surrounted by other plants and therefore the light only reaches the top leaves?

Stem plants should be planted approx 1 inch apart and that way most of the leaves will get 'some'

Its often quite normal that a plant may be bare where you have another shorter plant.

I wouldn't worry too much of the plant is growing OK.

Cut the part with leaves off just below a node and replant.

andy

 

[Aj321]

Thanx for your help guys. Yea andy the plants are planted about an inch apart but i think its what you said the light just isnt gettting to the bottom. I should have mentioned that its a 29g high tank if that makes any difference?

I was looking though ebay for new lights and saw this not sure wether it is worth getting? BEcause my plants are growing about a cm every 2 weeks so i think i might need to up my lighting.

Would this be a good choice?
http/cgi.ebay.com.au/Aquarium-Tank-Light...1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[SuperColey1]

The tank in my signature is a Fluval Duo Deep 800 (125Ltr tall)

The hood is the original one. See my journal for how I modded my lights.

I'm not really a fan of luminaires really. I like my water to be closed off from any flies, moths etc that like light and also it stops any contaminents like aerosold drifting their spray into there.

Andy

 

[Aj321]

Im probably going to sound really stupid but what did you do? Just changed the globes to Arcadia Original Tropical Lights? And a freshwater one? Do you have any idea where i could get them sent from to australia?

 

[SuperColey1]

I opened the cover on top of the tank.
Disposed of the single 30W ballast powering the 2x18W tubes
Put in a single 18W electronic ballast that I bought off ebay and snipped the cables half way to it's end caps
Cut the cables on all the hoods end caps.
Put the existing power cable into the new ballast.
twist and taped the end cap cables from the new ballast to the end cap cable to the front 18W.

Now a single 18W T8 on an 18W ballast instead of 2 x 18W on a 30W magnetic ballast.

Then I nut and bolted the rear reflector to the lid and also nut and bolted the clips for a PC 55W through the hood.

Hence 18W and 55W independant on timers for a 2 hour 18W dawn dusk period either side of 8 hours at 73W

The pic in the sig is just 18W at dusk freshwater.

Andy

 

[Aj321]

Also with the compacts couldnt i just put them on top of the glass like a normal light? Sorry i know nothing really about lights lol

 

[SuperColey1]

I have no glass. Open tank with the plastic hood that came with it. My mod of the lighting is on page 6. You read the part early on where I replaced the trash tubes that came with the tank. lol

Andy

 

[Aj321]

Im sorta understanding what you have done... lol sorry Im really bad when it comes to these things and can never find this stuff that you have used in australia... Maybe my lack of knowledge is holding me back from finding it?

The tank i have doesnt have a hood on it it just has glass lids.

Im not sure whether i will be building a hood for it just yet but do you have any suggestions on what i could do without a hood? Or could i do what you did? Or would the compacts that i posted earlier be best for me to go for?

Sorry for all the questions...

 

[danski]

im not a handyman by ant sort so i just purchased a coralife freshwater aqualight with 6700k bulbs...

 

[Aj321]

Im alright when i knwo what im doing... But i think without a hood im pretty limited.

Is it possible to put the power compacts straight onto glass?

 

[Aj321]

Just realised that i dont have any reflectors on my tanks so i cut out some foil and put it in there hopefully that can help shed some more light

 

[SuperColey1]

You just get a luminaire I suppose. Or buy an old or new hood and mod that. Or hang the lights from the ceiling. There are many options really. But I Wouldn't put any light directly onto the glass.

andy