Why So Little Pearling..i Miss My Bubbles!

[katana750]

Just add what it says in the EI article because there is some K in both Pot Nitrate and Pot Phosphate which you are already adding.

The stuff from the plant shop should be as pure as the stuff from aquatics shops. The difference will be that the plant shop will sell it in granular form so you will have to crush it up with a spoon in a bowl or pommel and granite it etc.

You say using EI traces. What trace are you using?

Your defficiency suddenly sounds from your description like it may be magnesium!!! Try dosing epsom salts at an equal measure to the pot sulphate.

Andy

Ok I will try both
I use seachem flourish
I buy epsom salts at a pharmacy?

 

[SuperColey1]

yeah just standard epsom salts = magnesium sulphate

Heres a decent overview of defficiencies (this site also has dosing methods and algae IDs so quite useful):

Link to Plant Defficiencies

Flourish is fine for trace.

Andy

 

[katana750]

yeah just standard epsom salts = magnesium sulphate

Heres a decent overview of defficiencies (this site also has dosing methods and algae IDs so quite useful):

Link to Plant Defficiencies

Flourish is fine for trace.

Andy

Thanks I will check out the link right away.

 

[plant addict]

Ok here is a quick overview
120 gallon tank
4" of flourite substrate
6' long tank over the 4' portion 260 watts compact flourescent 80 watts t12
other 2' 30 watts t10??? all new bulbs 2-3 months old
80 percent planted mostly stem plants
less than 1" per gallon fish rule, but still quite a few fish
dosing with EI method Traces, npk no potassium sulfide, 50% water changes
bulk of lights on 10 hours a day
hard water but with co2 at 30ppm(4dkh solution) ph is about 6.8 leave co2 on 24h

In the beginning the plants pearled like crazy...now 2 months later the only pearling I really see is when I trim the top off a plant.

The plants look ok but in the beginning you could almost watch them grow. Now they grow much slower, and I have more algae

I must be lacking something, but what?

Its kind of like I had a car running with 4 hundred horse power now it has 2....still pretty cool but the wow fact is gone.

Where have I gone wrong

how often do you change your water?plants with added co2 need regular water changes maybe 1time aweek 50percent of water or every 2weeks 50 percent its a 20 gal with 4inches of just gravel about 25-30 platys a cory cat and the light is from my window,florida sun! oh yeah and a pleco to control the alge which just grows on the glass all natural you could say.

 

[katana750]

Ok here is a quick overview
120 gallon tank
4" of flourite substrate
6' long tank over the 4' portion 260 watts compact flourescent 80 watts t12
other 2' 30 watts t10??? all new bulbs 2-3 months old
80 percent planted mostly stem plants
less than 1" per gallon fish rule, but still quite a few fish
dosing with EI method Traces, npk no potassium sulfide, 50% water changes
bulk of lights on 10 hours a day
hard water but with co2 at 30ppm(4dkh solution) ph is about 6.8 leave co2 on 24h

In the beginning the plants pearled like crazy...now 2 months later the only pearling I really see is when I trim the top off a plant.

The plants look ok but in the beginning you could almost watch them grow. Now they grow much slower, and I have more algae

I must be lacking something, but what?

Its kind of like I had a car running with 4 hundred horse power now it has 2....still pretty cool but the wow fact is gone.

Where have I gone wrong

how often do you change your water?plants with added co2 need regular water changes maybe 1time aweek 50percent of water or every 2weeks 50 percent its a 20 gal with 4inches of just gravel about 25-30 platys a cory cat and the light is from my window,florida sun! oh yeah and a pleco to control the alge which just grows on the glass all natural you could say.

roughly 50% each week

 

[SuperColey1]

how often do you change your water?plants with added co2 need regular water changes maybe 1time aweek 50percent of water or every 2weeks 50 percent its a 20 gal with 4inches of just gravel about 25-30 platys a cory cat and the light is from my window,florida sun! oh yeah and a pleco to control the alge which just grows on the glass all natural you could say.

This is bad info. Plants do not need regular water changes. In fact you can run plants with CO2 and never change the water. The reason Katana needs 50% water changes is due to the fact she is using the EI method which should overdose the fertiliser with the heavy water change diluting the left over nutrients.

If you were to turn your CO2 off for 1 night and move your filter outlet to ripple the water then by the morning all the CO2 would be gone so I don't know where this advice came from.

Plants can live in unchanged water as long as the nutrients they require are delivered to them. In a natural setup where no ferts are added using the fish waste and left over food instead water changes are usually a no no as you then remove the nutrients with the water. CO2 can be run in these natural setups.

I run 30ppm of CO2 with a leaner dosing regime and water change 10-20% weekly. This is in a heavily stocked tank with 4 plecos, 2 Rams, 20 Cardinals and 3 Otos (2inches of fish per gallon!!!.) Fully planted of course. No problems.

Andy