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expectations / actions correct?

plantnoob

plantnoob

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27 Apr 2010
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502
some tank specs 1st . fluval roma 240 so 4ft 240L , lighting standard roma 2x40w t8 , soil substrate capped with sand . no pressurised co2 . planted the tank saturday and as expected leaves are starting to suffer . this i put down to the plants having to adapt from emeresed growth to submersed growth . nothing too major at the moment but deffinately happening . am i right in thinking that because they are in a non co2 injected tank , that this transition is going to be harder on them and therefore i can expect a fair bit more melt , but as long as new shoots show as well all should eventually be well? also just to check what i doing at this stage of things is along the right lines . photoperiod is being kept down to 6 hours . dosing 10ml of neutro co2 daily (twice the reccomeded dose o the bottle) and 25ml of neutro+ daily which is around 50% more than bottle suggests . at the same time im trying to not pull and cut at the plants too much but any leaves that are really bad im removing . for example the aponogeton ulvaceus did have 4 leaves around 3 or 4 inches but the completely melted so i removed them and now it is producing new growth already . in fact surprisingly quickly given the relative low energy of my system .
 
Take an hour off the lighting duration.
Maybe blank off one tube too
 
timer changed . looking for something to block 1 tube with
 
I dont think light is too much. Photoperiod of 6 hours ought to be fine as well unless you start seeing algae.

What I do to prevent melting at first is I add quite a big dose of ferts, maybe 30 ppm nitrates and 4 ppm phosphates. Remember that at first you dont have much organic matter leaching nutrients so you haveto add more. The more there is the better ypur plants can cope with low co2 levels.. Another thing is your plants dont have an stablished root system so the nutrients have to be in the water column in high ammounts so that they can gather them.
 
Today i added double dose of ferts . No algae at the moment and only a small amount of melt.
 
thanks jose.yes little update and question too . sagitaria subulata taking well , echinodorus xinguensis went yellow at 1st but looks to be bouncing back . in fact its now thrown out a long shoot , but this shoot looks knothing like a leaf and more like a flower stalk . not even sure if they flower , or not. best way i can escribe it is a dark green stem around 3 inches long with a "bud" on the end. java fern looks a bit sorry , but not overly concerned ax the rhizome looks ok . crypts have melted a little but seem to have new growth sprouting through too . thr echindorus rose i got was huge , easilly 18 inches , i fact i was able to split a smaller plant from it , which has a new leaf coming through that looks nice and healthy.touch woodnno agae as of yet either

now for the question . the aponogeton ulvaceous had 4 small leaves when i got it which were a bit ropey looking so i removed them and planted the bulb 2/3 in the substrate. it has sine sent outn3 new shoots . now the shoots are nice and green but the leaves open up brown . any idead?
 
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I dont have experience with aponogeton ulvaceus but brown colour seems odd in such an overall green plant. My advice is that you find out how much you are dosing in ppms or mg/l. there are calculators on the net where you can find this out for any type of fert almost. Sometimes the recommended dose is miles away from what is considered enough.
Sagitaria sabulata reproduces by sending out side shoots. A new plant should grow from the tip of what you describe.
The aponogeton might have a bacterial infection but this is total guessing.
 
il see ifni can find out using a calculator the ppms im getting a if i can il post it here . il probably end up investing in some dry salts before too long
 
It's quite common, that the first leaves to appear on a newplanted Aponogeton-bulb are damaged. This is because they're "pre-made" and damaged during storage. Wait a little, and see if the next leaves are better. Leaves, that are damaged should be removed - they will not recover.
Some types of Aponogeton produce leaves, that start out "brown-ish" in colour, and then turn green.....but that is not the case for the standard Aponogeton ulvaceus.
 
thanks Mick il remove them and see what the next ones are like .
 
plantnoob said:
il see ifni can find out using a calculator the ppms im getting a if i can il post it here . il probably end up investing in some dry salts before too long
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I wouldnt spend more money on ferts cause I believe neutro+ is just the same salts as what you would buy if you bought for example the EI kit. You can just use what you have specially in a low tech. Once plants adapt to the new environment you dont have to dose much. This is why it would be good to know composition so that you can adapt the dose to a liquid carbon enriched tank. i think this is the main drawback of most ferts, that you have to take their word for it, and this is not religion, its science and every tank has a different uptake. I cant understand why they wouldnt say composition, its not like they are inventing something new. Ferts are just ferts whether they are £5 or £30 the bottle.
 
yeah . AE wont reveal the makeup of the neutro ferts . main reason for thinking about switching to dry salts is how much cheaper it works out long term .
 
plantnoob said:
AE wont reveal the makeup of the neutro ferts . main reason for thinking about switching to dry salts is how much cheaper it works out long term
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True, and you can just dose dry with spoons. No need to prepare solutions. Less space. No micro ferts going bad or anything either. And you know how much you are dosing. Its all benefits. It turns out Tom Barr was right all the way:lol:.
 
il use up the neutro+ ive got over the christmas period and then order the ei starter kit and measuring spoons when it starts running low
 
the aponogeton has since sent out 3 new leaves , all of which opened up brown and were removed even though they still grew when brown . another leaf is opening up today and touch wood it appears green. another shoot sprouting too so hopefully its ready to blossom .
 
aponogeton still rather annoyingly throwing out brownish leavez
 
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