leggy stem plants

[Iain Sutherland]

glad i could help Tim. BBA has been my aquascaping partner for a long time now and it still hides in the background waiting for an opportunity. I am now working up a theory which seems to be proving right that even something as inconspicuous as not topping up my tank for 2 or 3 days will in induce BBA to jump out from behind the curtain, which im assuming is because there is greater surface agitation so more off gassing, as such fluctuating co2.
I already realised the hard way that turning up my pump which runs the reactor will also induce it, again only anecdotal but think the higher flow rate reduced the dissolution of the co2 in the reactor as more gets pushed through as bubbles. It seems obvious now but took me a week of head scratching to remember what i had done that may have caused it, then tried it again... bingo BBA!

Anyway apologies for going off topic for a minute Paul.

 

[paulsouthuk]

I think I see. The less light the less CO2 demand and nutrient demand. The less the algae and the better the plants grow. I have a hood over the tank so could only raise the tubes by an inch or two really. Would the plants really be ok with only one T5 tube? Right desicion made I have tons of algae so I will create more flow and i'll take a reflector off one tube and see how we go. I'm really looking for a panacea but beginning to realise all i need to do is think what the plants need.

 

[Iain Sutherland]

why not remove both reflectors? it will go a long way to making your life easier. My 300ltr runs just 2 x 24w t5's for 7 hours a day only supplemented by 1x 150w halide for 3 hours and really high up, youll be surprised how little light plants need once they have enough co2 and ferts.
If you consider the environment they come from, a lot of the plants we use are shaded for a lot of the day with just a few hours of direct light when the sun is high in the sky.

Your decision is right though, look after the plants and algae will usually subside.

 

[paulsouthuk]

took off the reflectors and didn't see much difference. removed the plant pro now. Will use a photo period of 8 hours and use my 1000nd tile to supplement for a couple of hours. I'm dosing with EI macro NPK and micro. I test nitrate phosphate and iron. Will I see the uptake with my hagen test kit. I followed instructions and overdosed so I've put the tank on a break from dosing until the levels come down. I do 50% water change with ro water every week. I dream of growing riccia fluitans will it be ok with low light?

 

[Stitch]

This has turned into a great thread with plenty of good information.

Also nice link to the Atomiser thread as well.

Cheers.

Paul - I'm pretty much in the same situation as you right now and learning a lot from here.

From what i've read and been told, don't try to think of it as "low light". Think of it as "enough light". The main important items to get right first are co2, ferts and flow. Until these are right light should be at a minimum (4 to 6 hours a day, only run half the bulbs and no refections etc).

Lighting is the last thing to increase. Once you have the co2, ferts and flow going well, with no algae, then it's time to slowly increase the lights.

This is where I get a bit stuck myself (as i'm not quite there yet ) but I believe increasing the lights at this point will also increase demand for the other 3 so you'll have to keep an eye on that. ie: More light = more CO2. In addition to this I think plant mass plays a part too, so more plants = more co2 / ferts etc. (although if you're EI dosing then don't worry about the ferts).

Anyway, one thing I have found out is to do things very slowly. A big jump in co2, ferts, flow or lights at this point could send you back to square 1.

Hope I don't get shot down now for bad information.

 

[tim]

took off the reflectors and didn't see much difference. removed the plant pro now. Will use a photo period of 8 hours and use my 1000nd tile to supplement for a couple of hours. I'm dosing with EI macro NPK and micro. I test nitrate phosphate and iron. Will I see the uptake with my hagen test kit. I followed instructions and overdosed so I've put the tank on a break from dosing until the levels come down. I do 50% water change with ro water every week. I dream of growing riccia fluitans will it be ok with low light?

I wouldn't cut dosing mate your plants will eventually have no food left cutting lights is good improve flow and co2 levels EI is there to provide an excess so ferts are one less thing to worry about they certainly won't cause algae remove as much algae as possible then carry out a water change more than once a week if you can algae will subside eventually good luck with it all mate

 

[ceg4048]

I test nitrate phosphate and iron. Will I see the uptake with my hagen test kit. I followed instructions and overdosed so I've put the tank on a break from dosing until the levels come down. I do 50% water change with ro water every week. I dream of growing riccia fluitans will it be ok with low light?

This is the second worst thing you can do in a planted tank. You need to stop testing. It is a waste of time will not help you to grow Riccia any better. You also do not need to use RO water because that isn't any better for plants than plain old tap water.

Cheers,

 

[paulsouthuk]

hi ceg I live in a hard water area notorious for heavy metals in the tap water. I keep amano shrimp and quite a few tropical fish in the planted tank. Thats why I use ro. I do agree with the testing though. I've had a feeling for a while that they aren't that acurate. Thank you all for the info. I'm going to see how the lower light increased flow sorts things out over the next few weeks.

 

[paulsouthuk]

I can't grow riccia at all. it goes fluffy then brown and then white. Hopefully the better flow will sort that out and supply more CO2 to the riccia.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I live in a hard water area notorious for heavy metals in the tap water

You can ignore any heavy metals if your water is hard, any spare metal ions (Cu++, Zn++, Pb++) will form insoluble carbonates with the HCO3- ions in the water, even if you live in Shipham you are fairly safe. Are you using well water? if do you are OK in the UK, but you might have high arsenic (As) etc levels if you live in the USA. Actually you can ignore heavy metal ions if you use tap water anywhere in the UK, as the EU limits are really tight now and the tap water has ortho-phosphates (PO4-) added to precipitate out any metal ions as the similarly insoluble Pb etc phosphate complexes.

I can't grow riccia at all.

Let it float, it is practically ineradicable floating and doesn't care about pH levels, hardness or nutrients. I grow it, I'll rephrase that, it grows in all my tanks, all low tech, low fertiliser, no CO2.

cheers Darrel