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whats wrong plants not doing as well at all

tovtm

tovtm

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Joined
2 Jan 2011
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249
Hi ive been trying my hand at a planted tank for the past 6 months now but it looks pretty much like it was when i first started, no rapid growth and if anything a decline on health of plants.

currently my set up is as follows


125ltr tank which house my discus breeding pair, corgys x6 tetra x 16 and two bolivian rams.
have two 4' t8 40w
cat litter substrate 2" deep
CO2 lights on checker is green-light green on at 12pm off at 8pm
lights on at 4pm off at 11pm
dosing EI Mon-fri (Mon,Wed,Fri 50ml, Tue,Thurs 25ml trace)

only think i can think of is light being the bulbs are above tank water 12" in an enclosed unit and inside of unit painted white no reflectors. any help much appreciated
 
in all honesty I don't know the names so will have to how you pictures instead. the first one looks like it's completely dead but only reason it's still in there is because there's loads of new shoots growing from the leaves
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ones I do know is small portion of riccia and about 10 crypts

hope this helps
 
a full tank shot would help more, but i think thats possibly down to flow and co2 distributionm and possibly ferts. are you mixing the ferts yourself, if so how much of each dry powders are you putting into your mixes and with how much water etc.

are you using the spraybar with your filter? id try to get some fast growing stems in their to help too as the tank seems very scarce of plants
 
il take a full photo shot tonight. I have a 1400lh external filter with spray bar going the whole 4th of tank about 1/2" from surface of water. I do a 50% wc each week which is 100% RO water.

EI is as follows :
4 tsp KNO3
1.25 tsp KH2PO4
9 tsp MgSO4
Put all this in one bottle and add 600ml warm water and give it a shake.
I dose 50ml of this on days 1, 3 & 5

Add 1.25 tsp Trace to 200ml warm water, in a different bottle, and give that a shake too.
I dose 25ml of this on days 2 & 4.

what should I do with the new stems that's growing on the leaves pull them off and re plant them?
also what stems do you recommend for fast growing? I do have a TDS meter so will check that again tonight but I usually try to keep it below 200tds
 
So you have a couple o plants that are not consuming much and you are constantly building up nutrients in the tank.
Do a couple of large water changes to reset it and add any of the fast growing plants from this list:
http://www.tropica.com/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx
Try and plant it heavily.

Regarding the plants that you have, the first one bolbitis heteroclita, detach the babies and tie them to a stone or wood.

Mike
 
Hi all,
I agree with Mike.
Regarding the plants that you have, the first one bolbitis heteroclita, detach the babies and tie them to a stone or wood.
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I think it is B. heteroclita as well. It doesn't enjoy life under water, it is really a terrestrial fern.
I've got it in a terrarium and it grows well, but I've seen a photo with it floating on a raft and it did really well, so it may just need its leaves emersed.

I also think the one that looks like a cross between an Anubias and an Amazon Sword in the second photo is a Spathiphyllum, and they are definitely 100% terrestrial and unsuitable.

I'd try adding some proper aquatic stems or floaters, and see what happens.

Try an borrow a TDS meter and do a check.
Click to expand...
My thought as well, I think your EI fertiliser addition will contain a lot more nutrients than your plants are using potentially leading to the TDS continually increasing even with the 50% water change.

cheers Darrel
 
I do find it raises the tds quite quick actually, so as it stands as I don't have my tank filled with plants the excess nutriants is infect stopping growth?
 
Hi all,
I do find it raises the tds quite quick actually, so as it stands as I don't have my tank filled with plants the excess nutriants is infect stopping growth?
Click to expand...
Possibly, it would depend upon the combination of salts that is increasing over time. I'm not an expert on any of the parameters of high tech., so you'll need a reply from some-one with experience of high tech aquariums.

cheers Darrel
 
That species of Bolbitis is not for underwater.. The other looks like a spatylum, again emersed plant. The Crypts should do well.

Also, water temperature would be something to look at. I don't think that it is the excess ferts.

Why not get hygrophilas, larger crypts and some java ferns? There are lots for sale on the forum.

Also 100% RO water is a bit odd for plants, they do need some calcium, and some actually do well with slightly hard water.


.
 
still not home yet so will take a photo in half hour.

the only reason for my 100% RO is because I have discus im trying to keep the TDS down so only way for that was to do 50% WC with RO. what would recommended temp be if I have it a little high.
 
I believe that one of the main issues is that the areas the Discus are for there are no plants, lots of wood, and debris, but no plants. Very few plants survive at 28C for too long, and very few fish also, apart from Discus.

Maybe setup your tank somewhat diferently? Use lillies, floating plants and some emersed area?

Usually they are kept on a tank like this:
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what would be a ideal temputure? it wouldn't hurt to gradually turn temp down a little, pictures are taken in two pictures so I could get a little closer to the pictures
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You should consider making a bigger home for the discus, for its size I wouldn't make one smaller than 3-400l.
Also this kind of fish needs changing water often than once a week, in a tank as small as yours this should be done daily.
Regarding the water parameters you should match them with the breeding tank, ask the seller for that.
In my city for example discus are breed in hard water, ph ~8 and they are just fine.

Mike
 
there ok honest amitingly the tank is the smallest I can go for them but I done alot of reasearch and got a lot of advice over on ukdiscus forums.

so is my conclusion to get a lot more plants- has anyone brought the Aquatic Plant Collection 50 Easy to Grow Plants off eBay?
turn the temp down to 26 degrees? is my lighting ok?
 
You have a reasonably healthy sword in the right corner so I would say light is ok. As for lowering temperatures with Discus, I would be careful. Don't their immune systems lower under lower temps? I've never kept them so just going on what I've learnt on my travels.

I would remove all bad leaves and the non aquatics I think someone pointed out. You should be able to get away sticking with Echindorus species along with crypts as they are some of the toughest and may tolerate the higher temps. Vallis maybe another good contender. Around 27-28 degrees being the higher end of their preffered range
 
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