ceg4048 said:
Oooh..I love picture number 1 mate. Why did you let it go postal?
Cheers,
Well, one week I just have been lazy, than next two weeks I have been on holiday, and when I came back from holiday and have seen what hapend to the tank, I just needed one more week to gain mental strength to deal with this mess.
It took me almost whole day to put this back right. That's not the normal way for me to run the tank, but everybody has time of weakness from time to time
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Garuf said:
...0.5wpg strikes me as very low to have such good growth!
I'am not sure why I have such a good grow in my tank, as many of my friends have more light and poorer grow, and they are not limiting nutrients dosing as well.
My theory is, that my tank is truly only light limited. Adding more light is causing bigger CO2 instability and probably there is a short time of CO2 limitation each day during a photoperiod. Even if CO2 limitation is short lived plant will need some time (don't know maybe 15 min. to few hours) to recover/adjust. Add this daily lost time of growth together and this will affect growth rate over say 1 week period. But it is just my theory, I dont have any proofs to support this, but I can't think about other reasons science nutrients are not limited than more light should give more growth. If it's not the case than difference probably is coming from CO2 mild limitation, which is not affecting plant general condition, but is affecting plant growth rate I think.
Garuf said:
...what were you running light and filter wise?
I use 10 hours straight photoperiod, but full power only for 8 hours. For first and last hour of photoperiod I use only 50% of light.
This is Fluval Viacenza 180 liters tank, and I use filter which came with the set, Fluval 205 (680 l/h) I only added better filter media. I also added small arcadia internal filter as CO2 diffusor/reactor and circulator (200 l/h) - see picture below - and I was using this configuration over one year with no problems with rather poor flow. I have added hydor2 pump 2-3 months ago, but more as a new toy rather than solution to some problems, but clearly my eleocharis acicularis carpet is benefiting from better flow, but this flow is not affecting taller steam plants.
Rate of flow is related to light. If there is less light than less flow will be required or sometime you can balance poor flow adding more ferts and CO2. For me "typical" EI dosing never worked great, and I have always used 150% EI dosing to keep my plants happy, despite my low light level, and I think it was related to poor flow in the tank.
flaviu.vlaicu said:
The thing is that I wanted to make a carpet either from Hemianthus Cuba or from Glossostigma and with my only 2 fluorescent tubes the hemianthus for example is not growing in the sides ,instead is growing upwards.I was thinking that when I insert another tube to let the 2 tubes that I have now run till a specific hour and after that to start the third tube when the photosinsesis process is at it's peak.
Hemianthus is not light demanding and I know aquarists who keep this plant with light at about 0.3 W/l. To make carpet from hemiantus you need prune this plant often, every week practically. I can't comment on glossostigma as I never had this plant, but because your tank is shallow (30cm) I think it should be not a problem to keep glosso at 0.5 W/l with good and stable CO2 and adequate amount of nutrients of course.
I think, that adding too much light is the most common mistake done by new hobbists, and there is long story behind this. Running planted tank with just enough amount of light is much, much ..... much easier. Listen to an old man
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Edit:
If you've got some money to spend than bay solenoid for your CO2 system instead of additional light, it will be much wiser investment.