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Melting glosso - not enough light?

scapegoat

scapegoat

Member
Joined
4 Nov 2012
Messages
134
Location
Norwich
HI all,

I recently set up a 250l high tech tank with injected co2, EI ferts, tropica substrate capped with play sand and a decent washing machine flow pattern from a spraybar. Heres the journal..'Maya Cenote' 250l jungle | UK Aquatic Plant Society

Now so far no major problems, most plants seem to be thriving and minimal algae (although I have just spotted a small amount of hair algae). However I'm beginning to think the tank is lacking light as the dwarf sag at the bottom now has leaves 6-8 inches long and the glosso which started growing ok has started melting. I can see them getting blown about in the current so i'm pretty sure its not lack of flow or Co2 (drop checker is yellowy green) and I've been dosing according to EI. This leaves me to believe I'm lacking lumens! The tank has not far off 0.5wpl (3x39w T5) however it is 60cm deep so would I be right in assuming this isn't your average 0.5wlp? I'm not too keen on ruining the balance that seems to be working for everything else so would adding extra light be a foolish thing to do?

I think my options would be to up the lighting or choose a less light demanding plant for the foreground, if so any suggestions?

thanks
Jacob
 
Yes, it would be incredibly foolish. Plants do not care about how many wpl you have. They only care about how much CO2 you have. Melting plants and hair algae is caused by too much light and not enough CO2.

Cheers,
 
I have had this problem too with glosso. Rather than spending money changing/ upping the light.try something else like you suggest. Saying that I have 220ltr cube 60 cm deep,i I was running 2x 300mm 8watt tubes. I am now running 2 x 24 watt 438mm tubes no idea how many watt per ltr that is but I'm sure its not intense. I wanted more light across the tank as the old tube were too short .A good foreground plant you may like is four leaf clover I'm having success with this at the moment , spreads nice and if lights not to bright it will still have single leaves bit like glosso. As it settles in you may even get 2,3 or four leaves. :)
 
Cheers for the advice guys

Ceg4048, It was the advice you and others had given on this forum on previous threads that made me question my lack of lumens theory so thanks for already averting disaster! ;) The thing that got me was some of the plant retailer's websites saying plants need X amount of watts per liter or that they require 'high light'. Instead of adding light I'll up the co2 and see how it goes, I haven't added any fish yet so can give it good push to get going.

Kap K, I was looking at other options last night and four leaf clover was one of the plants I was considering so its good to hear you're having success with it. :) I was also considering hairgrass, staurogyne repens and hydrocotyle tripartita. Would you recommend any of these? I'm hoping to go for the easier plants for the time being.

Jacob
 
Hey jacob, ignore retailers websites, its all part of the matrix to get you to part with your $$, 99% of the time it is co2 and light is usually the very last option after exhausting all other options.
Stauro tends to be a bit of a nemesis for many so if you want easy look at tennelus, lileopsis NZ or hair grass... hydrocotyle will grow in a toilet bowl with the lid down but is more fussy to get it to carpet.
 
Cheers Iain, definitely won't be adding extra light then. Is the lilaeopsis NZ similar to lilaeopsos mauritiana? Can the grassy foreground plants be mixed or will they grow better on their own? I like the idea of different plants growing around and between each other but don't know if this is a silly idea.
 
I have 6 different carpeting plants , I did have them mixed but seperated them into areas yesterday it now draws the eye around the tank more . They were all mixed up as I had plants arriving from members on here so I kept just putting them in until I had an idea of what I wanted to do.
 
Tap talk. This is this first pic I've put on here .
not the best pic, trying to get the hang of
 
y5u2eza9.jpg


Sorry all messed up thread a little trying to put a pic up.:rolleyes: when I get the hand of tap talk ill start a journal.:)
 
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