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hc question again

naz

Member
Joined
14 Mar 2009
Messages
113
Location
orpington,kent,london
hi forum..gonna try and grow hc in my tank again,just striped my tank down,put new substate in it, and new filter pump to get better flow down to the sub.two weeks ago i planted 6 pots of hc, up,d the co2 to 4 to 5 bps,drop cheaker is going yellow at the end of day,theres some good pearling on the plant at the end of the lighting,dosing ei method,and 6m of easy carbo a day,the hc is looking ok,its not dying,but its not speading,some of the stems seem to be growing up woods about 1cm,im thinking that i dont have enoth light,iv read some info saying hc is a low light plant,just give it load of co2,but iv read other thing saying it needs very high light,can anyone give me advice weather i should be thinking of upping my lightingand co2,if it dosent spread in the next 2 weeks.... :?

tank 260l oska..2 feet deep [lighting is 5 inch above]
substate.oliver knott aqua soil 4 bags 10l
lighting acadia otl 4x39 t5 [at the moment in running 2 x39w for 2 hour/then 3 x39w for 5 hours/then back two 2 x39 for last 2 hour,9 hour total [iv got the opion of running 4x39w if i wont to up lighting.
co2 is fe bottle
ferts ie
 
Naz

You will have to get the mower in there - I am sure I have read somewhere on here that trimming will make it spread out - rather than it growing upwards. I will try and find the thread.

paul
 
Hey Naz, try thinking about these two statements for a minute:
naz said:
drop cheaker is going yellow at the end of day,theres some good pearling on the plant at the end of the lighting
naz said:
im thinking that i dont have enoth light
So how could both of these statements be true? Have you not demonstrated that you have enough light to make HC pearl? The problem is that the plant is pearling later rather than sooner. So think about what this tells you. It might be telling you that you need the dropchecker to be yellow earlier rather than later. So this might mean that you still haven't optimized CO2/flow. You may need to play more with flow, distribution, injection timing, injection technique or injection rate.

Adding more light accelerates growth rate, it does not necessarily optimize photosynthesis. Sure, you can add more light and perhaps see an improvement in growth rate, but you can just as easily cause more problems than you solve.

Cheers,
 
my hc did go a bit tall looking when it started growing but after it got ruted properley is just spread out into a carpet and now i am sick of it growing!!! i would just leave it to it for a while and let it get going more and it will spread out, my hc is about 7cm tall at the min.
 
I've now failed twice to grow HC, both times looks OK for 1-2 weeeks and then just starts to rot. 100L cube 20" x 20" x 20", ADA amazonia, recommneded co2 lime green drop checker with kh4 water, 10x flow, co2 below koralia and blown down across HC, 9 hours 28W 3 hours 56 W, ADA step 1 daily. I did use Easy Carbo but have stopped now I have shrimps, I don't like the fact that it's made from gluteraldehyde which is extremely toxic. Does anyone have any suggestions where I could be going wrong?
Thanks
 
willgaze said:
I've now failed twice to grow HC, both times looks OK for 1-2 weeeks and then just starts to rot. 100L cube 20" x 20" x 20", ADA amazonia, recommneded co2 lime green drop checker with kh4 water, 10x flow, co2 below koralia and blown down across HC, 9 hours 28W 3 hours 56 W, ADA step 1 daily. I did use Easy Carbo but have stopped now I have shrimps, I don't like the fact that it's made from gluteraldehyde which is extremely toxic. Does anyone have any suggestions where I could be going wrong?
Thanks

HC is extremely difficult to grow with Easy Carbo alone as a source of carbon. You have been injecting co2 so that should of helped. Maybe having 56w over 100l (even for just 3 hours) could be a bit too much light with only dosing ADA Step 1.

Step 1, only contains trace elements, you need to be dosing some NPK with the K being in ADA Brighty K and all being in ADA Green Brighty Special Lights.

I've just switched to using Step 2, Brighty K and Special Lights in a 12"x10"x8" tank (14 litres) with a 1ml dose of each a day.

Actually thinking about it whilst replying, I would of thought it's the insufficient ferts is where you're going wrong.
 
Superman said:
willgaze said:
I've now failed twice to grow HC, both times looks OK for 1-2 weeeks and then just starts to rot. 100L cube 20" x 20" x 20", ADA amazonia, recommneded co2 lime green drop checker with kh4 water, 10x flow, co2 below koralia and blown down across HC, 9 hours 28W 3 hours 56 W, ADA step 1 daily. I did use Easy Carbo but have stopped now I have shrimps, I don't like the fact that it's made from gluteraldehyde which is extremely toxic. Does anyone have any suggestions where I could be going wrong?
Thanks

HC is extremely difficult to grow with Easy Carbo alone as a source of carbon. You have been injecting co2 so that should of helped. Maybe having 56w over 100l (even for just 3 hours) could be a bit too much light with only dosing ADA Step 1.

Step 1, only contains trace elements, you need to be dosing some NPK with the K being in ADA Brighty K and all being in ADA Green Brighty Special Lights.

I've just switched to using Step 2, Brighty K and Special Lights in a 12"x10"x8" tank (14 litres) with a 1ml dose of each a day.

Actually thinking about it whilst replying, I would of thought it's the insufficient ferts is where you're going wrong.


Whilst i agree with superman as he knows his stuff, can i just add i have grown HC in both my tanks
with a very similar set up to yours with no problem at all. The only difference being that i dose Brighty K and easy carbo every day. I don't add any other ferts apart from step 1. Never had any problems with Easycarb and my shrimps and I breed Crystal Red and Cherry shrimps. Just follow the instructions. Don't over dose or you will have dead fish and shrimps.

Are you sure you have not had some dodgy HC, Do you get it from some were reputable like one of our sponsors? As i have see it from some "fish shops" looking far from healthy. Its also a slow grower and you always get a little die back.

May i ask how you have planted it? :?:

My logic behind this is that i have just planted my new tank with a mass carpet of HC and the only thing its got is Brighty K, lights 7 hrs per day, Amazonia substrate, pressurised CO2 and lots of flow. Its growing really well. (oh a lots of water changes)

I hope this helps, i feel i have gone on a bit! :crazy: :lol:

Andyh
 
Thanks for the advice. I got the HC both times from Green Machine, the second time it had been in the post a couple of days but seemed to be OK initially. As the tank was new with amazonia I thought that water column ferts weren't so important (6 weeks now, cycled at 4 weeks without fish or addition of ammonia). Water changes were 50% every 2 days and are now 50% every week. The lighting regime I have has resulted in E. tenellus about 20cm tall so although it's very healthy it's not quite how I imagined it, the tank is tall and there are floating salvinia. I divided the HC into small clumps 5mm square and planted, I coudn't divde into individual plantlets as the roots were so grown into the planting medium. I wondered if it was not enough light, but have been worried about increasing due to early algae problems. Strangely I have one small clump of the first lot of HC still alive, with tiny leaves, so this might suggest nutrient starvation. There appeared to be no difference with or with out easy carbo, dose at 2-3 x initially as advised by Green Machine. I've read so many stories of pople killing shrimps with easy carbo, and I use gluteraldehyde as a fixative at work and know how horiible it is, so have gone off using it.
Cheers
 
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