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Advice needed on fertiliser dosing please

Frenchi

Frenchi

Member
Joined
15 Jan 2014
Messages
671
Location
West Yorkshire
Hi
This tank is mainly built up of Java and crypts .. I do have a odd melted leaf on the crypts but nothing serious I don't think.
I have noticed that some of the Java is yellowing in places mostly the seedlings coming off the old leafs..
I dose standard Ei only with injected co2 the lighting is 2 x 54 watt daylight bulbs
It's a 250 litre tank with the added filters
My question is should I be changing anything here that will help the plants along?
I'm thinking the lights are maybe too strong or not enough fertiliser, not enough co2
Do you know ?
Thanks

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Poor flow/distribution due to blockage caused by excessive plant mass can result in deficiency. Prune or otherwise improve flow/distribution to the affected areas.

Cheers,
 
ceg4048 said:
Poor flow/distribution due to blockage caused by excessive plant mass can result in deficiency. Prune or otherwise improve flow/distribution to the affected areas.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
I added a wave maker to try and improve flow which has helped a little .. Maybe it's time I replaced the filter and put a spraybar back on.
I had a spraybar before but it just wasn't pushing the water round enough..
I may bite the bullet and add a fx6
Thanks ..


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Ceg I have chopped a good bucket full of leaves away from the left side, I will do some to the right when I get a bit more time, It looks strange now but much healthier imo
Will this encourage more growth on the Java ?


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Hi all,
I know I only have low tech. tanks, but all the plants look pretty healthy too me.
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You will always get leaf death, and yellowing, on the older Java ferns leaves, no leaf is immortal and they will all die eventually. The fact that they are producing plantlets from the old leaves suggests to me it is "planned" senescence by the plant, rather than deficiency symptoms.

How are you getting on with your Bumblebee Goby (Brachygobius)? I've always really liked them, but I've never had a hard, (brackish?) water set-up for them to go in.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
How are you getting on with your Bumblebee Goby (Brachygobius)? I've always really liked them, but I've never had a hard, (brackish?) water set-up for them to go in.

cheers Darrel
Click to expand...

I suspect that the need for brackish water for BBGs is overstated, or at least variable between species. Several species are even found in soft-as-you-like blackwater habitats. I kept mine (which I think were probably doriae) as low as pH5.5 for a long time and they 'seemed' fine - they were then moved to the hard-ish Bucket and seemed equally at home. I suspect most species will be fairly adaptable, but they're buggers to ID - the SF profiles are pretty good but muddied by the fact that a lot of the fish in the trade often don't conform to any of the recognised species.

The only caveat to this is that of the handful of breeding reports I found, all were using low end brackish water.

Tank looks good Frenchi! Like Darrel I always keep java fern low tech and also get the odd leaf that dies off now and again after producing plantlets, seems like normal behaviour (dispersal strategy?).
 
Frenchi said:
Ceg I have chopped a good bucket full of leaves away from the left side, I will do some to the right when I get a bit more time, It looks strange now but much healthier imo
Will this encourage more growth on the Java ?
Click to expand...
Yes, this is a good start. In order to satisfy both the health requirements and aesthetics, what you can do is to encourage flow/distribution within the plant bed. So this means thinning the mass out by removing at the rhizome level, individual fronds. If you stick you hands down into the fern beds you'll find a tangle of roots as well. Thin the roots out, especially in the center of the mass. That way it still maintains the appearance of fullness from the outside but opens flow channels within the beds and you will get better circulation of nutrient and CO2 enriched water.

The same can be said for the crypts. Remove individual lances to allow flow to penetrate the beds.

Cheers,
 
Darrel thanks for that .. Actually I've just been doing a major overhaul on this tank yesterday and today.. I think it looks better and also given the plants some breathing space .. Well I hope so anyway.. As you say there was a lot of leafs with lots of new plants hanging from them so I have put them to good use ... I've superglued them all to the altered wood, some of them anyway..
I'll take a picture now but the water is still quite cloudy.. Let me know what you think good or bad?
The bumble bee if I'm honest has been a nightmare for me I did have 3 but 2 of them didn't make it, ive had this one for around a year now . It will only eat live or frozen blood worm but with the other fish in the tank it finds it hard to compete well it doesn't compete it just gets it if it can ...
But I do enjoy keeping it :)
Cheers

Mick
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ceg4048 said:
Yes, this is a good start. In order to satisfy both the health requirements and aesthetics, what you can do is to encourage flow/distribution within the plant bed. So this means thinning the mass out by removing at the rhizome level, individual fronds. If you stick you hands down into the fern beds you'll find a tangle of roots as well. Thin the roots out, especially in the center of the mass. That way it still maintains the appearance of fullness from the outside but opens flow channels within the beds and you will get better circulation of nutrient and CO2 enriched water.

The same can be said for the crypts. Remove individual lances to allow flow to penetrate the beds.

Cheers,
Click to expand...
That's great to know so them brown stringy roots can be chopped back from the rhizome a bit as I did notice there was a lot of debris trapped in between it seemingly causing some of the rhizome to rot away
Thanks :)


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terry82517 said:
Looks awesome frenchi, what types of Java fern are in there?
Click to expand...
Thank you.. There are a few different ones but I'm unsure of all there names I started with about 4 or 5 different ones then just used the new plantlets off the leafs.. There is some narrow leaf, trident, Windelov and a bit of what I thought was Monosolenium tenerum but I'm not sure it is .. I would like some to add though :)


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