General Plant Health

[Tom Raffield]

Hi everyone,

Anyone who has followed my tank in recent months will have heard/seen a lot of changes. On a positive note the tank has grown well for the most part as I hope the whole tank picture shows. The maintenance I now do involves cleaning the FX4 media every two weeks and the impeller every four. Then in weeks when the FX4 is left alone I clean/soak my diffuser and other minor jobs. Plant maintenance is ongoing each week which mainly involves removing old/damaged leaves and hacking the hygrophilia polysperma and replanting.

In the last week or so I have started to note the development of black spots/edging on the sword and java fern leaves (see photos). What might be causing this as I would like to make adjustments to mitigate this before it becomes too much worse? I recut my CO2 tubing today as there was hissing and bubbling coming from the one way valve. It's only one of those plastic ones - I'm not sure whether it would be better to remove the valve completely and just run tubing from the regulator to the diffuser with nowhere else for gas to escape. Not sure how long this has gone on for so could have caused a fluctuation in CO2.

One physical change that I can't really help is the sun being much lower in the sky and casting sun spots on the tank intermittently through the middle of the day (when it actually shines which isn't too often at the moment!). Could this be causing a problem?

I have also attached a really exciting (not) video showing the whole tank to try and provide an idea as to the movement and flow within the tank. This has been a major focus for me over the last few months and might need further changing.



What do you think? Any thoughts on any aspect of the plants or tank itself would be appreciated.

 

[Kostas]

Hi everyone,

Anyone who has followed my tank in recent months will have heard/seen a lot of changes. On a positive note the tank has grown well for the most part as I hope the whole tank picture shows. The maintenance I now do involves cleaning the FX4 media every two weeks and the impeller every four. Then in weeks when the FX4 is left alone I clean/soak my diffuser and other minor jobs. Plant maintenance is ongoing each week which mainly involves removing old/damaged leaves and hacking the hygrophilia polysperma and replanting.

In the last week or so I have started to note the development of black spots/edging on the sword and java fern leaves (see photos). What might be causing this as I would like to make adjustments to mitigate this before it becomes too much worse? I recut my CO2 tubing today as there was hissing and bubbling coming from the one way valve. It's only one of those plastic ones - I'm not sure whether it would be better to remove the valve completely and just run tubing from the regulator to the diffuser with nowhere else for gas to escape. Not sure how long this has gone on for so could have caused a fluctuation in CO2.

One physical change that I can't really help is the sun being much lower in the sky and casting sun spots on the tank intermittently through the middle of the day (when it actually shines which isn't too often at the moment!). Could this be causing a problem?

I have also attached a really exciting (not) video showing the whole tank to try and provide an idea as to the movement and flow within the tank. This has been a major focus for me over the last few months and might need further changing.



What do you think? Any thoughts on any aspect of the plants or tank itself would be appreciated.

I really like your aquarium. just a question is the co2 diffuser placed under the filter inlet? co2 in your filter might damage the filter on the long run. (same as having non co2 pipes. they tend to get stuff and loose flexibility so they break)

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[PARAGUAY]

The things to look at are probably CO2, is it ,getting all around the aquarium? Lighting is it too high or too long a photoperiod? Drop checker moved around should still show green in varoius areas of the tank and shade the tank from sunlight if possible and see what happens? As the plants grow increase liquid fertiliser in a CO2 set up. also increase water changes may help and adding some floating plants and/or more stems if you can.CO2 Art supply good quality non returns if its a concern.You have a nice aquarium

 

[Tom Raffield]

I really like your aquarium. just a question is the co2 diffuser placed under the filter inlet? co2 in your filter might damage the filter on the long run. (same as having non co2 pipes. they tend to get stuff and loose flexibility so they break)

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It does go straight into the filter. Problem is, I think it is the best way to diffuse the CO2. Is there a better way? The FX4 makes it very hard to get inline diffusion or a reactor.

The things to look at are probably CO2, is it ,getting all around the aquarium? Lighting is it too high or too long a photoperiod? Drop checker moved around should still show green in various areas of the tank and shade the tank from sunlight if possible and see what happens? As the plants grow increase liquid fertiliser in a CO2 set up. also increase water changes may help and adding some floating plants and/or more stems if you can.CO2 Art supply good quality non returns if its a concern.You have a nice aquarium

I have increased ferts as the growth has got more vigorous. Light might be the issue, especially with the light coming in from outside which I can not block out. I might reduce the photoperiod a little and make sure my CO2 injection rate is suitably high in an attempt to kill off the black algae.

Thank you both for your comments.