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Melting plants

Allanhep

New Member
Joined
7 Aug 2013
Messages
7
My setup is a 60tlr open top tank I with tetra complete substrate capped with fluorite red this substrate is about 6 months old and was removed from my cichlid tank after I decided to go planted I have added osmocote plus root tabs into the substrate prior to filling the aquarium.

I have my co2 come on at 11:30am and off at 7:30pm I have a twinstar 450ea set at 10cm from water lvl I run this on a programming dimmer -

1300 - 0%
1330 - 5%
1400 - 70%
1600 - 80%
1800 - 80%
2000 - 70%
2030 - 5%
2200 - 0%

My co2 is defused through a ista turbo reactor at 4 BPS my drop checker turns from blue to green by lights on and lime to almost yellow by lights off I have a chirhos doctor 3 in 1 running all day and night every day I dose with evolution aqua all in one fertilizer 5ml per day and a 50% water change weekly. I recently had some tissue cultures which melted within a week and I have not had much growth from my potted plants all my pogostemon helferi melted away withing 2 weeks.

My filter is a ehiem Pro 4 350 I'm waiting on glass lily pipes to be delivered. I have noticed prior to this post I have BBA patches appearing on my wood hardscape



Any help would be appreciated.

Kind regards
 
The melting was most likely too much light/not enough CO2 unless your tissue cultures got abused in transit (maybe too hot?).

25 watts on a 60l isn’t crazy but it is high light. I’d back down on the light slightly - maybe try 50 or 60% (you can slowly sneak it up again once all is well), similarly just go to 6 hours on “full” lighting. The CO2 drop checker should be a constant colour while lights are on full - if it fluctuates during the cycle the plants can’t adapt. So bring that on earlier and check your flow around the tank - 1050lph in a 60l should be enough but be sure it is getting everywhere.

A full tank shot would be helpful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm not 100% sure if the reactor is any good I get bubbles coming from the outflow but due to the speed of the flow it's not too noticeable if there is a large amount as these get pushed over the tank and dissappear. I do notice when the chirhos doctor comes on that the small bubbles flow all over the aquarium. I have recently topped up my monte carlo as this was very thin. My cryps seem to be doing OK they have sent out runners. Thinking of going back to an intank diffuser as I previously ran this with 4 BPS so adding the reactor has not helped in reducing my bubble count as I had read with better dissolved co2 the less I would need thought the day.
 

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Tank looks nice and the crypts are doing well.

That drop checker is still blue green - you really want to get to a mid or better still lime green. The key is a stable and consistent green throughout the light cycle. How many bps, how it is diffused and how soon CO2 needs to come on to achieve that is unique to your tank conditions.
 
So I have added my intank diffuser back into the aquarium and increased the BPS to 5 I was getting lime/yellow on the drop checker but noticed the bubbles were not being pushed all over the aquarium. I eventually received my glass pipes and added them and now I no longer get a lime green on the drop checker has anyone had any issues with the lily pipes causing too much surface agitation? Also any advice on the best position for the pipes I currently have them at the back of the aquarium.
 
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