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More Advice Required Please

phantomfisher

Member
Joined
9 Jul 2009
Messages
56
I have been getting some very helpful advice from this forum over the past couple of weeks regarding my 400L planted tank and have made progress but still could do with a bit more help :)

I have taken on board the advice to prune away all the dead leaves of my Echinodorus Bleheri plants, increase Co2 injection and illumination and use dry ferts for all the plants in the tank. The result is a definite improvement and the Echinodorus Bleheri are looking better and pearl for a good part of the day but they are still not right. They are greener looking and there does not appear to be the brown blotches anymore however the veins of the plant leaves look more prominent and I don't think this is normal :crazy:

Also I have noticed that all (16 plants) of my young crypt plants are looking a bit off colour with a few leaves on each plant going very green at the tips then disintegrating. :thumbdown:

Here are the details of my 400L setup:

Lighting: 6 x 54watt T5’s, on 12 hours off 12 hours

Co2: 2.5 x bubbles per sec to achieve around 30ppm Co2 saturation. Co2 on two hours before lights on and off two hours before lights out.

Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 50
Ammonia: 0
GH: 10
KH: 7
Phosphate: 0.25
Temp: 26.5

PH: Fluctuates between 6.70 to 7.20 depending if Co2 is on. I use a PH controller to monitor

Water: 50% change per week using de-chlorinated tap water

Filters: 2 x TetraTec 1200’s & 1 x 600L per hour power head

Clean water from the two filters is returned to the tank via 2 x spray bars which together cover the length of the tank. This combined with the Power head provides enough movement to make all the plants gently sway. Both filters include a carbon layer.

Substrate: Caribsea Ecco Complete to a depth of around 3” with a fine gravel layer on top.

Ferts: Aqua Essentials 'Trace Mix Plus - 20ml 3 x times per week (20g mixed into 500ml RO water for easy dispensing)
James Planted Tank EI Macro Mix - 35ml 3 x times per week (33g Potassium Nitrate + 7.2g Potassium Phosphate mixed into 250ml Water for easy dispensing)

I think that’s about it and as usual all help and advice is very much appreciated. :thumbup:
 
Hello there,
You might need to give your amazon sword a little more time to improve it's appearance after it's nutrient shortage. Yellowing of the leaves between the veins is often linked to iron or potassium. However it is notoriously difficult to tell. Also shortgage of magnesium can mimick iron deficiency as magnesium is to cholorophyl in plants and some algae as iron is to haemoglobin...... central. Also amazon swords are very heavy feeders from either water column or substrate or being greedy feeders both! You might want to up your traces a little. I read that AE changed their trace mix for one with lower iron levels in it so you may need to compensate for this? The important thing to grasp is everyones tank is different and you really need to tweak a macro or micro recipe to fit your aquarium. Each is different, different lights, filters, fish, species of plants etc. It really is a matter of trial and error to max everything out and optimise your recipe for your tank. I also made up single bottles of nitrate and phosphate to sort out my dosing and get it right. It still needs tweaking as the tank matures too!

Just a suggestion

Andy
 
If the PH controller is switching CO2 on/off this will cause you problems. You would be better off without it. CO2 when lights on, needs to be more stable.

I'm sure others will explain better. There has been many discussions about this topic here's one: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... ler#p94019

Type PH controller into the search facility and read the posts. Not many planted tank keepers are in favour of them.

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for the info and advise Andy and Simon, I think I am probably too much in a rush to get the perfect planted tank :rolleyes:

As an avid enthusiast and keeper of large cichlids over the past 25 years all my tanks have been void of plants, just rocks, wood and more rocks so the whole plant thing is a bit baffling. :crazy:

I will keep plugging away and take on board the advice provided by everybody on the forum who have answered my please for help. :)
 
Hi Phantom,
I know what you mean about rushing, I'm always the same myself. It takes time to get it all optimised though and frustratingly slow as it can be, once you get all the factors involved (flow, nutrient levels etc ) optimised for your set up then you'll notice that growth rates really pick up. Any changes you make can take upwards of a couple of weeks to really show improvements, the important thing is to tackle things in a logical order. Flow rate first, then CO2 and then nutrients would be my suggested order. So that you know exactly what is making the difference ideally you should only change one parameter at a time and keep a record or diary. That way you can hopefully avoid making the same mistake more than once and learn from them.

Cheers

Andy
 
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