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not seeing rapid growth in various plants

roryf

Member
Joined
28 Dec 2012
Messages
26
Hi,

Just wanted to see if Anyone is able to help me work out what I’m missing in my tank as I’m struggling with plant growth!

My specs are as follows.

Tank: EA aquascaper 900

Light: twinstar 900E

Filter: Eheim professional 3e with additional powerhead In tank

Dosing: 6 pump of Tropica specialised nutrition per day. 1 weekly 50% WC.

CO2: pressurised CO2 which I had previously had running through an in-line diffuser, however I have found that the most successful tank I have kept was when I used an in tank Atomizer, so have recently switched back to a bazooka diffuser.

Temperature: was 27C, so I am going to bring that down to 23 also.


Plants:
java fern trident
Royals H’Ra
Ludwigia super red
Cryp wendtii
Crypt costata
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Bolbitus heudelotii

I have tried to plant logo stem on helferi, but it died back in a few days and hasn’t appeared back at all.

Pretty much nothing in the tank grows rapidly & my ludwigia hasn’t even really turned “super red” as it has done before. have lights on for 6 hours a day.

Can anyone think of what I may be missing? I test my nitrite and phosphate, and PH is at 7.

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Are you using any soil for your substrate at the back were your crypts Are? Maybe try turning your light upto 7 hours that could help.

Cheers Lee
 
Are you using any soil for your substrate at the back were your crypts Are? Maybe try turning your light upto 7 hours that could help.

Cheers Lee

Hi Lee, using an Tropica planted substrate as recommended by aquarium gardens when I visited.

I have upped the lighting as you recommended. Do you think 6 pumps of the Tropica per day is enough?

Cheers, Rory.
 
186 liter tank, 5 ml/50 lit weekly = 18.5ml weekly, say 18 pumps weekly is the dose they advise. Doesn't seem you are dosing to low, certainly not heavily planted enough to be low.

Exactly, really stuck here.

I have been assured that it wouldn’t be the light, so I’m reframing from buying a new pricey lighting fixture. However it does seem that ever since I got this new tank I have struggled to successfully create a high tech awuascape.
Before this tank I converted my old 100G deep reef tank to a planted aquarium and was
Able to grow all plants including HC. So I’m not sure why I have struggled so much with this aquascaper which is considerably less deep than my old reef tank was (even if my reef lights were very strong).

I’m assuming that my Eheim filter + powerhead is 10x flow rate as recommended too & DC is lime green in the tank.
 
Growth is dependend on ferts, light and CO2.
Usualy when there are problems in a CO2 tank it''s wise to create a pH profile in order to see how the CO2 functions.
If CO2 is spot on you could try increasing light period and or intensity.
 
Hi Lee, using an Tropica planted substrate as recommended by aquarium gardens when I visited.

I have upped the lighting as you recommended. Do you think 6 pumps of the Tropica per day is enough?

Cheers, Rory.
I have never used that tropica fertiliser. So can't really comment on that. I use tnc complete which I have really good growth using. I also over dose everyday slightly and reset the levels by doing a 50% water change every week.
 
Tropics recommended dose is for low tech tanks are you sure your dosing enough

Tropica recommend 1 pump per 50L per week, which is 4 pumps a week!

im pumping in 42 pumps per week and still seeing very slow plant growth & very limited algae in the tank, I do have 10 amano's 30 RCS, 6 otto's & 20 nerites in the tank though.

Im thinking I may switch to the EI method soon, however will let the diffuser settle in first as I wont be able to tell what fixed the issue if I try to fix everything at once!
 
Growth is dependend on ferts, light and CO2.
Usualy when there are problems in a CO2 tank it''s wise to create a pH profile in order to see how the CO2 functions.
If CO2 is spot on you could try increasing light period and or intensity.

Ed, Will take a PH reading tonight and post results, however my DC is lime green wherever I put it in the tank. & am using 4KDH solution from aquarium gardens. so I am trusting the results.

I have upgraded the light duration to see if this helps, appreciate you taking the time.
 
im pumping in 42 pumps per week and still seeing very slow plant growth & very limited algae in the tank, I do have 10 amano's 30 RCS, 6 otto's & 20 nerites in the tank though.

I’ve a 90cm x 45 x 53 (tall) so similar water volume and dose/day
1-2 pumps Tropica Premium
1-2 pumps Tropica Specialized
Growth is more than I’d like ;)

CO2 is ~2bps using Tropica diffuser
Eheim Pro 4 350
Kessil A160 x 2 @100% for 7-8h (or 8-10 depending)
 
Tropica recommend 1 pump per 50L per week, which is 4 pumps a week!

im pumping in 42 pumps per week and still seeing very slow plant growth & very limited algae in the tank, I do have 10 amano's 30 RCS, 6 otto's & 20 nerites in the tank though.

Im thinking I may switch to the EI method soon, however will let the diffuser settle in first as I wont be able to tell what fixed the issue if I try to fix everything at once!

I've got a bag of APF traces here you're welcome to have some of if you like? I'd be more inclined to switch micros before taking the leap into EI.... just to see if the Tropica isn't too weak. I find most commercial liquid ferts are too lean for high light/CO2 driven tanks, plus the fact not all of them will divulge the contents.

Let me know
 
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