Hi all,
Scuppered, I'd convinced myself the damage to the Amazon Swords <"
was Plec damage">.
cheers Darrel
Yes, I also though the damage looked awfully suspicious and it may still be a combination of CO2 shortfall and predation as the fish find it easier to pick apart as the tissues decay.
In any case plecs are not going to be the reason for the GSA. There seems to be tissue decay at areas just beneath the pumps and it appears that there are thickets and hardscape blocking the flow towards the rear. The path of the flow using this technique should be; towards the front glass at the top of the tank, deflected down to the substrate and then deflected back towards the rear of the tank. That requires a lot of muscle and so pointing the pumps down defeats this strategy. Both the spraybar holes and the pumps should face exactly horizontally towards the top of the front glass.
It may also help to thin out the bushes to allow more rearwards flow at the substrate level so that the gas can more efficiently reach those plants at the back.
Gas comes on at midday PH is 7.2 ( drop checker green ) lights come on at 2pm and build up gradually to a maximun ( 85% strength ) at 5pm PH 6.6
OK, am I reading this incorrectly or are you saying that the pH reaches it's minimum of 6.6 at 5pm, and that the light is turned on at 2pm when the pH is somewhere between 7.2 and 6.6? If that's the case then that is part of the problem. It's accepted the gas needs to drive the pH to 6.6 prior to the lights coming on. That will give the plants the best chance. So you may want to think about a higher injection rate sufficient to pull the pH down faster.
The filter i use is
this rated 1400l/h
OK, that means it delivers a maximum throughput of about 700 L/H. A 200 gallon CO2 tank is happiest with a total flow rating of 2000 G/H, which is about 8000 L/H rating. Of course, that's the very top end and one can easily get by with less, but I give these numbers just to illustrate where you are within the band of acceptable flow. The pumps do add to your 1400 L/H rating but you haven't given those rating numbers, but add them up to see where you are.
I pointed the pumps slightly down because i waned the Co2 to get to the bottom of the tank
As I mentioned , since the energy is pointed down instead of horizontally the effect is actually the opposite.
No unfortunatley I wished it was that simple, the plants in the picure shown is my fourth attempt to grow them, there is plenty of root tabs around them .
Which is further evidence that so-called root feeding plants do not really care that much about root feeding. They care about what's in the water column because their leaves are adapted to feed directly from the water. The function of roots are many fold and are more fascinating than the mythical "root feeding".
I could grow them in my old low tech tank till the cows come home I was forever cutting them back, but in this tank with Co2 I cannot get then started at all.
Many folks have trouble with this issue and that's because they are force fed misleading ideas about plants.
In fact, the most important function to plants growing under water is actually availability of gas. The two most important gasses are CO2 and Oxygen. Think about how quickly you breathe while sprinting the 100 meter dash. How about when taking a leisurely stroll in the park? A low tech tank is the leisurely stroll. Plants do not need to breathe very quickly. Conversely, turning the lights up higher forces the plants to sprint. Getting sufficient CO2 in order to produce enough food and oxygen is more critical under these conditions. If we don't pay enough attention to the delivery of the gas we are forcing the plants to sprint while wearing a mask, or while holding their breath. How easy would that be?
So we've got to pay attention yo gas exchange in plants. If that's not done then nothing else matters, not root tabs, not Iron and certainly not "water parameters".
Cheers,