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Help with rotala, glosso, hm etc

Dagenfish

Seedling
Joined
29 Aug 2014
Messages
22
The trouble I am having is neither water source (ro or well) has fixed my growth in my rotala species as well as my glosso and now my lower leaves on my wisteria is starting to have holes.

Heres my dosing regimen as of now.

1/2 tsp kno3
1/4 tsp kh2po4
1/8 tsp kso4
On sat, mon, wed

1/4 tsp csmb
On sun, tue, thur

1.5 tsp gh booster after waterchange on friday

I also supplement with osmocote plus diy root tabs since my substrate is fine sand and some eco complete

Lighting is dual 39w t5ho (1x 6700k 1x colormax) about 18in from substrate running 8hours a day

Co2 is cranked up high as possible and I have high agitation and a surface skimmer (yellow drop checker)



Should I choose a better substrate? More light? Noon burst?


I will update with pictures in just a minute
 
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as above, clear signs of co2 deficiency. Do a search for 'PH profile' this will give you more of an idea of what is happening in the tank co2 wise.
For now you need to reduce light intensity by removing reflectors, raising the light etc... Increasing light will only exacerbate the issue.
 
Thanks for the feedback! I will try raising co2 slightly. Ive always turned back once I saw the fish breathing heavily, what signs should I look for in the fish for too much co2?
 
Ive raised flow by adding another powerhead and upped the co2 slightly.. I also increased the size of the tubing on my external reactor which helped flow and added a slight mist to the tank. Every plant was pearling well last night
 
I would like to post an update to my tank and my current issues. The tank has gone through a complete rescape! After reading over and over clives posts about the importance of spraybars I decided to change up that as well. I now have 2 spraybars along the entire back wall pointing straight forward. The one on top is the fluval 306 and I ran the reactor on the bottom one. Intakes for each device are at the back corners and the filter has a fluval surface skimmer attached. I have my co2 maxed, yellow dc, and good pearling but I'm having issues with a few plants not growing well. I will update with photos very soon.
 
Really having trouble with the babytears (hm). The downoi, ludwigia rubin, and s. Repens isnt doing the best either.
 
Also, when you added the spraybars how was the flow? Sometimes extending the bars drops the pressure across the bar and reduces the energy so that flow has difficulty reaching the lower areas. How much filter media is being used?

Cheers
 
I have changed since that posting. I have a slight ripple from srpaybar and surface skimmer to keep it clean
 
I only have coarse foam and medium foam in the filter with 1 small bag of purigen. Only 50 percent full. The reactor spraybar puts out almost as much force as the filter spraybar. They hit the front glass and deflect downwards.
 
Removed the medium filter foam from the filter and it improved flow maybe 10percent. I would give ph profile but I dont own a ph pen yet only a liquid test kit.
Thanks to clive and anyone replying to my thread
 
Use the liquid test kit. It's more annoying, but it works as long as you don't have color blindness.
That's a very important measurement. Don't procrastinate.

Also, give the tank a good trim to help flow/distribution.

Consider adding some liquid carbon to help until you crack the case.

Cheers,
 
Thanks clive!

This is my ph profile for the liquid test.

1pm co2 on 7.5
3pm lights on 6.3
9pm co2 off 6.3
10pm lights off 6.3
The ph rises back to normal over the few hours after lights off.

I gave a good trim to anything in front of the spraybars and I have been dosing metricide full strength at 4to5ml daily before lights on for the last month.

I have noticed improvement in the tips of the plants that were melting already since removing some filter media... Should I look into upgrading my filter (fluval 306) for something with more power/flow if I keep having these issues?
 
Watching the flow in the tank from the right side this is the pattern the water flow makes.
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Should that be sufficient?
 
Yes, this is the correct flow path. If your measure KH is about 8 or more then this is a good pH drop.
I hesitate advising folks to spend more money. Normally, the 10X rule is sufficient. The 306 is rated at 300GPh, so it should be fine for a 30G tank. You also state that you are running reactor on the bottom bar but it's not clear what pumping device is used for that one. In any case, there should be enough flow and if you are also dosing gluteraldehyde then this ought to be OK.

Cheers,
 
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