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Help with planted tank, plants not growing

emrgroup

Seedling
Joined
19 Dec 2015
Messages
21
Location
Edmonton, alberta, Canada
Newbie here. I realize all the information is probably here and this question has probably been asked a million times, I just don't really know where to look.

I have a 125 gallon tank (5 feet x 24 x 20) and the growth is somewhat very lacking. The only thing that does grow extremely well is anubias , crypts and floating plants.

I have tons of lighting. I started with 4 T5HO bulbs. and also added CO2 at 2 bubbles per sec. I increased it to 4 bubbles per sec. Everything I read said to increase the CO2 so now I am at about 8 bubbles per sec (For the last month). The fish don't seem to show any suffering from that.

I increased my lighting with LEDS, Beamswork 400. Apparently it is 400 lumens and have six of them now

My CO2 detector is green.

I have a Marineland C-530 for a filer, plus a bunch of circulation pumps in the tank.

I have dirt (3 inches) for substrate topped with sand (3/4 inch). In places with rooted plants I also added seachem fluorite to assist with iron intake.

I also fertilize with dry ferts. I use Epson salts, Monopotassium phosphate and potassium nitrate. And also a micronutrient mix bought from online. All is added according to the EI.

According to our water company, here are the parameters:
Total Hardness (mg/L as CaCO3) 172 (I guess this is 9.6 dh?)
PH 8.1( as of this day anyways, we fluctuate 1 full degree sometimes)
Alkalinity (mg/L as CaCO3) 120

When I do my water test.

Total Hardness: 170
PH 6.8 - 7.0
Alkalinity ( I don't remember the value I had at the time! LOL) I think it was the same as above

According to a KPH table, I run within perfect parameters for plants. I had a ph of 6.8 and kh of 4.5 at the time.

Anything else you can suggest? Or any other information I need to give?

Thanks.
 
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Hi and welcome :) you are right about your question being asked countless times, in fact most days there will be someone asking!
To start with you have a big tank and that is always going to be a challenge in it's self. Then you use your bubble count as a reference but unfortunately they can be very misleading and extremely difficult to read once passed 5-6 bps.

If you can test the PH with a cheap pen (£15ish) then you might get a better idea of the amount of C02 required to get 125 galons of water @30ppm C02 levels.
When it comes to lighting, then you may well of been deceived into thinking you need far more than your plants actually require!
In some circumstances it is possible to use lots of light but only if you can match the amount of available C02.
So I would guess you have to much light and not enough C02, it is an easy guess as that is the normal reason for poor plant growth.
Anyway a picture is always helpful for us......
 
Sounds like you are doing well. Can you post pictures of plants doing well and not doing well?
 
It is amazing, the anubias overgrows in about 6 months and have to chop it down. Great people love buying the cheap unwanteds!

Here is a picture, don't know if you need more specific than this, but I will be glad to offer as much as I can to get some advice!
20151109_181609.jpg
 
Hey Rebel, I don't think any are really doing horrible, at least the ones that are still alive.

My tank temp sits about 79 F

Crypts seem to love this tank as does the anubias.

The plants I did have until recently that seem to suffer are java moss. I tried everything I know, put it in darker areas, tied it to wood, tied it to rocks, it just seems to brown and dies.

My vallisneria seems to not grow so much. It sits humbly in the corner not really growing.

The Elodea canadiensis (pondweed) also starts to turn brown on the lower part of it, and dies. The top grows very green. Same as the hornwort and cabomba.

My hygrophilia wisteria has all but pretty much disappeared as did the rotella
 
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Ok, so I added this into the tank 2 days ago. http://www.istaproducts.com/product/max-mix-co2-reactor-medium/ Seems to work fairly good. And I think what I am reading might have given me the answers. I increased my CO2 so my CO2 detector is almost yellow. The fish still seems perfectly happy. And tonight, I looked at the plants. One plant actually looks like it was starting to pearl! And my one vallisneria after a long time actually had 4 inches of growth on it! In 3 days? Wow!
 
So a few questions, I hear about the "siesta period" for aquarium plants. This meaning to turn the lights off a few hours. Does this apply if you are turning the lights off at night? Or is just meaning to turn the lights during the day only?

Also, this may seem like a silly question. When I am doing dry ferts, my tank being 125 gallon, should I be adding the ferts as if it was an aquarium that didn't have substrate or anything else, a full 125 gallons of water? Or do I make my best guess with the ferts and accessories assuming it to be 30 gallons less?
 
Also, this may seem like a silly question. When I am doing dry ferts, my tank being 125 gallon, should I be adding the ferts as if it was an aquarium that didn't have substrate or anything else, a full 125 gallons of water? Or do I make my best guess with the ferts and accessories assuming it to be 30 gallons less?
EI dosing is not an exact science - it is designed to be a deliberate surplus of nutrients. So I wouldn't worry about the precise difference between your tank's dimensions and the amount of water it actually contains. I would dose whichever amount is easiest to measure and/or easiest to remember.
 
EI dosing is not an exact science - it is designed to be a deliberate surplus of nutrients. So I wouldn't worry about the precise difference between your tank's dimensions and the amount of water it actually contains. I would dose whichever amount is easiest to measure and/or easiest to remember.
Ok, thanks Mike, I guess I'll just EI as if it's a full 125. I haven't had algae buildup luckily. Plants still seem to be steady. Not growing out of control, but not dying

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
So I took out two of my LEDS. And changed the T5HO bulbs to (2) 6700 coraline and (2) 6700 fluval bulbs. Amazing popping color of the greens from the plants. One of the anubias started to pearl! Nothing else has at least nothing for very long. I'm going to assume I'm now hitting the head of the nail of foliage happiness?

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
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