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A year on, still haven't got it right! Help?

Nick Norman

Nick Norman

Member
Joined
27 Jun 2016
Messages
69
Location
London
I started my first tank almost a year ago now, I have enjoyed it so far but still don't have healthy plants. My first goal is to have healthy plants without injecting co2 and learn as much as i can. I have read a lot on this forum and have improved plant health but now am at a loss. I have reasonably healthy new growth but older leaves die off. The only plant that does ok is anubias. When I started dosing EI health improved. I recently added an extra strip of LED, growth increased but so did algae and leaves still die off. The only thing I can think of now is too much light (not enough co2) but my light is low? or hard water affecting uptake of nutrients? I have seen lovely, healthy low tech tanks on here but I can't seem to achieve it. Any advice welcome.

My Tank

120L
Medium fish stock
ADA Amazonia aqua soil
sunsun 302 1000lph (actual lph is 600 apparently)
TMC Aqua Ray LED Aqua Bar 12w x2 (recently add strip of 6500k leds)
Liquid carbon (daily)
Easy Life Profito 12 ml weekly
1/3 EI weekly (-nitrate)
Tap water has 30 ppm Nitrate
Calcium carbonate(CaCO3): 266 ppm
30% Water change weekly

Plants in tank now:

Limnophila Heterophylla
Crypts lucens
Crypt wendtii
Java Fern Trident
S. Repens
Anubias Nana
Frog Bit

Plants that eventually failed:

Rotala Rotundifolia
Bacopa Caroliniana
Hygrophila Salicifolia

Limnophila Heterophylla was suffering until i started dosing EI now it grows fast and old leaves are ok.
Crypts have new growth but old leaves have holes.
Java fern grew well and filled the log it was attached to then started to brown and holes appeared.
s. Repens has always struggled. Growth increased after adding more light but old leaves still die.
Anubias did well but since increasing light holes have appeared.

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It sometimes is hard to say why certain plants just wont grow.. I had S. repens in my high tech and could not get it going without any obvious reason the rest did ok. Same for Pogostemon helferi i can't grow it in my high tech it keeps melting on me. I'm growing Bacopa carolina in a extrem low light low tech tank i never fertilize and it does good. Also the crypts and java ferns do well in this tank. Some of the same crypts i have in another low tech tank with different substrate and getting ferts, but 3 to 4°C colder, in this tank they do not grow so well as in the fertless tank. Beats me and don't realy have a clue why, it might be the substrate or maybe the temp, but truely do not know for sure.

I have about 5 different java fern sp. in the fertilized low tech tank, 2 sp. do exeptionaly good, 3 sp. stay signifantly behind and shed a lot of leaves. While in the fertless tank thay do allright.

What ever you try to change, it'll can take weeks before you see any difference. Do not change to many things at the same time, best is just one thing and wait and see a few weeks. So it can take months before you find the sweetspot you are looking for. I'm about 18 months into the process of finding it in the fertilized low tech tank. And still haven't got it 100%. While the tank that doesn't get ferts does actualy beter in some aspects.

Sometimes it is way easier to just try different plant sp. focus on the plants that do good with the regime you got to offer. Swap the plants that do not so good with the once who have prooven to do good. In the nd you have a healthy planted tank.. And a lot less frustration thinking about and looking at plants that just do not like it in your tank. Don't take it personal, it's like cooking :) You can't cook to everybodies taste..
 
Hi
Install a full EI dosing regime for a month!
Double your Easy Life Profito and Carbon dosing.
Monitor the progress!
Staurogyne repens are quite difficult to keep happy without Injected Co2!
I never purchase it....as it can be a pain to grow in concrete water.......chop the heads off and replant....add root tablets under the cut stems!
Below is Amazon Frogbit with decent Nitrate levels!
Yours seems a tad pale with no markings.
Pin holes could be a Potassium shortage!

Amazon Frogbit.jpg

hoggie
 
Thanks for your responses, I am thinking I might plan a re scape, add some more red moor and a variety of easy low light plants and see what works. In the meantime I will try increasing ferts and carbon for a month and see what happens.
 
Hi nick. I am also no expert but the main thing I noticed was your flow from the spray bar. Is that flow turned down somehow or is that it at 'full blast'?
When I struggled with my tank (and I struggled for ages and packed it in about 30 times) I sorted the flow and saw great results.
I found filter LPH figures fairly useless in the end and just went on what I saw. I would extend that spray bar across the length of the tank and either turn the flow up or get a beefier filter so the spray hits the front glass (a la' ceg4048).
Once the flow is sorted then you can address the CO2 and nutrients etc.
Dont be too disheartened, I actually thought your tank looked lovely and it's def got the start of a great aquascape!


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