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I think this is the most important change that people refer to, crypts seem to take any co2 changes worse than most I've came across. It's as if they don't get constant values they say sod it I'm off and reappear somewhere else in the tank. That's not to say that they need higher levels of co2...

As mad as this seems Balansae for me is one of them plants that it doesn't matter where you think the best place to plant it might be the plant itself will find where it wants to live. I've planted them in places best suited for the scape, generally the back corners as they tend to grow big and...

It's a biggy in the aquarium game mate. I've been keeping fish for probably about 30 years, I've read so much about keeping nitrates down for the sake of fish health and about some species being more sensitive than others yet I have yet to see anything that conclusively shows that nitrate at any...

My first instinct when I saw your duck weed if that's what it is was they were quite small. That might be a sign of low nitrates, I know @dw1305 likes to run his tanks lean so his are probably quite small as well. Mine not so but I think I run my tank at the higher end of low tech nutrient...

I'd have to agree with that, they look in decent condition. I would still take a look at some form of substrate fertilisation. Although I maintain around a quarter EI style dosing in my water column and all other plants inc the Duck Weed were in good condition my Sword and Crypts never really...

Just to add to that mate it could be because you're using sand. Although plants mainly take their ferts from the water column via the leaves crypts definitely appreciate some substrate dosing.

Sorry Buddy I was replying to a different thread :D Bloody Mobile phones! Can you get a picture of your Duck weed from the top mate? Crypts are slow growing plants at the best of times that don't like changes too often. Anything you change for the better may take some time to yield results...

@brhau if it's any consolation mate imo I think if people are going to use co2 the best way to do it would be to start off with a non co2 tank and easy plants then work their way up to using co2 and more advanced plants when the aquarium is biologically stable. I suspect a lot of the issues...

Haha good chance mate. Afaik I'm pretty sure I've only ever bought balansae once in my life. Just been browsing through my phone photos and it was in my high tech setup as far back as December 2016, if I'm not mistaken it originally was in the low tech set up from before that so fair to say I've...

Hmm I wonder, I originally got the initial plant off someone in here years ago can't remember if it was meant to be a red version. It's always done alright in any setup I've put it in both low and high energy but always just been green. The leaves in the image have nearly broke the surface so...

I was posting in another thread earlier and I have a classic case of a plant moving house, a Balansae that started off at the opposite end of the tank dissolved then re-appeared at the other end. These plants have moved with me through numerous setups over the years but I've never noticed it...

As long as the root system is in tact you never know where plants may turn up if they find the right place to live. Crypts are notorious for sending out a massive root system even though the visible plant isn't doing so well, they can re-emerge nowhere near the original plant and turn out to be...

My guess would be it would, the majority of "aquatic" plants spend some of the time out of water. Don't quote me on this but wouldn't the beuce flower when it was at its out of water stage anyway? They seem to go through phases when they flower, mine have did it from the very bottom of the...

I was thinking the same mate. Not over familiar with the plant but I think sword species tend to be hungry feeders. I would definitely add the Nitrogen again although tend to find using an all in one fert works out better. At least you know you're covered for everything. Sometimes you find the...

I think the biggest difference between Eutrophic dosing systems like EI and natural water bodies becoming eutrophic would be that they both experience accelerated growth but in natural water bodies there isn't someone going in once a week to give them a good clip out and remove all the...

I try my best mate. :) I find when getting getting bogged down with ions and cations there's always a simpler way of looking at it that even I can understand. It keeps me sane.

It might mate, usually tabs slow release so the roots get the opportunity , with liquid ferts they're going to mix with the aquarium water pretty instantly in much the same way as warm water and cold water would quickly level out into slightly cooler water than it was before. I wish it was...

Maybe do a short ramp up, your lights on full then a long ramp down. Getting the co2 right is far more important at the beginning of the lighting period than at the end. Towards the back end of the lighting period the plants have had their fill of co2, I think I've heard the first 4 hours of...

I found the fish are more active when co2 is lower, from what I understand co2 is an anaesthetic to fish. The 30ppm we aim for or lime green drop checker is to me right on the borderline of what fish can cope with depending on the species. If you want to run lower co2 injection inevitably you...

I would reduce the lighting mate so it's 7 hours in total including the ramp up and down and try fine tuning the co2 again. I tend to find algae have a bit of a delayed response so getting a bit now was an issue a short while ago. Looks like you may have created the perfect storm in so far as...

Do you have any pictures? The key points you have made are... In most cases with a brightly lit tank you will need to add extra nitrogen, poor growth can be caused by a lack of it. Plants will uptake from the roots but in the main will absorb through the leaves. A lot of people fertilise the...

I don't know about the science behind it but I would hazard a guess that a plant converting from one form to another to be energy consuming for the plant. Then it finds itself with nowhere near the co2 it grew accustomed to with bright lights over the top of it while disintegrating in an...

Definitely mate. A lot of problems you see are the plant transitioning. Back in the day when most people weren’t that into plants and it was more niche the plants were kept underwater in the LFS for some time. Now with the popularity of tissue cultures and emersed farmed growing the first time...

Back in the day we probably look at it through rose tinted glasses same as school days and summer holidays. Every summer was sunny and everything was great back then but we only remember the good times. Not much information was available either with no internet so PFK magazine which I subscribed...

It's all light driven and plant choice. People just assume that if you throw lots of light, nutrients and co2 at plants you can't go wrong because plants love all three. A lot of plants don't grow very fast even with a lot of light. Take Anubias for example, just puts a new leaf out now and...

The type of plants available today I would say mate rather than the quality. A lot of the plants we try and keep aren't really meant to live underwater all the time. Combine that with lights getting brighter for less energy. All the plants you listed are plants that do well in low tech it low...

Hello buddy, put simply...in broad terms. From what I understand reading the link on LCP, if I have this right that is :shy: Essentially plants sleep like we do so when they're sleeping in the dark they breath out co2 and consume oxygen. They get woke up by light and when there is enough of it...

They should be good for a few months. If I leave mine too long I tend to find I get a bit of scum in it and it starts reading low.

I don't think people realise how much of a difference it can make. I tend to put mine where ever I suspect would be the worst place for flow and everything else is a bonus. The Chihiros doctors and twinstar are quite good for this as you can watch the mist move round the tank and see where it...

Reducing lighting by either brightness and duration is a benefit although in high tech tanks people tend to go shorter duration higher light and longer duration lower light in low tech. Either way it will benefit, right now the lighting is pushing the plants past a threshold they're not...

As well as reducing the lighting down in duration which appears to be about 11hrs now to a max of six I would start the co2 three hours before lights on. Also I hear ramp up times should be around 15mins to half an hour. You say the DC is green at some point in the day but the aim is to get it...

Following with interest, does seem to bit of a tricky plant at times. The couple of stems I got hold off were emerged form and they seemed to quite happily convert to submersed living, initially I planted into substrate but they seemed to dissolve at the bases although top growth was fine. I...

Which setups have you got? I'm looking to start a nano 300cube up soon but don't have a cabinet to put it on and hide equipment so it will probably just end up on a side board. Thinking of just running it with a small internal filter and maybe some diy co2 or one of the small pressurised systems...

Oh yeah, haha just looked again. Regarding the salts, yes you buy them dry and mix yourself or you can buy them premixed if you fancy paying for a bottle and some water [emoji849] Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Not sure where you are with this at the minute mate, do you already have the diffuser? If not you could get the Tropica one https://tropica.com/en/plant-care/co2/co2-diffuser/ this already has a bubble counter and check valve built in and IMO provides better bubbles than any of the glass ones...

Wow! That escalated fast mate :D No experience on the regulator I'm afraid but I will be interested to hear how you get on with it, I also have it on my watch list on Ebay so wondered of they fair as a lot of people who fancy taking the plunge into co2 are frightened off by the initial outlay so...

Doh, yeah makes sense. So hard water in the scheme of things. For some reason you just assume Yorkshire water with Northern Geology and lakes about would be a lot softer. Looking at the report if it was anything to go by with magnesium, Iron and Nitrate in it should be good to go straight in...

Thanks for jumping in Darrel, I may be being an idiot here but dividing the 685 microsemens by 64 a TDS of 10? Got that wrong haven't I or is that because most of the hardness is made up of temporary? No problem Craig, hope things work out. If there's a pets at home round your way they tend to...

Maybe someone else can comment on the conductivity as I tend to work with degrees of hardness or TDS so not sure how to convert, I think it may be divide by 64 to get TDS but I could be wrong. At first glance it does look like hardish water, I'm seeing Calcium, Magnesium and Sodium in there and...

In the main all plants get their nutrients from the water column. Yeah just dump it straight in the tank and it will dissolve instantly. I tried looking for your water report but you need to ask for one with your account number and address etc. This will just be an average but it's worthwhile...

Meant to say, how comes your water is so hard or what makes you think that. Generally speaking most water up North is quite soft or you not living in Yorkshire?

:thumbup: That's the one pal. Meant to say I buy mine from Tesco in my previous thread not Teach haha. For 70 ltr tank put about half a teaspoon in when you change your water.

You can get Magnesium Sulphate AKA Epsom Salts from the chemist or health food shops. I usually get mine in 100gram tubs from Teach chemist off the shelf. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

The issue I have with Seachems range is that to get all the macros and micros required their model seems to be to sell you them all in separate containers. A lot of the commercial products tend to either skip on the N and P or add the N and P as a different product IE Tropica Premium and Tropica...

To be fair mate the plants you have in there so far tend to do ok without co2 but buying an extra light is a no go or you'll just increase the demand for co2. The BBA probably wasn't an issue related to the co2 I would guess but if you fancy carrying on with it I would look into DIY stuff using...

Do you inject co2 mate? Hard to tell what that clear thing is in the back left corner. Hard water in Yorkshire, quite surprised at that!

just to add, really speaking you shouldn’t really have Chloramine in your water to start with. Chlorine yes but from what I understand in the UK anyway they only use Chloramine in certain circumstances like flushing pipes after road works etc. Chloramine is pretty nasty stuff as it easily...

Depends really what you are trying to achieve so more information about the tank would be handy. From what I understand Premier isn't a water softener its a dechlorinator. When you add fresh tapwater to the tank it reacts with chloramine to produce a small amount of ammonium which plants can...

Looking at post 4 mate I would say it would be a case of planting hair grass first then let it grow long then pull out any runners it sent out. Follow on behind with carpeting MC. I would imagine the hard bit would be that MC when trimmed low grows very dense so would you get enough light to the...

This is a picture of my mixed carpet in my 50 ltr semi high tech in so far as the lighting is on the low side although I do trickle a little bit of co2 in there.They were in three separate areas originally of two areas of S.Repens either side of some MC and the Japonica just found its own way in...

Ahh got ya. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

From previous post mate.

The problem with having different outlets of pumps all coming in at different angles is the jets of water from them tends to bounce off each other and cancel out the streams so try and get them circulating water or all heading in one direction.

Ok, I could see the carpet grass swaying but not the stems towards the back so maybe look at your circulation. FYI T5 tubes come in two flavours, HO (high output) NO (normal output) if you have HO that's a serious amount of light you're putting over there.

Go to bottom of chart and look up how far from the substrate your lights are which in your case is about 24 inches then follow the line of the graph for T5 tubes then in your case x4 so blue band low light, red band medium light and yellow high. You would be getting into medium to high lighting...

I would say with 4xT5 at 24" that's getting up into medium/high lighting no?

Head over to Tropica Plants and select plants that grow on wood and rocks. When you think you know what you are after ask in the buy-sell-swap section of the forum. I'm sure someone will have some cuttings.

There you go, could either add pottasium nitrate to kill two birds with one stone or just pottasium sulphate. Once the ADA soil wears off you'll probably end up on the Nitrate. Tropica is very weak at recommended doses. Look up rotala butterfly that shows you what each dose consists of compared...

Yeah, you should really mate Tropica has very little and 99% of UK tapwater doesn't have any. Check your re-mineralising agent as that could have some maybe? On a side not, Tropica is very low as dosing goes especially nitrate so don't be afraid of dosing a lot more than they recommend. Most...

Any Magnesium being added via Epsom salts?

@dw1305 in his element here. Its his specialist subject on Mastermind.

I think @Edvet had some star grass I could be wrong in one of his cichlid tanks which looked really cool, very wild and natural looking. Something I've been trying to lay my hands on hint hint.

I found them to get going really quick, in my non co2 lowish lit tank they were actually the first plants I could actually visually see some growth in. Know what you mean about springing up where you don't want them though. First sign of them appearing where I don't want them I tend just to pull...

Crypt Balansae

I'm on my first intentional no co2 or LC and the crypts so far have been the strongest plants. Slow going but very little issues. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

You're welcome, keep us informed how you're getting on. It's always good to see what worked and what didn't. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Based on what Clives saying mate do one or the other If you're going to turn the the light down keep the LC at its current level otherwise you're robbing Peter to pay Paul if you get my drift. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

You can do a lot worse than a plant full of crypts mate. Great plants with varying leaf types that will look after themselves. I have them in a no gas or LC tank and they are bouncing. I don't push them too much with lighting though. From what I gather most of them modern Hinterfield light are...

Magnesium is a mobile nutrient, I think how it works is it transfers magnesium from old leaves to new leaves if there's a shortage and the old leaves show the deficiency. Not 100% sure if the old leaves will recover though, sometimes it's best to let them go and concentrate on new growth though...

That would be nigh on impossible to prove I would say mate. There's infinite variables to take into account and no exact way eliminating them. I think allelopathy does without doubt occur in an aquarium in so far as they are all competing for the same light, co2 and nutrients. We're not even...

Try the Magnesium first mate and take it from there, you have healthy new growth so no worries there. Doesn't really matter if a plant was in the shade, if there's low carbon in the tank there's low carbon everywhere. Don't know about your light but at least you have that option in your arsenal...

Not questioning what you're saying Clive, that makes sense. However the Balansae I had were in a co2 injected tank and old leaves always got to a certain size then start dissolving. When I stopped using LC this stopped happening, once I started adding it again same result. Now going off what...

BTW, for the record I have only experienced this with Balansae. Dosed LC with other species of crypt and never experienced any issues.

Ahh ok, now I see why you do that. LC degrades over time in the tank but it shoudln't make that big a difference. If its a long time between the doses then you could add another full dose. If you change water a couple of hours after your initial dose putting another full dose in won't do any...

I've also seen that the Balansae leaves have a life span if you like. They do tend to fall apart when they get older. Maybe dosing EI, LC and bright light you speed up the whole process, not sure on that one. Just eliminate one thing at a time as long as you have new plant growth you're not...

From what I understand there is no Magnesium in UK water supplies. Lack of Magnesium tends to show up in old leaves so it won't do any harm to add some, in fact you really should. Jury's out on LC, I've seen people's tanks with crypts doing well with LC but I had the same issue as you old...

I've also had some poor experiences with Balansae and liquid carbon. If you only have crypts in there they tend to do fine with really low light and if low enough you could get away without LC. Out of curiosity do you add any magnesium with your EI dosing?

Thanks Guy, I think Ludwigia repens Reubens seems to ring a bell for some reason.

Hi, trying to put a plant list together for <This Project> anybody know what the plant is circled in red?

Had a similar experience with Moss Tim. I'll try and get a picture of it later. Found a root in my garage that had been sitting in a bucket with other pieces of hardscape I keep just in case one day a piece is just right. I would suggest the root had been bone dry for about 5 years and had some...

Just showing off now. :D I'll try and translate for the rest of us mere mortals. Not enough of a certain fert the plants will ditch leaves that get the least light. So the plant can focus its effort and what it does have left of the low nutrient on leaves that do *waits for Darrel to come back...

I would say moss is the most resilient thing known to man :D I didn't even have moss in my tank but I used a piece of root that had been in my garage for years, now it's making a come back and I never even put any in there!

What substrate are you using? Some say if it goes anearobic the roots can rot but knowing more about your lighting and water movement will tell more, a picture of the tank ideally. One of the reasons people dose EI is so they can forget about the fertiliser part and concentrate on the other two...

I was thinking the same, hardly likely not having enough. Don't know about the soil and the tabs are in there now so if anything just still wants some magnesium and possibly traces at a guess. Where are these Vallis at the back? hard to tell if also at the front as these look healthy enough...

If the set up is new that sounds like some brown diatom algae which will reduce as the tank matures. Looking at the substrate it appears to be inert (can't speak for the lava rock though) it does contain some calcium which may harden water slightly. Was looking at @George Farmer review of the...

Had a think about it and my observations based on tanks that shouldn't go wrong but do. I feel the majority of people who frequent here probably don't have the type of tank that requires dosing at EI top levels. So they start a tank and get advised to be belt and braces, start EI straight away...

Yeah it's a process of elimination dependant on each individual tank I guess. Out of all the points you raise there I think the key one to me is "frequent water changers" I am starting to come to the conclusion after years of being a member of this board that the common denominator in most tanks...

Sorry read that back and makes sense now. i should have point out my previous comment was aimed at Soilwork and not you specifically.

In a nut shell, Clive a.k.a Ceg on this forum (don't know if you've heard of him) an all round specialist in pretty much everything :D and that's not being sarcastic. Was a big advocate of if you have deficiency in anything to throw lots of ferts at it to the point of ridiculous amounts to see...

You're rapidly changing into Clives Nemesis SW :D not doubting the science or method behind it, I have read into antagonism, it's just I've watched this forum change over the last few months from majority of advice being more of everything to trying less of everything. As long as you don't start...

Yeah the pictures would be great so we can get a better idea. IME the majority of issues you come across are very rarely not enough light. Looking at what you are using there is more than enough lighting there.

Or it could be the plants settling in as discussed earlier. Two weeks is nothing in plant terms. You need to run your set up for a month or two for any issues to rear their heads I would say. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

I've had this discussion before where I think the pre-mixed stuff is difficult to see in the tank. The problem is the more drops you add it waters down the 4dkh solution making it no longer 4dkh. However, it's not exact science and was never meant to be. Just a way of getting a quick visual...

Buy yourself a cheap white plastic ruler and dip it in the water behind the DC so you can get a better look at the colour or maybe buy one of the white plastic dc's. Not as nice to look at in the tank but you get a better reading. The fluval one is quite good. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Maybe too early to tell mate. The DC shouldn't be blue if the co2 has knocked off plus the plants maybe still settling in. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Going off your concerns about your lighting and using Commercial ferts maybe you need to consider the addition of those salts you have stashed or turning the light down. How long as the tank been set up for now? Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Generally 3 things cause holes in leaves, suspects are mechanical damage from fish trying to eat them, low pottasium or low co2. Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

Going off the duck weed I have it will keep going and pushing itself down. The lower ones were a bit tatty, at one point I had duck weed soup about 3/4" thick! I just thin mine out weekly. Where they want to live largely depended on the water level and the out let of the filter. They just seemed...

Reducing the light duration will help you get over this phase by creating less work for the plants=more room for fertiliser and co2 errors. your lighting tubes at the moment would put you in the medium/high lighting bracket so unless you can control each tube individually you will need to go...

First place to stop would be reading the Articles on the home page. Get yourself some coffee and a few hours spare and read them thoroughly. It all starts with lighting, depending on your lighting it will give you an idea of which direction to go in. Generally speaking, the higher the light the...