Themuleous
Member
I'm having real problems with my new 4ft tank. So far I've lost £50 worth of HC in it, and I've just added a further £20 of glosso, val nann, P.helferi and a little bit more HC.
Quick setup stats
Tank - 48x18x18
Lighting - 2x54w T5 - Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite Fluorescent and Sylvania Grolux (I did run 3x 54w but when the HC started to turn white and rot I switched to just two tubes as I reckon it was pushing the plants to hard?)
Substrate - Akadama pre-soaked in water laced with PO4, NO3 and ferts (Could this be the problem?)
Ferts - EI using 4ppm PO4, 40ppm NO3 and 40ml AE trace three times a week
Filter - Eheim 2080
Livestock - Currently only 16 ottos, but will be adding lots of cherry shrimp tonight.
CO2 - added, bit its tricky getting it stable in such a big tank. It takes hours for the levels to show up after I change the rate. The DC has been from yellow to bottle green (i.e. dark green) but its never been into the 'blue range.'
To start with the HC grew but slowly (even under the 3x54w) and was very long and thin with few leaves. Following this it turned brown and dont grow before pretty much dieing. This is very similar to the problem I had in my nano which was due to the lighting, which I solved by running one tube instead of the previous 2 and raising the lighting upwards away from the tank to reduce the intensity.
Needless to say I've removed all the HC, the roots of which weren't 100% dead but it was getting that way, only one or two very very small leaves left. I did suffer with quite a nasty bout of darn green/black fluffy algae (new filter troubles) which did swamp the plants a bit, but the ottos are getting on top of that a last. Could the algae actually have killed the plants?
Sorry this is all a bit vague, I'm totally stumped. I really think it could be the T5 lighting, its just so darn powerful that the plants cant cope. If only I could switch back to my trusty Freshwater T8 tubes!
Any advice, gratefully received!
Thanks
Sam
Quick setup stats
Tank - 48x18x18
Lighting - 2x54w T5 - Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite Fluorescent and Sylvania Grolux (I did run 3x 54w but when the HC started to turn white and rot I switched to just two tubes as I reckon it was pushing the plants to hard?)
Substrate - Akadama pre-soaked in water laced with PO4, NO3 and ferts (Could this be the problem?)
Ferts - EI using 4ppm PO4, 40ppm NO3 and 40ml AE trace three times a week
Filter - Eheim 2080
Livestock - Currently only 16 ottos, but will be adding lots of cherry shrimp tonight.
CO2 - added, bit its tricky getting it stable in such a big tank. It takes hours for the levels to show up after I change the rate. The DC has been from yellow to bottle green (i.e. dark green) but its never been into the 'blue range.'
To start with the HC grew but slowly (even under the 3x54w) and was very long and thin with few leaves. Following this it turned brown and dont grow before pretty much dieing. This is very similar to the problem I had in my nano which was due to the lighting, which I solved by running one tube instead of the previous 2 and raising the lighting upwards away from the tank to reduce the intensity.
Needless to say I've removed all the HC, the roots of which weren't 100% dead but it was getting that way, only one or two very very small leaves left. I did suffer with quite a nasty bout of darn green/black fluffy algae (new filter troubles) which did swamp the plants a bit, but the ottos are getting on top of that a last. Could the algae actually have killed the plants?
Sorry this is all a bit vague, I'm totally stumped. I really think it could be the T5 lighting, its just so darn powerful that the plants cant cope. If only I could switch back to my trusty Freshwater T8 tubes!
Any advice, gratefully received!
Thanks
Sam