Hi,
I desperately need your help pls.
I have been struggling with my tank for almost six months now and I cannot get the simplest of plants to grow. I keep seeing other hobbiests tanks and get so enviuos and no matter how hard I try, I simply am not able to get my tank anywhere close to looking nice.
Let me give you some info about my tank:
Tank
Juwel 350l Trigon
Filtration
Ferplast Bluemec 1500
Juwel Bio 1000
Additional Flow provided by:
2 Haquos Power Heads
1100l/hr pump
Koralia 1
Heating
Jaeger 300W Heater
CO2
CO2 injection with monitor & controller
65mm Green Leaf Atomic CO2 diffuser
Controller only kicks in to stop ph from dropping to low
Lights
TMC 2 x Grobeam 1000 ND LED Tiles
TMC 1 x Aquabeam 1000 HD Ultra LED Tile
These are on from 14.00hrs to 23.00hrs set on timers. Tiles are suspended 35cm above water (had it some 5cm above water before and used to get a lot of algae)
Substrate
Aqua Medic Volcanit substrate
Other
Hailea 500l chiller linked to 1100l/hr pump to keep temperature at a constant 27C
Ferts
EI Dosing dry method as follows:
Saturday 50% water change then add:
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Sunday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Monday
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Tuesday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Wedmesday
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Thursday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Friday
Rest
I age my water in an aerated, heated tank for a week for the water change. Water is also treated with Aqualife + Vitamins.
Fish
60 Cardinal Tetras
5 Emperor Tetras
4 Sterbai Corys
2 Panda Corys
4 Siamese Algae Eaers (cannot catch them to get them re homed)
5 x 7.5cm Discus
1 clown loach small
I would like to only have the Discus, corys and cardinals in there eventually. catching the rest has been a challenge however.
I have a snail problem which I have addressed by picking out as many snails as possible each morning. I have also added 10 assasin snails and a clown loach to deal with this. (the clown loach will be re homed once snails are in check)
I struggle with low KH right out of the tap. I have added dolomite and crushed coral to the filter in order to try and keep the ph up. PH is at around 7.15 and I am currently trying to bring this down 0.05 per week. I am currently at 6.90 ph when co2 kicks in. I really need to have lots of water agitation to get the ph up again overnight.
I thought that with this setup I should have nice results however I am not even getting nice growth and appearance with plants like Sagitaria, bolbitis, java moss (not growing at all) and Echinodorus. The low light plants like crypts, barclaya red, anubias, flame moss and java fern are not doing too bad. Plants like HC and hairgrass just melt away. Echinodorus are now showing signs of holes going right through the leaves. Not a lot of holes but the holes grow in size.
I am at a loss and do not know what to do. It should not be lack of circulation and neither light nor ferts and yet the results are poor to say the least!
I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions.
Michael
I desperately need your help pls.
I have been struggling with my tank for almost six months now and I cannot get the simplest of plants to grow. I keep seeing other hobbiests tanks and get so enviuos and no matter how hard I try, I simply am not able to get my tank anywhere close to looking nice.
Let me give you some info about my tank:
Tank
Juwel 350l Trigon
Filtration
Ferplast Bluemec 1500
Juwel Bio 1000
Additional Flow provided by:
2 Haquos Power Heads
1100l/hr pump
Koralia 1
Heating
Jaeger 300W Heater
CO2
CO2 injection with monitor & controller
65mm Green Leaf Atomic CO2 diffuser
Controller only kicks in to stop ph from dropping to low
Lights
TMC 2 x Grobeam 1000 ND LED Tiles
TMC 1 x Aquabeam 1000 HD Ultra LED Tile
These are on from 14.00hrs to 23.00hrs set on timers. Tiles are suspended 35cm above water (had it some 5cm above water before and used to get a lot of algae)
Substrate
Aqua Medic Volcanit substrate
Other
Hailea 500l chiller linked to 1100l/hr pump to keep temperature at a constant 27C
Ferts
EI Dosing dry method as follows:
Saturday 50% water change then add:
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Sunday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Monday
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Tuesday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Wedmesday
5.4grms Potassium Nitrate
2grms Mono Potassium Phosphate
13grms Magnesium Sulfate
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Thursday
1.4grms CSM+B
12ml Carbo Green by Aquatic Nature
Friday
Rest
I age my water in an aerated, heated tank for a week for the water change. Water is also treated with Aqualife + Vitamins.
Fish
60 Cardinal Tetras
5 Emperor Tetras
4 Sterbai Corys
2 Panda Corys
4 Siamese Algae Eaers (cannot catch them to get them re homed)
5 x 7.5cm Discus
1 clown loach small
I would like to only have the Discus, corys and cardinals in there eventually. catching the rest has been a challenge however.
I have a snail problem which I have addressed by picking out as many snails as possible each morning. I have also added 10 assasin snails and a clown loach to deal with this. (the clown loach will be re homed once snails are in check)
I struggle with low KH right out of the tap. I have added dolomite and crushed coral to the filter in order to try and keep the ph up. PH is at around 7.15 and I am currently trying to bring this down 0.05 per week. I am currently at 6.90 ph when co2 kicks in. I really need to have lots of water agitation to get the ph up again overnight.
I thought that with this setup I should have nice results however I am not even getting nice growth and appearance with plants like Sagitaria, bolbitis, java moss (not growing at all) and Echinodorus. The low light plants like crypts, barclaya red, anubias, flame moss and java fern are not doing too bad. Plants like HC and hairgrass just melt away. Echinodorus are now showing signs of holes going right through the leaves. Not a lot of holes but the holes grow in size.
I am at a loss and do not know what to do. It should not be lack of circulation and neither light nor ferts and yet the results are poor to say the least!
I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions.
Michael