Hygrophila Polysperma and low lighting

[island lad77]

Ive got two of these in my 125L under two 20w T8's (with reflectors) im dosing 20ml profito weekly and 3ml easy carbo daily. All other plants are doing really well apart from this species. Is this due to my wpg or my dosing. Im also doing 40% changes weekly aswell. Plant does have new leaves coming through but some of these are starting to wither now aswell. Any thoughts ?

Thanks, Steve

 

[ceg4048]

Hello,
Hygrophila Polysperma does not care about wpg. Most likely what it cares about is the measly 3ml of EasyCarbo. That would be my first area of improvement. Then I would get a real NPK nutrient product such as the one shown Ei Starter Kit which will also work out loads cheaper in the long run.

Cheers,

 

[island lad77]

I'm fully intending to get the EI kit as it seems to make a lot of sense. As for the easy carbo the recommended dosage is 2ml max per 50 liters in a heavily planted tank. Mine is 125L and only medium planted. As I'm new to planted tanks I've been worried about overdosing liquid carbs. If you could give me a few pointers regarding carb dosing that would be great.

thanks, Steve.

 

[ceg4048]

Hi Steve,
Unless you have sensitive shrimp, or sensitive plants then you can ignore the limits listed on the bottle and double or treble the numbers. Make sure you only dose it 1/2 hour or so before lights on and definitely no later than lights on. People who have Riccia and Vallis complain the most of toxicity but other plants such as stems, carpet plants, moss, swords and crypts do well with higher dosing.

Cheers,

 

[island lad77]

OK I reckon I will try double dose for a while and order the Ei kit on Monday. I've got marbel hatchets in the tank which aren't considered hardy fish so will extra carb be OK. Thanks for your input

Steve

 

[ceg4048]

The hatchets should be fine but increase the dosage slowly over several days and observe. When you add more liquid carbon you need to add more nutrients so unless you have them both I would wait.

Trim the problem areas of the stems.

Cheers,