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One last try

dw1305 said:
Hi all,
Sam wrote
as you may remember my tap water is loaded with N
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.
That is not necessarily true through-out the whole year. It depends a little bit upon the source of the nitrates (agricultural run-off or "waste water" via the sewage works), but in the winter when the flow in the river (that is either feeding a reservoir or from which the water is directly abstracted) will be much greater. The greater volume of water dilutes any pollutants, and the water is then much lower in nitrates etc. The same happens to the effluent stream flowing to the sewage works, it is more dilute in winter.

If the source of your nitrates are largely agricultural, as well as the greater dilution effect from increased rainfall, there are less livestock on the fields, and most importantly no application of nitrogenous fertilisers to crops. Our tap water will contain less than 10ppm NO3 at the moment , but this will rise to over 30ppm in the spring when a large amount of nitrogen is applied to the fields.

It's only if your water supply comes entirely from a very deep aquifer that these seasonal differences are nullified, in this case the water supply is very unlikely to contain many pollutants at any time of year due to the filtering effect of the rock layers leading to the aquifer and because it may be "fossil water", which entered the aquifer prior to large scale industrialisation.

cheers Darrel
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Very interesting Darrel. Do you work for the environment by any chance?

I dont think this is sams problem, as we all have the same situation with our own tanks in winter if we use tap water.

I personal think that light and nutrients arnt the problem.I Think, in Sames case with Sams set up, the Akadama isn't HC's friend. That and possible Co2. It should grow under these light, if a little leggy, but it should grow.

Same, whats your KH, PH and GH? Take the reading near the end of the light period too Sam, and get back to us.

Cheers.
 
Sam, I grow HC on wood, one sponge filter material, sand, mud etc.

It is really easy weed to grow. It's only tough once you use it below the water.But, with good CO2, and importantly also, lower light, say 40-50micrmoles for long term care, it does very well and CO2 demand is reduced. See about a light meter to borrow, then focus on getting it in that range. Next, tweak CO2 and focus there.

I have 180 cm worth of experience

frontedgepruning.jpg

resizedcheckerboard1.jpg

ADA As will give you excellent results but I've seen good results with plain old sand, even my wood and sponge filters have become infested.


Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Re: Nitrates and HC emersed

Hi all,
RE: Nitrates - I don't work for the EA, but I work in a small University lab. where we (used) to do quite a lot of work on "waste water" and bio-remediation.

PlantBrain wrote
Sam, I grow HC on wood, one sponge filter material, sand, mud etc.
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It's definitely fine emersed, it turned up it toes in rapid time in my "no CO2, no fert." tanks, but the bit I stuck on top of the "Hamburg Matten Filter" sponge did very well.

cheers Darrel
 
Themuleous said:
Thanks for the thoughts Graeme, I did try Eco-complete before this lot of Akadama, and the HC did exactly the same thing. Complete sod as the EC wasn't cheap!

I cant take KH or GH readings as dont have th test kits, what are you thinking? I could easily buy them.

Sam
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If you have an accurate reading of KH and PH, then you know exactly what your Co2 is doing. Your drop checker may not be very accurate.... If the drop checker goes to yellow, then even if you PH keeps falling then it still stays yellow.
Test kits will give a better idea of what is going on.

Try floating some to Sam, see what that does.

Take a sample to a shop and ask them to help you out.

If you have silly low KH then this could be at the route of your problem.
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all,
Should have said I like the Checkerboard cichlid (Dicrossus) in the photo as well. Very smart fish.
cheers Darrel
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I got a dozen of them in there, they might eat the cherry shrimp, not quite sure yet. Babies for sure, but since the cherries bred like flies..... I still have a few.

I have a Zebra L046 pleco breeding tank with 100-200 cherries, so I toss them in here in hopes of getting a colony going. There are no other cichlids any longer, I had several groups of Apistos that did well, but took them to a client's tank.

The non CO2 ADA tank has HC growing on a moss mat emergently. The HC was removed from the 180 Gal, but attached to the emergent wood and has made a 10x10cm mat. 2 very different tanks and nutrient concentrations, but the HC weed still grows.

PITA if you ask me, not as bad as Gloss, but not much better either.
I have Gloss growing in my bonsai moss, been there for 2 years now.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
There is an "easy" way to check if CO2 is the problem. From what I know, HC thrives on Seachem Excel. Perhaps you can try and dose Excel according to the recommended dosage in addition to normal CO2 injection and see if it helps things out a bit?

If its any consolation, I can relate to your situation. I had Staurogyne which was so easy that it doubled its mass every month or two. Then suddenly, after about 9 months of growing in my tank, they started melting. Nothing (that I know of) changed in my tank, same EI dosage, same lights, same CO2 injection. Since then I've upped the CO2 and changed out 3 old light tubes and they're still melting. No idea why at all. Every other plant is thriving, including Anubias, ferns, mosses, stems. Baffled is what I am. And a bit frustrated, considering that my plans had Staurogyne as the main foreground plant!

Hang in there mate!
 
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