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Please Help my plants are dying

Matthew Hillman

Matthew Hillman

Seedling
Joined
2 Sep 2013
Messages
8
Location
Wiltshire
Hi All,

As you can see from the picture below my plants are mainly yellow, I end up with a huge amount of plant bits in my filter and stuck in the inlet valve. Could it be a light issue? I am currently running second hand bulbs a 42" power-glo in the front and a 48" JBL 6500k in the middle/back. Any help would be appreciated.
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Slightly closer shot of some of the plants, pretty much all the plants are in this condition.
2013-11-29%2022.42.41.jpg

2013-11-29%2022.46.43.jpg
 
Tell us about ferts, filtration , etc etc. Its usually too much light, not enough food.
 
Filtration is a Fluval 405, tank is 4ft, tank temp is usually around 20c, I try and remember to feed the plants once a week but I forget sometimes. Plant fert is JBL Ferropol.
 
How long are your lights on for? 6 hours is plenty. I suspect your fert is trace minerals only.
 
Far too long light period. What you got is plants stressed to the max
 
Dh
Matthew Hillman said:
Tank timer is currently set to 7:45am-11pm and has been for just over a year give or take 15 mins.
Click to expand...
Wow that a long time, but thinking back I would of been guilty of the same thing when I wanted to see the tank all day before I could keep plants.so I'm not taking the Micheal. Do you have much algae? ( can't see your pic) I would at least cut it down to 6Hrs. Before you know it Matt you will have the planted tank you've been aiming for🙂
 
Cut the lighting duration, maybe add some tnc substrate fertiliser plugs around the plants.
 
You need to reduce your lights on time as the the others have said and looking at the picture it looks like you have blue green algae (bga) which means you need to add nitrate. I take it your fertiliser only contains micro nutrients this means you need a source of npk (nitrate, phosphate an potassium) these are macro nutrients and essential to plant growth. Check out the websites of some of the forum sponsors as they sell a range of dry powders and all in one solutions.
 
Also are your bulbs t5? If so then the one 48" bulb will be plenty of light.
 
Small update: I've bought myself a API Freshwater Master Test Kit and some Tropica Plant Growth Specialised Fertiliser. Test kit turned up this morning, still waiting on the Tropica. I'll post my results when I do the tests tonight on the tank.
 
kirk said:
Dh
Wow that a long time, but thinking back I would of been guilty of the same thing when I wanted to see the tank all day before I could keep plants.so I'm not taking the Micheal. Do you have much algae? ( can't see your pic) I would at least cut it down to 6Hrs. Before you know it Matt you will have the planted tank you've been aiming for🙂
Click to expand...


A while ago my plants were ok, not sure what really changed.

Back when my tank looked nice. 🙁

GeS02P5.jpg
 
Far too much light has others have commented. What was initial success was just the prelude to destruction... (I think I like that line). The high light was likely to have drove the plants' metabolism up hence the apparently nice growth. Once the plant mass increased coupled with the intense lighting, CO2 and nutrients would have been removed at a very quick rate, if you can't keep up with the two requirements then plants will fail and algae will appear. It appears to be that you're running a low tech tank so reduce your lighting. Have around 6 hours of lighting, perhaps change the bulbs, make sure there is a nice flow in the tank and don't be afraid to overdose ferts as the plants need as many things as they can get in their favour to thrive and recover.
 
Yes I'd say more plant food. less light. I'd even try a 3 day total black out the n the lights back on for only 3-5Hrs to start Off. It's worth checking out berties threads he's cracked it.🙂 your light substrate / gravel will also be amplifying the light levels.
 
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