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Substrate didnt fix it.

T

Themuleous

Member
Joined
6 Jul 2007
Messages
4,121
Location
Aston, Oxfordshire
Well I changed the substrate in my 4ft to eco complete a few weeks back and the same thing is happening with the HC, as you can see.

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I'm back to thinking it could be the water? The leaves almost look burned? The only other thing it could be is the lighting but given that I've had a few tanks each with different lighting it seems unlikely. The only consistent factor is my tap water.

Having said that look at the java ferns in my community tank? Could the high light in my 4ft be forcing the tanks to work to hard in water that is not suitable? Interestingly strangely enough when I put one of the ferns in my 4ft is really went down hill, only recovering once I put it back under the lower light.

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Any help appreciated.

Sam

PS - I'm sure its not the fert as well, using TPN and EI, cant go wrong with that!?!?!
 
i have just had this problem with my H/C so i just gave it up as a bad job. i guess its something in our water? :/
 
My hc always starts off like that mate... liquid carbon helps a great deal to get it up and running... make sure your flow of co2 and ferts to the plant is good. I found an increase in light helps a lot too, even with a short 6 hour photoperiod.
 
What light do you have and for how long?

I find it hard to believe that its your tap water. Have you tried RO to see if that theory holds up?

Its hard to see what the plant is doing when its planted so sparsely.
 
Hi,

My 2p.

Lack of CO2 made my HC go grey and melt, not brown and yellow.

John
 
Weren't you running your tank with ro before?
Arana had his tanks replaced because they killed everything with what ever was in them.
 
Garuf said:
Arana had his tanks replaced because they killed everything with what ever was in them.
Click to expand...

:shock:
 
What substrate were you using before the eco-complete? I never had any luck with it either, I was blasting Co2 at it, 2ml of TPN+ each day in a 25l and had 36w of lights, altough I ran only one bulb at 18w for a while, but still no luck. I was using RO water buffered to 4Gh, 2Kh and pH 6.5. Tried loads of different conditions, but had no luck, although everything else was going mad. Strange eh!
 
Themuleous said:
Not doing excel (I shouldn't need to), but I am throwing CO2 at it. I'll up it to just under the fish gasping rate, just to be sure.
Sam
Click to expand...
Hey Sam, as JamesM mentions, try some Excel. HC really loves the stuff. In fact Seachem should change the picture on the Excel bottle from a Fern or whatever that is to HC. You shouldn't have to use it, but you do. Life isn't fair mate, and not all plants are created equally so there is absolutely no point whatsoever comparing it's performance to your ferns, which are effectively bulletproof. If HC is your priority in that tank, then you need to optimize your procedures around it's survival. Once it grows in then you can normally back off the Excel. You couldn't have picked two plants that are any more different. The fern is the hare and the HC is the turtle.

Cheers,
 
I was pleased from a personal view point to see that it wasn't the Akadama that was causing the problems. I know CO2 has been mentioned many times, but I still think that it could still be the cause of your problems. The signs all point towards it. I see in a different post you said this
I used to get 3 months out of my 2kg FE on my 250lt
Click to expand...
I get around 4 months out of a 6.35kg pub bottle on my 200 litre tank. As you can see this is much more CO2 than what you have mentioned that you use. Fish gasping is a sign of low O2 and not necessarily high CO2. How much CO2 are you adding now?

For me HC is a nuisance plant that I've ripped out of my tank now as it grows too damned fast. Even now the few small bits that floated off and collected in corners and under other plants are sprouting like mad.

James
 
Well I've been dosing with excel and pushed the CO2 to the max killing one of my cherry barbs in the process (and almost a second but I noticed in time) and no change in the HC or blyxa. I've added a few crypts just as a control plant, as they should grow in pretty much anything.

I don't know if it will sort it but I've invested in the stuff needed to use JamesC's RO remineralisation recipe and will be using 100% RO from now on, just so I can be totally sure its not something in the water.

If that doesn't work, then I'm all outta ideas :shock:

Sam
 
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