what more can i do?

[Zebra Fish]

i use to have a lot of amazon frogbit with lovely long roots but that soon died off due to me only dosing micro nutrients, i've now got a lot of water lettuce which was suffering the same problem of very little root growth with one or two surviving frogbits. im at the point of pulling my hair out here since the rest of my tank is thriving with the DIY CO2 the liquid fertiliser (macro and micro ferts, 4ml daily) as well as root tabs, my lighting is on for 7 hours and i'm having a slight battle with brown and green spot algae (think its due to the blue light which unnecessarily goes on of a night which has stopped so algae is dying down) there should be more than enough for the roots to get growing and yet they're not. i've got a powerful filter but that's pointing down at the substrate to avoid directly blasting onto the roots. the plants are sectioned into one area but have plenty of space and access to flow, none of my fish bother the plants either so what's going on.

 

[greenmac75]

had similar root problem with frogbit in tank with fast flow, but betta tank with little flow it thrived hope this helps

 

[Zebra Fish]

Hmm see I could pop it into my ten litre but then the problem is if I stay over night at the boyfriends I doubt anyone would turn the water for me. Last time I lost more than half of my water lettuce because the plants just rotted in the stagnant water (only gone for three days like)

Daft question if I turn the flow down does that affect the suction power of the filter


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[greenmac75]

not sure about the filter question, my betta does not like a fast flow and the frogbit grows very fast so extras I just stick in the faster flowing tank and take it out when it starts to go

 

[Zebra Fish]

well when i had my other which wasn't powerful enough honestly (but was fine since it was fully cycled and with 3 fish on minimal feeding) well it use to be beautifully long as in curling all around each other for the fish to hide in but no more 🙁 think i might set that 10 litre up tomorrow for the water change and just use the old water for that (saves me getting my hands wet)

 

[GTL_UK]

What filter do you have?

 

[Zebra Fish]

All pond solutions corner filter can't quite remember what type it is but I know it's the larger option for my tank


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[Andy D]

Here is my experience with Water Lettuce.

1. It does not like a lot of flow. I find this with a lot of floaters except duckweed which is nuclear proof.

2. Leaf size is proportional to the light it receives. I have had my light about 6 inches from the surface and my water lettuce stayed about 1-2 inches across. I lowered my light to about less than an inch from the surface and the water lettuce have grown to about 5/6 inches across!

3. Root length is proportional to leaf size or maybe more accurately, nutrient demand. On my smaller water lettuce the roots are quite small maybe 1-2 inchess. On my big water lettuce the roots are about 8-10 inches long and there are more of them. Ultimately the roots are there to take in nutrients. If the water contains a plentiful amount (which it should with your dosing regime) then there is no need for the water lettuce to produce and sustain a massive root system if the small roots are getting all the nutrients the plant needs. If nutrients are in poor supply then this is when I find that roots are longer as this gives the plant more opportunity to get fed.

 

[GTL_UK]

All pond solutions corner filter can't quite remember what type it is but I know it's the larger option for my tank


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The thing is that you cannot wet Frogbit as it will root

 

[Zebra Fish]

its the 450 version, i'll set up the 10 litre with the water left over from my last water change

i usually have the flow pointing down about 30' from the surface which pushes a lot of water throughout the tank