as you can see by the post, I will explain the current situation tho
for an extended period of time I have had poor plant growth, originally I was battling algae because of too high of light, when I came onto this forum I started with some of what Tom says and had good results, but now I have been having weird problems
original setups, flourish or reg gravel, DIY co2, even on a 75 gallon with over 4wpg, and seachem's full line of ferts, I was having a little issue with leaves curling and growin circular instead of straight, so I doubled my doseage of ferts, I did not much if any increase in growth or less algae
started Toms recommended dosing under the PPS style EI with liquid ferts, he recommended I believe 12 mls daily of a mixture of 60 grams KNO3, 15 grams of mono potassium phosphate, and 30 grams of potassium sulfate/magnesium sulfate, and then 2.5 mls daily of micro's I think he recommended the one really popular in europe, the name escapes me at the moment, I use something similar to my own, which is 10-12 grams of miller's 10-12 grams of CSM+b and 8-10 grams of Iron chelate from GLA, I forget the exact Iron then sell, I also mix in a little Iron from seachem as I still have a little left
I have quite doing any excell/glut, as I had some plant melting problems, which now I think may be unrelated
I add more ferts than Tom recommended, I use ~ 15 mls daily of the ferts, which I also add a little more mono potassium phosphate(20 grams instead of 15) and I add~10 mls daily of the micro mix I just referenced
I have also switched to a nutrient rich substrate, UP aquasoil
I started to lower my light levels, went to pressurized CO2, gassed some fish, upped the circulation, and judging by the fish, same ones that were always in the tank, now with higher circulation, there should be no possible way that CO2 is not considerably higher, I have tested this many times, along with having lowered the light= CO2 NOT THE ISSUE.
my plants are growing super slow, I am getting curling, bad and weird coloration such as purple tone to s. porto vehlo (sp?) my ludwigia red, is green in high light? when I bought it it was SUPER RED, my plants keep growin some and then stunting really bad, I have a patch of rotala macramandra super red and reg, it seems like only one stem at a time grows and there is no growth out of any of the others, then that one will stunt, and another stem will show some signs of life with bright orangish red growth and then stop growing and turn a dark green/ugly red... this seems to happen with all my plants in either of the tanks I have going right now, however I do have emersed growth on the 20 gallon that is doing great.
tanks are 20 L with a total of over 20x rated turnover, however the eheim has such poor flow (the biggest pro 3 model for ~2 years ago rated for a 165 gallon tank lol) I doubt the flow is even 10x but at least close
it has a 2 bulb 30" coralife t-5 HO 62 w fixture with 1 10k and one 6500, also as I thought light may be the issue I have a 18 w t-5 NO 6500k 30" coralife fixture hung up about the tank as well, the lights are on for 8.75 hours per day, they are at least 12-15" above tank to allow room for all the emersed growth
other is 75 gallon total of 176 watts of light, pressurized, through a diffuser into the intake of a powerhead to make super fine bubbles, UP aquasoil mixed with a little onyx sand from seachem to keep hardness up as I have cichlids in the tank
that is the tank after planting
So, aside from the severe no and slow growth, that seems to effect sp randomly (not always the same ones, but always at least a couple in the tank) upon startup I had severe problems with diatoms, this did not happen in my old setups, although they got a little, this was severe in both cases
other wierd thing, I get BBA, in low light areas! why would this happen??? I thought it was from too high of light/low/inconsistent CO2
another weird thing, on the 20L plant growth got alot better after turning down CO2, so I could add livestock??? WTH would that happen???
also CANNOT get glosso to grow horizontal, tried taking out livestock and cranking CO2 to a rediculous amount, and putting up to 10wpg, still it only grew vertical???
here is a pic of 56 total watts on a 5 gallon, with CO2 ~ 10bps, out of a great little ceramic disc diffuser, and 71 gph of circulation mixing it in.. you should have seen the riccia pearl, but the freakin glosso refused to grow horizontal, I also have problems with some stunting and smaller leavers in this tank, however I was able to achieve decent growth
after reducing light and a couple months later, left a little glosso in which never grew horizontal again, you can see it growing like a stem plant behind the riccia
here are some examples of the glosso growin great before these new tanks
pressurized CO2, slightly lowered light from what I was previously using, and after making the switch to EI, this was a couple months after finding the barr report
pretty sure this one was DIY co2
this was def DIY co2, and this was all the same glosso, it originally grew like this which was great, I loved it and really miss it as a foreground plant
so wierd stunting
slow growth
tiny leaves
deformed leaves(curling up like rolling a cigarette, and curling sidways, like in a circular path like a C when they should be ---- straight
extreme diatoms, BBA in low light areas/ or even places where there is almost no light, and a little GDA, which I dont mind at all and usually only happens when I slack on ferts
I think diatoms is a water issue as its in tanks without some of the changes
curling leaves happened before changes too, thought it was a deficiency, so for a while I was using double the amounts recomended dosing schedule from seachem
changes, lowered light from what I was previously using, but not by alot example, going from 318 watts of light on a 75 gallon to 260, I know its alot but these are coralife fixtures, without even polished relfectors, reflectors look like brushed aluminum and I had great growth with the 318 watts and only real algae issues were with moss and anubias, plus a little gda on hardscape, which I dont mind...
so lowered light
went pressurized, and cranked up CO2 to much higher than it was before
added good circulation and some surface ripple, but nothing breaking the surface or too extreme, so all the plants lightly sway, and a decent surface ripple was the goal
added UP aquasoil instead of flourish
used manzy from Tom
added rocks found here
for an extended period of time I have had poor plant growth, originally I was battling algae because of too high of light, when I came onto this forum I started with some of what Tom says and had good results, but now I have been having weird problems
original setups, flourish or reg gravel, DIY co2, even on a 75 gallon with over 4wpg, and seachem's full line of ferts, I was having a little issue with leaves curling and growin circular instead of straight, so I doubled my doseage of ferts, I did not much if any increase in growth or less algae
started Toms recommended dosing under the PPS style EI with liquid ferts, he recommended I believe 12 mls daily of a mixture of 60 grams KNO3, 15 grams of mono potassium phosphate, and 30 grams of potassium sulfate/magnesium sulfate, and then 2.5 mls daily of micro's I think he recommended the one really popular in europe, the name escapes me at the moment, I use something similar to my own, which is 10-12 grams of miller's 10-12 grams of CSM+b and 8-10 grams of Iron chelate from GLA, I forget the exact Iron then sell, I also mix in a little Iron from seachem as I still have a little left
I have quite doing any excell/glut, as I had some plant melting problems, which now I think may be unrelated
I add more ferts than Tom recommended, I use ~ 15 mls daily of the ferts, which I also add a little more mono potassium phosphate(20 grams instead of 15) and I add~10 mls daily of the micro mix I just referenced
I have also switched to a nutrient rich substrate, UP aquasoil
I started to lower my light levels, went to pressurized CO2, gassed some fish, upped the circulation, and judging by the fish, same ones that were always in the tank, now with higher circulation, there should be no possible way that CO2 is not considerably higher, I have tested this many times, along with having lowered the light= CO2 NOT THE ISSUE.
my plants are growing super slow, I am getting curling, bad and weird coloration such as purple tone to s. porto vehlo (sp?) my ludwigia red, is green in high light? when I bought it it was SUPER RED, my plants keep growin some and then stunting really bad, I have a patch of rotala macramandra super red and reg, it seems like only one stem at a time grows and there is no growth out of any of the others, then that one will stunt, and another stem will show some signs of life with bright orangish red growth and then stop growing and turn a dark green/ugly red... this seems to happen with all my plants in either of the tanks I have going right now, however I do have emersed growth on the 20 gallon that is doing great.
tanks are 20 L with a total of over 20x rated turnover, however the eheim has such poor flow (the biggest pro 3 model for ~2 years ago rated for a 165 gallon tank lol) I doubt the flow is even 10x but at least close
it has a 2 bulb 30" coralife t-5 HO 62 w fixture with 1 10k and one 6500, also as I thought light may be the issue I have a 18 w t-5 NO 6500k 30" coralife fixture hung up about the tank as well, the lights are on for 8.75 hours per day, they are at least 12-15" above tank to allow room for all the emersed growth
other is 75 gallon total of 176 watts of light, pressurized, through a diffuser into the intake of a powerhead to make super fine bubbles, UP aquasoil mixed with a little onyx sand from seachem to keep hardness up as I have cichlids in the tank
that is the tank after planting
So, aside from the severe no and slow growth, that seems to effect sp randomly (not always the same ones, but always at least a couple in the tank) upon startup I had severe problems with diatoms, this did not happen in my old setups, although they got a little, this was severe in both cases
other wierd thing, I get BBA, in low light areas! why would this happen??? I thought it was from too high of light/low/inconsistent CO2
another weird thing, on the 20L plant growth got alot better after turning down CO2, so I could add livestock??? WTH would that happen???
also CANNOT get glosso to grow horizontal, tried taking out livestock and cranking CO2 to a rediculous amount, and putting up to 10wpg, still it only grew vertical???
here is a pic of 56 total watts on a 5 gallon, with CO2 ~ 10bps, out of a great little ceramic disc diffuser, and 71 gph of circulation mixing it in.. you should have seen the riccia pearl, but the freakin glosso refused to grow horizontal, I also have problems with some stunting and smaller leavers in this tank, however I was able to achieve decent growth
after reducing light and a couple months later, left a little glosso in which never grew horizontal again, you can see it growing like a stem plant behind the riccia
here are some examples of the glosso growin great before these new tanks
pressurized CO2, slightly lowered light from what I was previously using, and after making the switch to EI, this was a couple months after finding the barr report
pretty sure this one was DIY co2
this was def DIY co2, and this was all the same glosso, it originally grew like this which was great, I loved it and really miss it as a foreground plant
so wierd stunting
slow growth
tiny leaves
deformed leaves(curling up like rolling a cigarette, and curling sidways, like in a circular path like a C when they should be ---- straight
extreme diatoms, BBA in low light areas/ or even places where there is almost no light, and a little GDA, which I dont mind at all and usually only happens when I slack on ferts
I think diatoms is a water issue as its in tanks without some of the changes
curling leaves happened before changes too, thought it was a deficiency, so for a while I was using double the amounts recomended dosing schedule from seachem
changes, lowered light from what I was previously using, but not by alot example, going from 318 watts of light on a 75 gallon to 260, I know its alot but these are coralife fixtures, without even polished relfectors, reflectors look like brushed aluminum and I had great growth with the 318 watts and only real algae issues were with moss and anubias, plus a little gda on hardscape, which I dont mind...
so lowered light
went pressurized, and cranked up CO2 to much higher than it was before
added good circulation and some surface ripple, but nothing breaking the surface or too extreme, so all the plants lightly sway, and a decent surface ripple was the goal
added UP aquasoil instead of flourish
used manzy from Tom
added rocks found here
Last edited by a moderator: