cant get a carpet going no matter wot i do

[naz]

hi forum...iv been trying to get a carpet going in my tank now for about a year with no sucess,iv tryed uping the co2,upping the flow rate,changeing the substate,the only thing left is the lighting, iv uped it a bit over the last year,but not, run both banks of light full,as iv been told it will injuice algea,first it is an arcadia 4 x39w t5ho light iv run it like this over the last year 3 x 39w for 8 hours straight,2 x39w with a 2 to 3 hour midday burst but i still havent suceeded with the carpet of hc and glosso.every thing else is growing fine,the carpet is fine just not speading,and the glosso is growing tall,iv tryed triming it but it still grows tall,i know its the lighting on the tank everything else is good q1.. how would you run the lighting to suceed with carpet could i run the lighting for 8 hour 2x39w with a4 or 5 miday burst q2 wot else would you do to grow a good carpet ....heres my tank stats

tank osaka 260l ,57g 24inch tall,[very tall tank this is were my problems are]
lighting arcadia 4 x39w t5ho,light unit is another 4 inches above tank
sub, oliver knott
filtration,fluval 405 1400lph,eheim sump pump,2000lph,and iv stuck a koralia 2 2200lph[more than enouth flow]
co2 fe 2kg bottle running a reactor 1000am[drop cheaker is lime green to yellow]
fert,full ie;10m easycarbo a day

 

[DaBub]

Can ou tell us about the substrate you are using now?

How well are other things growing?

24" with t-5's doesn't sound like it should be a problem. I agree all 4 [email protected] seems like too much, yet 2 @39 w seems too little.

With high EI dosing and good CO2 it seems that the light with all 4@ 39w should be managable, even if a little tricky.

I do not know anything about easycarbo. If it is the same as Excel, maybe back off to 5 or 6 ml/day and maybe gently ease the CO2 up just a bit every couple of days till the drop checker is pretty much yellow all the time.

Then the trick is circulation to the plants, this is less of a problem with glossoHC can be a real pain until established.

 

[naz]

thanks for the reply dabub... the substate is oliver knott substate,i think its called nature soil,is a clay based substate,iv read on other forums that it is a very good sub.the other plants in the tank are realy looking well and im getting good growth, and there looking realy green,everything growing except the carpet plants,thay have been in there for over 2 months now,and there still not speading,drop cheaker is lime green,nearly yellow...,so you think i should be able to run 4 x39w if not for the full 8 hour lighting period,maybe for a long midday burst,say 5 hours or so....easycarbo is the same as excel a liquid carbon,i will cut the easycabo down, and start upping the co2 like what your saying..q1 are you saying the drop cheaker should be yellow all the way through the lighting period or just at the end...q2 should i up the lighting gradualy,say 1 or 2 hours a week,and how would you run the lighting times....

 

[john borr]

I am a beginner myself but now have a nice carpet of glosso. One of the things I did as a beginner was to purchase a nice set of test kits Lamotte and Hach brand kits. They were expensive. I found out with these kits that even though I was dosing Iron and nitrogen, the levels were zero, and somehow even though I was hardly dosing phosphates the phosphates were through the roof. ..If an aquarium can have a roof...I was shocked with the high phosphates because some of the hardier plants were doing fine, I believe my problem with the excess phosphate was due to the low level of the other elements like nitrogen. As soon as I added enough nitrogen and iron the phosphate levels went down and the plants started doing much better. I never would have realized this without the kits though. Even presently, I seem to have more potassium in the aquarium than I seem to be adding. Again the kits help you to learn what is going on in the tank.

The other thing I did with glosso is I removed all the plants in the tank except my dwarf hair grass. This also seemed to have a fantastic effect on the glosso. Funny thing is that the dwarf hairgrass grew like mad and grows along the top of my 10 gallon tank if I don't trim it. The point here is I don't think glosso does well if it is even indirectly shaded by taller plants. The second point here is that by eliminating the taller plants I was probably also helping with the circulation of co2 down to the gravel where the carpet plants are. Another important thing for me with this plant was careful planting. It seems best to trim each plant down to roots , a short stem and a couple of leaves and then plant them individually with tweasers. Well I hope this info about my learning curve is of some help, All the best John

 

[naz]

hi forum...can anyone give me any info on my lighting on my tank,im thinking of running a long midday burst ,aabout 5 hours,to try and kick start this hc and glosso in to speading,tryed to up it before in the past,and iv started to get algea problems,i dont no if i uped it to fast,or not enoth co2 application,how fast would up the lighting a week,and wot sort of midday burst would u run,can anyone give me any advice on this, i would be very greatful

 

[BigFlusher]

Circulation Maybe

Hi Lee,

That is a nice tank.

While I agree with DaBub, I think it would be interesting to move the drop checker down.

I suspect that it is more a matter of getting the CO2 to the plants as DaBub noted HC in particular can be a pain and many (including me) find that when getting it established it is handy to direct flow into and over the HC.

I hope this helps, it is as straight forward as I can be at the moment.

Joe

 

[naz]

thanks for the info bigflusher......