my 50g tank

[amd3000]

hello , i am cristian from romania, after a few mounths of reading youre forum i decided to register and present my beginner's tank, at the moment is in work after almost 1 year from the start, i am adding jbl bioballs cause my substrate is finnished, big prunning and display changes so no pictures with actual form because its a mess, but i have some from earlier stages, the third photo is from beginning of new scapping.


Equipment:

tank : 80x50x50 cm home made

Light: 10x18w t8 osram 865
filtration: faunty 1200l/h china external filter, eheim classic 2215, jebo 5w uv, surface skimmer

CO2 : dennerle cylinder 2.5 kg, dennerle co2 pressure reducer, dennerle flipper 200l reactor

substrate; jbl aquabasis + bioballs, jbl manado

flora: alternather reineki red, rotala vietnam, L. aromatica, heteranthera zosterifolia, didiplis diandra, banana plant, echinodorus tenellus, staurogyne sp., pogostemon helferi, blyxia japonica, microsorum pteropus, 2 species of ludwigia that i dont know the name.

fauna: 7 paracheirodon axelrodi, 2 cardinals, x no. red cherry shrimps.

plant problem: all plants are doing great but L. aromatica, it doesn't want to grow.

 

[Gerryd]

Hi and welcome!

Your tank looks good..

Are you really using 10 bulbs? That sounds like a lot and you don't have a really large tank...

I think perhaps you have too much light for this tank. This causes a higher rate of plant growth. You may not have enough c02 to supply the demand and this causes issues.

Also, are you doing any water column dosing for macros or micros?

I am not familiar with your substrates. Are they enriched with some nutrients?

The other thing to note is that c02 and other ferts will need to be INCREASED as plant growth expands and the bio-mass increases.

You have more plants now than before and they will simply need more food. Just like kids

So, you may have to SLOWLY adjust the c02 and perhaps other ferts as well even if no change in light is made, simply to account for the new growth.

Hope this helps.

 

[amd3000]

thanks gerryd, yes i really use 10 bulbs, but they are 18w so that make 180w for 170 liters, it is not much because i have a lot of co2 and a lot of ferts so it is in good balance,
the only problem i have since the beginning of this setup is with L. aromatica it doesn't want to grow no matter what i do.

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

With good c02, ferts, and light L.aromatica is a weed my friend...

This tells me that your balance is not as good as it was or needs to be.

Remember that as plants grow in mass you need to INCREASE c02 and ferts to meet the increased DEMAND caused by more plants...

Aromatica is an excellent c02 indicator plant. The fact that this plant is not well but other are points to c02.

Or, that you have too much light for the amount of c02 you are supplying. You could just remove a bulb or two and keep a good spread and try that for 2-3 weeks and do nothing else.

But, could it perhaps be blocked from the c02 diffused water? Is there good circulation in that area?

What if you tried it somewhere else for a time and see it it worked there? then you would know it is that spot..

You MAY want to review your c02 and ferts dosing and increase them. C02 should be done slowly and gradually with several days between changes in bubble rate.

Just my thoughts of course...

 

[Gerryd]

Hi,

Is that the aromatica buried over there in the right corner? If so you may want to move it over to the center more. It LOOKS to me that it is very shaded.....

I would try it more under the lights and see how that goes..

What is the bulb configuration in terms of the tank dimensions if that makes sense??

Trying to get a mental picture of your setup..

Sorry for all the questions.......

 

[amd3000]

yes gerryd you're right, it its little bit shadowed in that corner, but i didn't blame that because before i put aromatica in this tank, i had it in a smaller one with worser conditions than it has here and it was doing very fine, anyway i will try to listen to you're advices and i'll check my co2 levels and maybe i'll change the bulbs configuration somehow, instead of the 2 15w grolux(550 lumens each) that i have there above aromatica i'll put 2 15w osram 865 1000 lumens each. thank you for you're advices.