Plant decline- light issue?

[30king]

Hi folks,
I have a 90 gal tank, running 2X2 54w T5's, 10 hr photo period with all 4 on for a 3 hr burst. I EI dose and use press. CO2. My tank has been up for about 10 months.

After the break-in period, I was growing plants with abandon. I was pruning like crazy, growing an assortment of easy and difficult growers.

Lately, my growth has really tapered off, with the lower parts of the stalks shedding leaves, less color, rageddy look, etc. I haven't done anything substantially different, and actually removed some of the sunset hygro (a super fast grower) to give the other plants a better chance.

I feel I have some kind of deficiency, but cannot nail it down. Absent of any signif. changes, I'm thinking maybe my light bulbs have decreased dramatically in intensity or wavelength spectrum. Two weeks ago, I increased my burst period to 6 hrs with no change.

My bulbs are generic, and came with the Catalina fixture.

any input would be appreciated.

Adam

 

[VaughnH]

That is a huge amount of light to have going for 4-6 hours a day. This will make the plants demand the maximum amount of CO2 you can keep in the water without harming the fish, and very good circulation of the water in the tank to get the CO2 moved around to all of the plants, plus good water surface ripple to keep enough oxygen in the water so the fish can tolerate the CO2.

Your description also sounds like the plants grew much bigger and thicker and you may now be starving them for nutrients. It might be worth doubling the EI dosage amounts for a couple of weeks to see if that helps.

 

[rodrigaj]

Any temperature change?

 

[30king]

Vaughn,

thanks for the reply. I would agree with the nutrient issue except this has occured over months, and my bio load is lower now due to the anemic growth of my plants and some dying back, yet I still EI the same.

Rod- no temp change