Is lack of enough fish poo the problem?

stasia8756

stasia8756

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Feb 24, 2007
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Nashville
I have a month old 20g heavily planted tank that houses one dwarf puffer. There is wisteria, anubias, java fern, some swords and others I don't know the names of. They get underground fertilizer tabs every 10 days and Flourish excel every other day or so. No C02 injectors. There are 65watts of light and it sits next to a non curtained western window. Our front porch overhang prevents all but the latest afternoon sun from shining into the tank. The plants are not doing very well in spite of the light and ferts. I wondered if the fact that there is only one fish in there contributes to the problem. When I vacuum the substrate it appears to be "mulmy" in the siphon so something is there to feed the plants. I don't know what to do because the tank across the room that was established six months ago is as beautiful as I could expect in a planted tank. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.

Stasia
 
With high light comes high demand on nutrients and CO2. The root tabs may account for some of the nutrients but you may need more. Test your nitrates and if it's zero then you need to add more, and probably add some phosphates and potassium as well. You probably need to dose Excel on a daily basis or get some other means of CO2.

You may want to reduce the amount of lights if you can, none of the plants you listed really needs 3wpg.
 
Wah??

Tabs every ten days? Excel every other day?

I must be crazy but I only dose Excel every few weeks. I put plant tabs down maybe every other month. My lights are in the 2-5wpg range and I do no CO2 at all.

I have perfectly happy plants and very good, consistent growth. I must be one lucky son of a....




Anyway, if you want my opinion you are overdoing the ferts. Let the root tabs take their time. Let the Excel work for a week or so before dosing again. Do consistent water changes (this introduces macro nutrients) and maybe even up your lighting.


Yes, that is what I said! You're actually dealing with relatively low light as much as that sounds odd. See in smaller tanks the light dissipates out into the room as much as it does into the water and to the plants. Plus if you have a 20g high tank, the distance from light to plants is farther away than it would be if you had a 20g long tank, so the intensity of the red/orange spectrum is greatly decreased.

I used to use just a 65w pc fixture on my 20g long. The plants didn't do anywhere near as well as I thought they would. It wasn't until I added a second fixture that my growth started to become lush and full - and no, I don't have CO2. Not even DIY. I did for a few months but to be completely honest I saw very little difference enough to merit the PITA of constantly monitoring my conditions in order to keep it safe. I'm not saying that CO2 won't help; I'm just saying that you can have gorgeous and thriving planted tanks without it.

Try adding more light and see what happens. Test your nitrate. With only one fish that is so small you're probably very very low on the nitrate levels and plants really like nitrate. See if you can add some more people to the tank. It will certainly help.

And now for the rest of you - flame on.
 
65w for a 20g tank is more than enough to grow the listed plants, probably enough to grow any plants if all the nutrients are in order. You can add more lights to drive growth, but that will likely compound problems if a nutrient deficiency exist so it's important to address the nutrients first.
 
I suspect you may be waay overdoing it w/ the root tabs... What's your NO3 level?
 
I had 65w over my 20g long for about year. The plants did okay but lower leaves often died off and the growth rates were moderate. Some of the plants in the front got very leggy.

Added a second fixture and things took off like lightening. No more lower leaf loss and lush growth. It may sound like overkill but trust me - in a small tank it's not.
 
Thanks for all these informative answers. The nitrate level is enough to warrant a weekly water change but it doesn't get much over 20 ever. I guess the uneaten food and some of the plant debris contributes. I can't put anyone else in with this puffer because he's vicious and will eat or chase and nip anything else in the tank. That light I have has two 65w bulbs but one is an actinic so I never use it. I could have it replaced with another 65w white bulb but that sounds like overkill having 130w for a 20h.

The box on the plant tabs says every 10 days but maybe they are just trying to sell more. I'll put some of the ideas in this thread to work and see what happens.

Thanks again.
 
Yes, that is what I said! You're actually dealing with relatively low light as much as that sounds odd. See in smaller tanks the light dissipates out into the room as much as it does into the water and to the plants. Plus if you have a 20g high tank, the distance from light to plants is farther away than it would be if you had a 20g long tank, so the intensity of the red/orange spectrum is greatly decreased.
Click to expand...

What? When did this happen? Did someone change the laws of physics and not tell me?

And please tell me more about this 20H vs 20L. Is it the top 4 inches of water that cause the problem or the bottom 4" of water? And just how much light loss are we talking about in 4" of water?

I do note that the 20H is 16.75" tall which actually falls into the mid-range of common aquarium height.

I have a 20H with a 55 watt AH supply kit on it and I can grow any plant in that aquarium that I want. It is a high light aquarium.

And how do water changes introduce macro nutrients? Unless your water contains very high levels of nitrates, phosphates and potassium a water change will not introduce macro nutrients.
 
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