Plant Growth Rate

abcdefghi

abcdefghi

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Jun 6, 2007
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I know that there is probably no real answer to this, due to the number of variables involved. But, what is the typical average growth rate on most plants? I put in a bunch of low light plants into my 55G last night (no fake ones left!!) and at the moment its looking a little empty as most of the plants are barely 4-5" tall.

How long will it take before I start to see some good growth on any of the plants? I figure it depends on stock in the tank, ferts, light etc but was just curious if there was any rough estimates.

Thanks.
 
Mostly depends on the plants. Usually low light plants grow pretty slow, or let me rephrase that, usually plants that are under low light grow pretty slow. Once you place those same plants under medium light, throw in some ferts and co2 and you can expect better, faster growth compared to low light.

How about you name some plants that you placed in the tank?
 
Bk828 said:
How about you name some plants that you placed in the tank?
Click to expand...

I am not 100% sure what is in there, but I know that I have some of the following that have been in there for about a month:

Java Moss (noticed it go a bit yellow when I first put it in, turning green now)
Rotala Indicas (growing about half an inch from the top, and also about half an inch of new growth coming out the side)
Vallisneria spiralis (Appeared to have melted, but now have some green again)
Anacharis (mostly melted off, but found 2 small new areas of growth)
Red Wendtii (Noticed some new growth on here after initial melt)

And I also recieved a plant package from Mgamer yesterday, there were a lot of plants in there, but I have no real idea what most of them were, but they would be from this list:

Water lettuce
duckweed
salvinia minima
Najas guadalupensis (guppy grass)
Lace java fern
java fern
Needle Leaf Java Fern
hornwort
vals
water sprite
Anacharis
Dwarf Sag
java moss
Taiwan moss
flame moss
Weeping moss
peacock moss
green hygro
willow hygro
giant hygro
small anubis
hair grass
random assorted crypts

So there could be any of those in there as well, all growing under about 1.7WPG of 6700K lighting thats on for about 8-10 hours a day. Maybe I am just worried because my tank looks real empty now apart from small plants and am being impatient about it filling in.
 
well the stem plants should fill in in a few weeks, especially under that lighting. Is this the 55g?? You can try upgrading the lighting to give you atleast 2.5wpg and there you will see healthier faster growth as opposed to what you have now. Though give it a week and see how the plants do. You can try adding a diy co2 source, that will help some of the plants.
 
Thanks, yep its the 55G. The plan is to hopefully grow plants in the 55G, then trim any and move to the 29G.

I think to bring my lighting up to 2.5WPG I would need to redo my hood. I gutted the original AllGlass hood and added 4 x CFL's, I saw a link on here where someone had used 8 CFL's, but I would need to redo the whole thing if I went that route.

I think I will do what you said and just wait a couple weeks to see what happens, if there is not much growth then I will look into the Co2 and more light. At what point should I start using ferts? I had read a few links on the EI method.
 
At this point you can dose micros (flourish) once a week. But thats about it.
From personal experience the screw in cfl bulbs arnt as efficient as say tube or even PC bulbs. So you dont technically have 1.7wpg. If you do plan to upgrade lighting in the future, look into ahsupply. You can retrofit your current hood with it as well (check my 55g link in my signature.. i used standard strip) Spending that extra $50-80 will pay off later on when you have better growth and an overall better/healthier looking tank.
 
Is this http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm the kit that you are talking about from AH supply? And I guess its easy enough to mount into the current plastic housing on my hood.

I already have a bunch of holes drilled into the hood for the CFL, but would guess that would not be a problem with fitting the ahsupply kit. Might have to put this on a wish list.
 
Yes, AH supply's 2x55watt kit is what you would need to get to 2.0wpg.
 
lol sorry but your working from a larger list then that..... i pulled mostly low light stuff but i also tossed in some other random stuff that might work. short tern if your worried is toss on a shop light. stems tend to grow faster as long as they have the light they need. those will fill in when the others grow in.
 
Mgamer20o0 said:
lol sorry but your working from a larger list then that..... i pulled mostly low light stuff but i also tossed in some other random stuff that might work.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. I left you a reply on your feedback thread, at the moment I have a bunch of the plants floating around. Going to be increasing my substrate depth and having a bit of a rescape once the kids are in bed tonight.
 
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