Ground cover plants aren't growing

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DAVIDFBT

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Feb 3, 2008
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Here's the story, I moved my 20 gallon setup into a 30 gallon setup with all my plants, fish and substrate. I had about 2.2 WPG and Nitrates where at about 10 PPM before a water change. I had a 2L DIY CO2 bottle hooked up to a Hagen ladder and the extra bubbles that didn't get diffused where sent to a powerhead to get a 2nd chance at diffusion. I had Dwarf Hairgrass, Dwarf Sag and Corkscrew Vals at the time. I had about 1 new runner from the Dwarf Hairgrass' main runner every 2 days and a new runner every 4 days from the Vals and Dwarf Sag.

One day, the CO2 bottle fizzled out and I didn't get a chance to replace it until 3 weeks later. The runner plants almost stopped growing during that time. When I did replace it, I replaced the 2L bottle with a 3L bottle with the same propirtions of ingredients using the same diffusion technique. Its been 2 weeks since I replaced the CO2 bottle and only my Vals have been growing at a pace of 1 runner every 4 days, like usual. My dwarf sag and hairgrass have not been growing at all. I even added HM and they haven't even been sending out runners at all either.

So I have 2.2 WPG, Photoperiod of about 12 hours, No ferts, 3L of DIY CO2 with a 1.5" playsand substrate. All my other plants have been growing great, having needed to trim acouple of times a month. I have Java moss, Anubias Nana, Moneywort, Ludwigia Repens, a type of Hygro, Pennywort, and Corkscrew vals that are growing just fine, why aren't my runner plants growing?
 

DAVIDFBT

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Feb 3, 2008
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^ I used all of the sand from my old tank in the new tank, I just added about 10 pounds of extra sand I had already rinsed.
 

DAVIDFBT

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Feb 3, 2008
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The thing that confuses me is that they where growing just as well after I first replanted them than when they where still in the 20 gallon tank. It was only after the CO2 ran out that the runners stopped shooting out. Even with more CO2 hey still aren't growing.
 

DAVIDFBT

Extinct? Since when?
Feb 3, 2008
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No I don't use any fertilizers because I'm afraid I'll use the ones that can melt vals. Are there any ones that I can use that do not melt vals?
 

Star_Rider

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Dec 21, 2005
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flourish excel is known to melt some plants.. I think the same thing that kills algae is probably what affects the vals etc. other ferts are fine tho.
 

Riiz

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Apr 16, 2008
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No I don't use any fertilizers because I'm afraid I'll use the ones that can melt vals. Are there any ones that I can use that do not melt vals?
Fertilizers dont melt plants, its Seachem's Excel, which is a Co2 substitute that can have detrimental effects on some plants. Your running into the common problem of Co2, your plants which were growing well, are now exhausting their supplies of nutrients.

Basically, you need to feed your plants. If the tank is small enough, the Seachem liquid ferts will do, but Dry ferts are usually cheaper in the long run.
 
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