I need help - planted not going well.

Patience is the key here and believe me I know it is hard. Really hard. I have been fish keeping now for a dozen years and started keeping planted tanks about three years ago. I still have problems and I cannot grow anything I want even though I upgraded my lighting. I would suspect that the lighting you are providing just is not sufficient enough to see the kind of growth you want. Of course the solution may be to add a little more lighting. It does not have to be much and may be as simple as adding one more light fixture over the tank in the proper spectrum.

Hang in there! I know you can do it. If I can do it(and I have in three of my tanks) then you can too.

Marinemom
 
Thanks for your support and encouragement, everyone. I'm not quite to the point of frustration yet where I am going to break this tank down and start all over. :silly:

I think I'm going to try to start dosing Flourish and Excel again regularly for a few weeks. Hopefully that will kicks things up. I just haven't gotten a chance to clean out the tank from all the dead plant clippings, so they are all floating around and the tank looks ugly. That is probably adding to my frustration level. I suppose that I could add more light, but that would require buying a whole new lighting setup. Perhaps that's what I'll eventually have to do...
 
How old is your bulb? I've read that they become less effective over time and need to be replaced every few months - (compact florescent should go quite a bit longer). Maybe a fresh bulb would help?
 
If the anubias are the only thing doing well in the tank, don't remove them. IMO you should find plants that can grow under the conditions you can give them, without a lot of extreme or expensive measures.

I too had guppy grass die on me, along with the supposedly easy Amazon swords, valisneria, and a few others. My tank is full of anubias, crypts, and dwarf sag, and it's doing pretty well. I tried and tried to get Amazon swords to grow, but after 12 died in a row, it started to hurt my wallet.
 
this an expensive route to go, but have you thought about a substrate meant specifically for plants? i have 60lbs of flourite in my 55 and the plants LOVE it. its almost ridiculous how fast they grow. and i have no problems with algae. the stuff is inert, but loaded with the nutrients necessary for plant growth.
 
I just know you can do this. Just take all the dead and decaying gunk out and that for starters will lift your spirits. It will look a lot better. Maybe a trim and really a new light fixture doesn't have to be expensive. They sell pretty cheap at the Petsmart especially if you go online to their website and find the page that has the item you want to buy and print it out. Then take it with you and give it to the cashier when you check out. It will save you a lot of money.

Marinemom
 
Don't give up! Look at it this way: in the process of making it right, you're building your aquarium-keeping skills and you'll wind up with a beautiful tank in the end. :headbang2:
 
My vote would be to increase your lighting. IMO "low light" starts around 1.5WPG. In my experience that brown dust algae usually comes with low lighting conditions. Increasing the time the lights are on only makes them grow more. The plants you have are okay but be careful not to over fertilize. If your plants are growing slowly they will not be using much nutrient therefore you would be only feeding the algae.
 
Alright. Maybe I'll do some light fixture shopping tonight to try to get my WPG up to at least 2. And perhaps try out a new plant like a corkscrew val and get rid of the anacharis since it's been pissing me off and I'm not sure that I like it to begin with.

I'll keep you guys updated. Thanks!
 
rsanz said:
And perhaps try out a new plant like a corkscrew val and get rid of the anacharis since it's been pissing me off and I'm not sure that I like it to begin with.
Click to expand...

Anacharis has never been one of my favorite plants, either. I don't recall if you use Flourish Excel, but be aware that it often harms vals. Good luck!
 
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