Sooo... My plants aren't growing... and I have no idea why.

I am not entirely sure how to go about it but you should be able to find info on your water (city water), they have to supply that info to you. Testing the water costs ~$100 depending on how much you want to test for.
 
i googled my town name and found the name of the place that supplies us. then i googled that and it was pretty straight forward from there. unfortunately there was very little info on ours. i even had them send me a water quality report (found the number on the bill and asked... they gave me another number, so i asked... got another number and i asked and bingo... it was in the mail) and it was the same crappy report i found online with almost nothing on it. found the one for philadelphia too. sooooo much more detailed... un freaking believable difference. hopefully that means there's nothing in our water, lol.
 
mes1234 said:
I would say get more plants.
Click to expand...
Heh, after the water softener gets bypassed anyway.

Definitely sounds like that is the culprit in your case. I figured you were using spiral CFL's after you posted the pic of your tank...the light beams looked too unevenly spread to be tube lights. Hopefully after the salts from your water softener get cleared out your plants will grow better.
 
jpappy789 said:
I just find it very, very strange that vals wouldn't grow even "an inch" after over a year...
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I swear, they've sent out plenty of runners, but that's the tallest they've EVER been in my tank.

I'm not allowed to TOUCH the water softener in pursuits of fishy glee, as far as my parents are concerned.

I asked them and they said that the outside spigots aren't connected to the softener, but I'm afraid the water will be too cold : /

I can't afford to get an amazing, in-depth testing kit, highschool student here, part time job w/bills haha.

My mom has somewhat of a clue who supplies our water, so I googled them and I found this, http://www.kingslandwater.com/2008 KWSC.pdf I don't really know what the acceptable GH levels are, but they're listed near the bottom.

I have the GE energystar bulbs. I never really payed attention to what type they were, but I googled the packaging, and found that those were the ones.

There's also no place around my house for well water... we use city water... even though we live in the sticks(somewhat).

And sorry about this hahahaa "Very nice tank dundadundun! Thanks, even though I think it looks very shotty right now." I thought that he was talking to me! I think your tank looks great dundadundun!

Can you show me pics of your lighting setup, dundadundun? I'm curious to see what the clip-on lights look like.


Here's the best pic I can do as of right now of the roots!


Thanks for the help guys!

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easy enough. go to home depot and pick up five 5g buckets (if you do 50% pwc), fill them up and let them sit for a day. they'll warm up to room temp at least.
 
Well, I thought I read something about there being a different root system but I can't find much on it...I have read that if you run your finger up the edge of the leaf that a val should feel serrated and a sag will be smooth.
 
Kinda sounds like my experience the 28 bowfront in the house (not mine). Plants just kinda chill, whereas in my other tanks stuff actually grows. That one is running about 2.2 wpg (cfls), flourite substrate, excel and DIY CO2, ferts, etc.

I have almost the same setup, as quoted above by Aphotic Phoenix,except i have 2.6 wpg with 2 shop lights.You should be able to grow alot of different plants with a similar setup. I also use excel,co2 flourite.
I noticed the size of your gravel is very large! Your plant roots are having a hard time growing through that size of gravel and new plant leaves probably cant break through the large gravel.
A pic of my 55g
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=1863&pictureid=15769
I have since lifted the shop lights few inches above the tank and rescaped alot. ;-)
 
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