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

[myswtsins]

I have never heard of someone using a water softener on city water, sorry my mistake, I am obviously not familiar with city water as I have never had it.

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.

Yup! I have never touched the water softener for fish endeavors either. I routed some water from the well (before the softener) right into my room, which means it is 52 degrees. I currently just put it into a 5g bucket and throw an extra heater in it. Heating is one of the things I need to incorporate into my new system for all my tanks.

I understand your limitations (parents home, school, bills etc.) as I had them too, so do what you have to do for now but in the end bypassing the softener will save your much grief.

 

[tbonedeluxe]

Links on substrate
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/plantcare/a/plantsubstrate.htm
http://articles.gpasi.org/substrate.html
http://rexgrigg.com/substrate.htm
Hope this helps you and your plants!

 

[dundadundun]

your water looks good to me... before the softener that is. you might want to just let it sit overnight to warm up or toss a small heater in a bucket a couple hours before a w/c.

the substrate would not affect java moss or your rotala. if those are jungle vals (i really don't think they look it) it shouldn't affect them either. if they're what jpap thinks it might, but i'd think they'd be dead by now with that and the softener both being issues... maybe.

thanks, i think my tank looks OK too... but i gotta EVENTUALLY do something about that horrendous substrate and maybe toss a b/g of sorts in there.

the clamp lamps are just like these...

nothing special... ugly, actually, but the tank's doing well under them so who am i to argue.

 

[SidtheMonkey]

Looks like you could have a Sagittaria subulata...which would account for why your "vals" are not growing

Hi. Can you explain what you mean by this?

 

[dundadundun]

sagitaria and valisneria look very similar. vals are usually pretty big plants though and those little plants look more the size of sagittaria subulata (dwarf sag).

 

[jpappy789]

Yep, also they have a slight curl over on the leaves which is what sags tend to do while vals grow straight up to the top of the water.

I'd also check to see if your kitchen faucet is connected to the softener. I know mine isn't.

 

[red_wall]

All the faucets on the inside are connected to them... the city water has a really funky taste to it, the softener gets rid of the taste.

I said jungle val because I forgot what I had them ID'ed as, I'm pretty sure they were labeled Tiger Vals after I asked around a lot. When I first got them the were 6 inches tall... then they shot up sprouts that never got past how big they are now.

 

[jpappy789]

You wouldn't happen to have pics of the bigger plants would you?

I've read that under good conditions 'dwarf' sags can exceed 6, even 12" in height. I wouldn't be surprised if they were mislabeled.

 

[red_wall]

I had first got these from an LFS that had them sitting w/o water & light for 2 weeks haha.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I've read that under good conditions 'dwarf' sags can exceed 6, even 12" in height. I wouldn't be surprised if they were mislabeled.

Yes they can. The ones my boyfriend purchased for his 75 gallon almost reach the top of the tank. He really doesn't have enough light for them though. :/

As a side note...I do feel a bit bad for dissing the 28G in my house. There are stem plants that do well in there (Cobomba for example), and other plants that don't for various reasons. Like the crypts I've ticked off by moving twice in a month. XD I am pretty adept at killing Hygrophila though.