What am I doing wrong with plants?

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9tails

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May 12, 2004
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I have a 29 gal quite heavily planted with crypts (3) wisteria (4) african sword (2), a few others I don't know the names of and elodea and cabomba too many to mention. My wisteria is beautiful when I put it in, then it grows really tall with bare stems. My cabomba grows at least an inch a day (it feels like it anyway), but some others turn to mush or don't grow at all.

Should I inject CO2? My tank is pretty heavily stocked with little fish (12 guppies - 8 are still babies, 3 swordtails, 3 cories, 3 cherry barbs, 4 danios, 4 minnows and 2 small plecos) so I guess there is enough waste being produced as the substrate is very dirty at gravel vacuuming time. I use flourish weekly so is there anything else I should be adding?

Also, as the tank is established with fish, is it possible to add some flourite to the substrate and if so, how?

My parameters are

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
PH 8

I don't know KH yet but will definitely check if the verdict is CO2 injection.
 
The question of to-or-not-to inject revolves around a few things, but the most important one is lighting.
CO2 will assist plant growth in just about any tank, but is only 'necessary' in tanks with 3 watts/gal. or more, IMO.
If you are supplying 50 - 60 watts,your plants are probably not growing because they are hungry for nutrients. If you are supplying less than 30 watts, they are in need of more wattage to flourish and grow well.

Len
 
Hmm, I have two flourescent bulbs over the tank, one a "Powerglo" and the other a "Sunglo" both by Arcadia. Though I don't know the wattage they seem pretty bright. My water is a soft tea colour from the wood in the tank and this gives the tank a slightly yellow appearance.
 
How long are the bulbs? As a general rule:
18" = 15w
2' = 20w
3' = 30w
4' = 40w

I suspect that you fall into either the 2 or 3 foot bulb, since you've got a 3 foot tank (I think). So conservatively you've got about 1.4wpg, although I think that you could allow a little to the higher end since you've got high quality bulbs, at least some people elege that these bulbs are better watt for watt than more standard brands, I don't have any evidence to back this up with. Either way, you don't strictly need CO2, but like Len said, it will assist any tank.

I would've expected the crypts to do well, being a 'low light' plant, although it depends on the type of crypt. You may want to increase the frequency of your flourish dosing, 2 or 3 times weekly. Plus you may be K deficient. Looks like your fish are providing ample N, without knowing we'll assume that there's enough P as well, coming from food and fish. That leaves K, you're dosing traces with the flourish.
 
The wattage should be imprinted on the end of the bulb. It is important to know your wattage. Most everything in a planted tank revolves around wattage supplied.
I suggest that you invest in test kits for N, and P as well as kH. They are not very expensive and give you a better idea of what you're dealing with and how to make necessary changes.
Hopefully, you didn't pull the crypts out. They are very prone to 'melt' when their environment is changed and in most cases will come back strong if left alone.

Len
 
Thanks for all your replies, I will check my bulbs tonight to see what wattage I have. My crypts are still in there, though haven't grown since I bought them. My mossballs are doing rather well which is nice but I would like my others to look alot more heatlhy than they are at the moment. I'm going to look online for the testing kits, I'll keep you informed of the results.
 
I checkd the lights, one is a 20W and the other an 18W. I guess I don't have enough light for 29G tank. Where can you get a good light? The highest wattage I've seen is 25W for my length of light.
 
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Depends on what you're willing to spend. I built a canopy for my 33g from scratch. It runs 4 3' T8 bulbs on electronic ballasts and has a polished aluminum reflector. The whole thing cost me roughy $150, although about $50 of that was screws, glue, minwax, etc.

You can add a 3 foot 2 bulb fluorescent fixture over your tank, even a 4 foot one doesn't look terrible if spray painted black. I don't know what the cost or availability of these is in the UK, but around here this option would cost about $30.

There's also the option of power compact fluorecent, although those can be a little harder to come by. For me, this was not a feasable option, I would have had to order fixtures and bulbs, and would have had to order bulbs shipped every time I needed to replace one.

edit: these prices are in CAD
 
My tank houses swordtails and I have cats so I would need to keep a tight lid on everything. My tank is tall, 2 ft high, by 2 ft 9" so 3 ft bulbs won't fit. Would the higher wattage metal halide lights (assuming I can get the right length) fit the existing light fixtures in the hood?
 
BTW, I have CO2 DIY injection, one 2l bottle with the jello/yeast mixture. I started it on Saturday so it'll take a while before I see any improvement but it's a step in the right direction.

How much CO2 should you pump into a 29G tank? Is one bottle enough?
 
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