grungefreek Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 Hey Guys, Well my tank has been set up a while now, and the plants are doing ok, but could do better. So currently i have been running 2 11 watt 6400K CF bulbs over the tank (17L, bout 12 inches high, maybe less). These bulbs are just normal ones bought from a discount store.I add the required amount of sera florena weekly as well as Flourish excel daily, aqua master root tabs under the swords when required. Using this setup, my ambulia is growing well, wysteria is living, but not growing out of control (hasnt reached the top of the tank yet), the problem is the swords and Blue stricta i have. The blue stricta has lost all of its internal leaves and is kinda now spindly looking casue it only has the outer leaves that kinda give it shape, and also the leaves closest to the surface look shrivelled .Tthe swords are kinda veiny looking as u can see all the veins very clearly in the leaves, they aslo have brown spots which eventually turn into holes So what should i do? More ferts? Ive also just added hairgrass as a carpet plant and would like that to really kick off and grow really quick. ATM i have changed the 11 watt bulbs with 20 Watt 5000K bulbs to see if this makes a difference. But any other suggestions would be good as well. Thanx Grungie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted April 20, 2004 Share Posted April 20, 2004 Swords love CO2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 20, 2004 Author Share Posted April 20, 2004 So more flourish Excel then? Its kinda the only way to get carbon into the water without altering pH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 Nope, you need to inject CO2; if you are concerned about the pH, you can buffer the water with oyster grit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett4Perth Posted April 22, 2004 Share Posted April 22, 2004 22W of light over 4-5gallons, only 12 inches deep ... that is heaps of light. limiting factors are likely to be CO2 and macronutrients. Have you tested any of the water parameters. pH, hardness,nitrates, Fe Cheers Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 22, 2004 Author Share Posted April 22, 2004 Hey, Well i now have 40 watts of light over the tank, eat light little plants ahahah. Um tried Co2 injection, massive pH swings, plus consulting specialty plant forums they say flourish excel will work fine as a carbon source in such a small tank. Ill also try ferts twice a week to see if they go a little better. The only plants that should give me any trouble are the swords, all the other species in the tank should be low light easy maintenece plants. No Test kits, test kits = less beer (sorry not addicted so much my tank impedes on drinking) Thanx for the help guys, will eport back with results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 Were you using pressurised CO2? I'm not sure how well it will work, but Sera has a setup with basically a bell, and CO2 generating tablets. It will be self regulating to a greater degree (as saturation is reached, less CO2 dissloved, pH should not swing as much). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted April 25, 2004 Share Posted April 25, 2004 In my experience, the leaves of the sword I got recently all died off by going transparent. As this happened a new set of smaller leaves started growing. Do you have new leaves? I have also seen this happen on my chain swords when I changed tank. It may be them adapting to your different growing conditions. I don't know about swords, but often plants are grown for the trade with the roots in the water and the plant out. They grow much quicker this way. When they are submersed they drop their existing leaves and grow new ones better adapted to being submersed. If you want a carpet quick you probably need to go the CO2 injection. You need to do this with gas in some way, either pure from a tank or produced from a reaction. Have you tried a CO2 bell system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 26, 2004 Author Share Posted April 26, 2004 Hey Guys, When i put the Co2 in, i just used a home made job with yeast and sugar. Ive used this before on bigger tanks with no worries, but yeah with this tank i think pressurised would be the only way to go, i think u really need to be able to control very precisely the amount of CO2 injected. I havent seen this bell system u talk of, but will investigate it further. The swords have grown new leaves, but they still dont look all that healthy, ill give them more time i guess. how long did it take for a complete die off of the old leaves to occur? Thanx Guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHL Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 An alternative is to have the CO2 turn off at night; I do that by using a powerhead to run the Co2 reactor, and having that switch off with the lights, so that more CO2 is lost at night (but CO2 is cheaper than dead fish). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 26, 2004 Author Share Posted April 26, 2004 I guess i could try the Co2 thing again. But last time i did it the fish started to just lay on teh bottom of the tank, soon as i took it out and did a Wc they were fine again. i think the gouramis could handle the pH swing if it occurs, but im worried about my poor little oto's What if i have the CO2 line in teh water but not actually letting the bubbles go into the filter or anything so they only marginally diffuse? Would enough of the CO2 be diffused to be any use? Also any recipes u guys know that will give me only a few bubbles per minute? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mianos Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 That's what a CO2 'bell jar' is. You simply set up an inverted cone that gets filled with CO2. The amount of CO2 diffused is related to the size of the bell and the water flow past it. Any excess bubbles over the edges. It's described on the krib. It's not very efficient, which may help if the PH swing is disturbing your fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grungefreek Posted April 27, 2004 Author Share Posted April 27, 2004 What i will do, because one of these bells wont really fit in my tank anywhere, is bubble the co2 through a fine airstone, and have it positioned under the outflow of my filter. That way i should get some Co2 dissolving but hopefully not so much as to sevrely alter my pH. Ill monitor it closely by doing it on a day where in my room all day doing work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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