Still not completely satisfied

[freemann]

Hello guys I have been following your posts for some time
now nice board different concept and planted tank aproach
I keep a 143 lt water column fully planted aquarium.
GH is 8.
KH 11.
Water changes twice a week 25 %.
I keep K above 10 ppm (never certain of what value is there, I use NO3 not being removed for a day or so as an indication of K depletion and this way I concluded that 5 ppm of K are consumed each day) Toshiro from e aquaria confirmed my estimation by telling me his consumption).
NO3 I control by testing and adding according to the test reading (there is quite a load of small fishes in the tank and lots of mulm is collected with an inevitable increase in nitrates but this never go above 20 ppm (5 -10 ppm most of the time).
I add K2SO4, KNO3 every other day, and PO4 every 4 days, traces (microplex) I add once a day according to Colin - Sears formula.
CO2 I add 30 bubbles per minute bringing ph down to 7 from the 7,8 original value which is within the limits for proper CO2 content.
I turn on a small pump for circulation purposes during the night mainly to remove the pockets of non moving water among the plants (I realized there was lots of nitrates and phosphates accumulated there).
I was never able to see iron in the Sera test except once that I added almost 8 ppm of microplex (did it only once) and got a reading of 0,1 ppm so I am pretty much in the dark concerning iron. I got iron gluconate now from www.sigma.com 20$ for 250 gr, will you believe that?) and I will start dosing according to flourish iron instruction (see flourish site) and cut back on traces to 2 -3 times a week.
I clean mulm and floating objects (I steer the plants and direct the flow to the bottom to bring things on the column, this is better than sucking things especially among grasses) by using a diatomaceous filter vortex filter once a week.
Light is 138 Watt combination 6 X 18 Watt fluorescent lights 5,5 months old, plus a new 24 watt power compact 13 hours per day. Aquarium's water column is 55 cm which maybe a bit too high for fluorescents (areas of shadow exists in certain places especially in the back and younger plants tend to suffocate when small under the shadow of the big ones.
Substrate is 2 cm forest soil mixed with laterite with 6 cm 2 mm sand on top
Temperature this days varies from 26 to 28 (chiller is coming soon).
Aquarium is 6 months old with lots of different species of plants. grasses, stem plants, ferns, anubias and lots more.
Algae exist as spot algae and a kind of bright green coloured algae that covers the leaves in some areas on lilaleopsis and on hydrocotyle verticilata.
Also on Volvitis leaves and some other slow growers traces of spot like algae come and goes (all this is not that much but noticeable to someone that observes), a bit of hair algae also appears on the plants for a day or 2 when these get stunted (I see them getting stunted but have no idea why) and goes after a good water change and some fresh fertilisers. Hair algae appears on the glass of the aquarium once a week which I clean. Plants pearl really lots most of the days.
I tried to grow rotala wallichi with no success the stems are now a bear stick with no leaves lots of new sprouts that came in the last 3 months have grown to 0,5 mm height and were then gone after a week or so.
Volvitis leaves these days look a bit miserable after a big initial growth which was chopped back, stem plants grow like crazy (by the way rotala rotundifolia new leaves seem to be a good indicator of a stunted condition.) my main problem seems to be the grasses that kill each other by suffocation (is there a way to have a carpet? and not mulm mixed with grasses and algae on some tight spots, I understand agressive triming on grasses but last time I cleaned I had to take most of the grasses of to get some clean look in there). Also the problem of these stunted periods. So in generall while growth is ok there is something that doesn’t feel right at some points. Suggestions people.
For a bad picture of the tank check this: http://www.f

[benetay]

your KH is on the high side a good KH reading will be 4-6. Gh has nothing to do with planted tank more on breeding purposes(thats why got it for apisto tanks). I assume your tap water has a higher ph like 7.8 or 7.9, a good way is to use RO water and mix with tap water to bring the ph down rather then to pump in excessive CO2 you might risk Co2 poisoning to yout fishes.

Dumping in excessive nutrients will not bring the plants any good but promote algae. good nutrient control is critical. BTW: stem plants are one of the most easiest kind of plant to grow.

Your foreground plant i've seen is to be HG, many forumers including me are not very good in keeping HG, problem arises due to insufficent circulation among them which causes particles to settle permanently.

Ferns,anubias , mosses don't need high light to trive they actually do better in low lighting.
Plants such as blxya japonica , crypto. balansae will melt under strong lighting so IMHO you might want to play around with the setting up.

If i were you i will have put in more base fert.

[freemann]

what do you mean when you say:
If i were you i will have put in more base fert
What sort of base fertiliser you suggest?
Already I have 2 cm forest soil plus laterite plus some root pills under specific plants.
How some guys do it in my tanks section I saw some tanks and keep so healty and nice eleocharis growing? Could some of the grass experts comment on this please?
Do you consider low kh a must for healthy plant growth at least as far as some plants are concerned?
I have a RO here which I havent used yet shall i start it up and use it?
The water fertilisers I basically add according to guys like Tomm barr instructions anyway they say that amounts up to 100 ppm lets say of k make no difference and I check NO3 almost all the time also as i said I reset the aquarium by doing 50% water change every week

[benetay]

Base fert is just the same as yr forest soil, for my 6ft tank i put in 30bags of 2.5kg of base fert which came up to about 9-10cm of base fert. with a topping of 3-4cm of gravel.

With ph of 7.8 and Kh of 11 it's really crashing.

[freemann]

what is crashing? I dont get you.

[Simon]

Hi there, lets talk abt yr HG and yr lights.. since yr height is 55cm.. which is kinda high side for FL to penetrate.. HG require medium and high lights.. wats yr wattage like?

from yr pic, looks like yr glosso is oso starving from light (growing upwards)

regarding ben's suggestion on yr KH and PH.. KH 11 & PH 7.8 is a lack of CO2..

[sherchoo]

I believe the planted tank you have is dutch style tank so having a higher kH is quite OK and the CO2 injection sounds rite.

For ferterlizers, maybe you can try ferterlizer sticks/tab depending the availabilty of your country. They are supposed to be plunged in to the gravel and I guess it will not affect your water much (less excess nutrients).

Anubias are slow growers and with stronger lights, green spot algae will definately invade the plant. Might want to consider replacing it with another plant.

juz my 2 cents worth

[sherchoo]

Simon,
Correction - The tank pH is 7 and not 7.8

[Simon]

oops.. thks for the correction

[freemann]

Yes Ph is 7 and it is within the proper CO2 range
I don't really realise what you mean by dutch aquarium mine has biological filtration lots of light and CO2 and water column filtration they did not use all this. As I said I have used some sticks under the withering (dead) rotala there are 2 of them under the nasaea 2 also. nasaea grows like hell walliichi dead. Something else is wrong mybe the kH maybe not. Also what makes me wonder are that lots of the leaves of bolbitis after the initial growth get curved towards the underside and look really miserable (new growth comes in at the same time). I got iron gluconate today will start dosing soon (Flourish iron wise).
Wattage is 138 Watt for a 38,6 gallons lights are 10 cm above water. Glosso grows upwards now that is shaded from the crypt before it used to grow flat. Maybe the fact that flourecents are 5,5 months old creates a decrease in light they talk of a 50 % decrease in 6 months. As for halides I hate the glow they bring in the surrounding area and I love tall tanks which you dont have to trim every other day.

[jacian]

From your descriptions, the water condition isn't that bad. The water is neutral, of medium hardness, there is a good level of CO2 and you have taken good care of the main nutrients K, N & P.

Most plants would be able to survive except for some demanding plants like the rotala wallichii. If you notice, most plants prefer softer and slightly acidic condition. Thus, I would recommend a GH less than 5 and pH in the range of 6.5-6.8 (you need to adjust your KH accordingly).

I notice from the pic that your substrate is rather thin, especially in the front which I doubt the foreground plants could have a chance to get rooted. Also, as your tank is densely planted, you have to take special attention in the arrangement so that the light-demanding plants are not shaded.

[freemann]

Of course my substrate is not thin there is a depresion on the back of the aquarium base (aesthetic reasons) and the aquarium fits in there, you can see the substrate specifics if you look in the initial text.
I tend to believe myself that there is a problem with the GH, KH that kills plants like walliichi on the spot.
Maybe I will use RO water to combat all this but only after I setup my big tank 500 lt and move some of the plants there
Still there must be some fertiliser problem that I miss. Iron gluconate is here now, came today from USA I will try to bring the iron into the readable range decrease the micros and see what happens. Still I would really like to listen to some comments concerning the healthy grow of HG.
Also I may try to increase CO2 concentration by bringing Ph down to 6.8 (fish may stress) I will monitor and see.

[freemann]

My substrate is deep there is just a depression in the tank base and the tank fits (aesthetic reasons)in you can check substrate depth if you read my initial posting. My personal conclusion is that I may have too many Micros in there constantly ( I will remedy that) I will also add iron gluconate until i get an iron reading on the sera test.
As for the specific plants I start suspect myself that KH maybe the limiting factor. I will use RO water in a small tank and test my suspicion on the specific plants.
My question still stands how you HG (eleocharis) poeple do it?
How do you keep your grasses clean and tidy

[charleslyk]

As a matter of interest, where in singapore can i get KNO3??

Seems to be a controlled substance (making gunpowder??) or is it??

thankz

charles