How come plants not growing?? Advice...

[plantz]

I have base fert under ada soil. And add liquid fert Seachem flourish. And have sufficient CO2 and light, however, plants not growing... or very very slowly. Esp the foreground short plants that are suppose to spread on the foreground. it is still as it was 2 mths ago.... and Red plants arent growing too. Sorry, but don't know the names. Add a little more liquid fert. and POO.. algae everywhere. The instruction on the seacheam says i need phoshorus and potassium which is not contain in the bottle.

Is this the problem?? And what type and brand of fert should i get to supplement the water?? seacheam is quite expensive, is there a cheaper alternative??

Thks... [:] Spending a lot recently....[:]

[juggler]

Perhaps you can cut and paste the details from the post "Newbie Plant Tank Help" found at the top of this forum? So we can know more about the problem.

[kadios]

For cheaper alternative, you can try Dr Mallick fertilizer.

Perhaps you wanna get some MgSO4, K2SO4 and Phosphate powder to supplement your fertilization. When I first started, I faced the same situation until someone advised me to add Potassium. Btw, you did not mention adding any potassium to your tank. You may wanna start from there.

Cheers!

[budak]

you could do worse than going through the online catalogues like www.tropica.com and www.dennerle.de or AQ's very own gallery to find out exactly what species of plants you have so that you can better know their growth requirements..... after that, try reading some of the posts in the Aquatic FAQ, esp in the thread entitled "Planted tanks: articles on dosing" where links to sites with huge amounts of data are provided.

[plantz]

Thanks guys.

Will be getting Dr Mallick fertilizer K2SO4 as recommended by kadios. I will update on the progess.[:]

Thanks.

[BFG]

What's your lighting and size of the tank?

[plantz]

2ft tank and have a total of 35watt lighting. Getting a PL light, supposely 2 hours ago. But my dear friend didnt turn up.[] Never mind. Hope he calls me soon.

Hope this helps. Thanks.[:]

[theodore]

Do monitor your CO2 level after you increase your lighting intensity.

You find Seachem Flourish expensive for a 2ft tank? [:0] ... May want to check out Dr. Mallick's fert - Lushgro Micros and Aqua.

[plantz]

ThEoDoRe,

Dr. Mallick's fert - Lushgro Micros and Aqua is it to supplement the seacheam flourish or replace it after I finishes the bottle?? And what Dr Mallick's fert do u recommend to supplement seacheam flourish??

Thanks.





[:]

[theodore]

Check this out. Lushgro Aqua is similar to Seachem Flourish but it has a lot more K and N. Lushgro Micro is a trace mix with a lot less stuff. Ask folks like Juggler or Geoffery for tips on how to dose them.

I dose my Flourish with K2SO4 (for K), KH2PO4 (for PO4) and occasionally Ca(NO3)2.4H20 (for NO3). Too hard for me to switch to Lushgro cos my NO3 levels fluctuate every now and then.

I'm surprised that you find Flourish expensive 'cos a bottle can last both my 2ft and 1.5ft tanks > 1 year. Btw, I'm dosing 2-4x the recommended amount, using Fe dosage as my guide.

[plantz]

So which do u recommend aqua or mirco to go with seacheam flourish?? And where to get them in the west?? I tried C328, but the shops doesnt have them.[:]

[lorba]

After talking so much, have you managed to identify your plants?

[theodore]

plantz,

You need to do some homework on the plants you have, what every plant need (e.g. what are we saying when we talk abt macro- and micro- nutrients), check out the dosage of each element in a couple of fertilizers and work out the fertlization regime that suits you best (e.g. some people got for Dennerle cos they don't feel like using their brains).

Give us what you think you want to do and tell us why you feel that way. Relying on other people's ill-informed suggestions is too dangerous. We neither setup, maintain nor look at your tank on a regular basis. What makes you think we can make better decisions for the tank than you?

[plantz]

Thks for the harsh remarks.

Found out that the plants are Riccia fluitans, Didiplis diandra, Rotala macrandra and Glossostigma elatinoides.

Things I done
Get Dr. Mallick's fert -Both Lushgro Micros and Aqua. While also using seacheam flourish however lesser. This to increase the amt of nutrients that may be lack in either products. Add a pl 36w light.

[theodore]

Harsh? Am I?

Of the 4 plants you mentioned, I believe Rotala macrandra and Glosso are the only ones that will give you problems - Btw, I don't consider lack of pearling for riccia or any other plant as a problem, so long as they grow well.

Both needs strong light which you probably realise by now.

My only advice to you now is to work out how much you need to add for your liquid fertilizers :

1) Lushgro Aqua contains significant amount of N. Not a problem if your lighting, CO2 and PO4 are in good range. However, you will get nasty algae outbreak if one of them falls short for an extended period.

2) Another watchout is the amount of total Fe you add. Try not to add more than 0.5ppm of Fe per week after you upgrade your lights. High Fe seems to lead to more spot and hair algae, esp. for my high light (4.8W/Gal) tank.

[PeterGwee]

The notion of high Fe causing algae again ? It is a lack of something in there that is causing it rather than the other way round. If you keep up with dosing 2-3times a week and watch closely over the CO2, things should go well. I had been dosing loads of traces to a 50-60l tank with no issues at all. (I have gone up to 15ml of flourish 3 times a week but found no improvement nor signs of algae. Now I am currently doing 5ml 3X a week.)

Plantz, how do you know if your CO2 level is good? Glosso is a CO2 and NO3 hog..lose your way on this 2 stuff and it will burn you. Upping your lights without keeping close tabs on the CO2 and nutrients is going to cause you more problems than you think. Lower lights are better for newbies to start off with....less uptake less chances of deficiency.

[illumbomb]

Hi Peter,

So how much of Fe (in term of ppm) does 5ml of fluorish contains? I saw the figure somewhere before but it has slipped my mind. So have you measured before the residual Fe at the end of one week? Thanks.

[PeterGwee]

Measurement of Fe is not a way to go with traces. How much really depends from tank to tank but Tom barr mention that 5ml per 20 gallons of water 3X per week is about the max that folks need to go with even for very high light tanks. What you can do is to ensure your CO2 and macros is real good and give your traces a serious amp and watch response over a period of 3-4 weeks. The effects are rather subtle though..If things gets nasty, just do a large water change, prune, add back fresh nutrients and make sure CO2 is good.

[theodore]

Peter,

I agree that lack of an elemental or non-elemental nutrient can cause algae. However, do remember that there is this little thing called Time. There is always a maximum rate of absorption even if everything the plants need are in surplus. Algae spores are always in our water unless we take measures to kill them (these measures usually harm plants as well) and it takes no genius to guess what the algae spores will do with abundant surpluses.

For elemental nutrients Fe and P, there is an additional complexity because they exist in several states. Dissolved organic P for example can be used by algae and not by plants. This can be easily minimised by lowering pH though. Phosphase activity that converts organic P to PO4 prefers lower pH and presence of acid can at times convert organic P to orthophosphate (that is why there is sulphuric acid in our PO4 testkit). Similar things can be said for Fe.

Good plant growth prevents algae from attaching themselves to the plants. Hence, in situations where you have surplus of everything, you will find algae growing on static surfaces such as glass and certain sections on the rainbar but not on healthy plants.

There is no one answer to how various types of algae growth are accelerated or minimised. Otherwise, this would be a much easier hobby.

[PeterGwee]

For your info, my glass is very clean without the need to scrub nowadays...I had hair algae stuff growing on my tank glass last time round though..what is your take on that? Loads of K, PO4, traces and adequate N and high CO2 nowadays.