Plant issues (newbie)

[Wong Chun Kit]

Hi I'm new to this hobby, but have been enjoying myself thus far!

I have some concern with my tank as of now, since I have plants not growing well.

Tank specifications
4x1ftx15inch(h)
142 litre

Lighting
Beamworks Hi lumen 120

Pump
Jebao 303(got it from a friend, with media)
Flow rate 1200l/h

Pressurized CO2
Measured with drop checker

ADA Amazonia soil

Fan cooled, temperature around 26-29celcius

Water parameters
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 20ppm
(Tank cycled for two weeks)
Gh: 6 (forgot the units)
Kh: 3
pH: 7-7.5

Plants introduced are,
1. Hair grass
2. HC
3. Tonina sp belem (from my friend)
4. Cheap 1 dollar plants (don't really know their names)
5. Anchor moss

I dose the prescribed amount of Seachem Flourish to the tank.

So my questions are,
1. My HC aren't growing. I did not use the DSM because I only learnt about it recently, and planted in sizes of 4-5 stalks. Some are growing, some are melting, and it is inconsistent. Should I introduce macro nutrients? I was told ADA soil would have sufficient.

2. My Tonina has a tendency to develop new crown which becomes smaller( making it resemble a pineapple crown.) what am I doing wrong? My friend said it is a difficult plant, but unsure of what is wrong in my tank.

3. My other plants, including hair grass, have been growing like weed. In fact I have trimmed the hair grass, removed shoots, and uprooted a big part of the cheap plants as they were over growing. It makes me question if these cheap plants are sapping away the nutrients.

Would appreciate if someone of experience here can tell me what I'm doing wrong. Have been studying and researching for months before I started, but still feels inadequate. I guess I still have lots to learn!

(P.s I have issues with my emperor tetra I added in few days ago, do I start a new thread?)


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[Urban Aquaria]

HC does require more light, CO2 and nutrients to help it establish and grow, especially when just newly planted and still undergoing emersed-to-submersed transition... so the initial grow-out stage is usually where its the most vulnerable to melting.

If you have hairgrass (and any other low demand fast growing plants) in the same tank or planted around the HC, usually they will outgrow and outcompete the HC very easily, so its something to factor in too.

Your light might be okay for the lower demand plants (since you mentioned the cheap ones are growing well), but it might not be sufficient for the HC (since they are usually furthest away from the lights), so you could look at upgrading the lights or shifting the lights directly over the HC so that they can receive more light to grow.

The tank pH of 7.0-7.5 seems unusually high for a new tank using ADA Amazonia aquasoil substrate, and most tanks with that substrate require longer than 2 weeks to cycle (usually 4-6 weeks and often longer)... how much soil did you use in that tank (which will determine its pH/KH buffering capability and nutrient content) and do you have any rocks in the tank which might be countering the soil's pH/KH buffer?

In addition, what type of test kits (ie. paper strip ones or liquid reagent ones) are you using to measure the water parameters?

[Wong Chun Kit]

Hi, thanks for your reply!

Any better light alternatives you will suggest? Hopefully not too high end since I'm on a budget.

Does the lighting result in plants not growing, or growing slower?

Also I have rocks inside. It should be normal granite rocks. Is it not suppose to be in my tank? Also, I also thought the pH level of our tap waters is slightly higher, so could it be the cause of higher pH? I used 1 and a half packet of 9l pack of soil. I also have drift wood, the branchy kind in my tank. Foreground I use pH7 aquarium sand.

I'm quite certain the water has been cycled, since there was a spike in ammonia and nitrite and eventually none was detected. I use API test kit.

Thanks for your help on this!


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[Wong Chun Kit]

Also I used old media. There should be bacterial established there.

I use reagent test kit.


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[grandweapon]

Can you share what fan you are using? I'm looking for one for my 3ft*1.5* tank.

[Wong Chun Kit]

Up aqua cooling fan! Pretty quiet, though I never tried others before.


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[Urban Aquaria]

Hi, thanks for your reply!

Any better light alternatives you will suggest? Hopefully not too high end since I'm on a budget.

Does the lighting result in plants not growing, or growing slower?

You could look at equivalent lightsets that use higher wattage LEDs... more specifically those to use individual higher watt LEDs (ie. individual 3W LEDs, like in the Odyssea EVO LED models), those would get more light to the lower areas of the tank. Higher wattage lights do cost more though, so ultimately it depends on your budget.

Light intensity affects the plant take-up rate of Co2 and nutrients to photosynthesize, which in turn affects their growth rate. If there is less light getting to the plant, it photosynthesize less and grows slower.

With insufficient light, some plants may grow so slowly that their old growth die off faster than new growth can replace them, so it looks like the whole plant is dying.

In your case, perhaps the HC is still adapting to the tank conditions so its growth is slow at the moment. Maybe wait for a few more weeks and see if its growth improves, if not then can consider increasing the light supply.

Also I have rocks inside. It should be normal granite rocks. Is it not suppose to be in my tank? Also, I also thought the pH level of our tap waters is slightly higher, so could it be the cause of higher pH? I used 1 and a half packet of 9l pack of soil. I also have drift wood, the branchy kind in my tank. Foreground I use pH7 aquarium sand.

Well, its okay to have rocks in your tank... if they are the type which raise pH and GH then you just have to factor that in when choosing livestock to match their optimal tank requirements.

Usually ADA Amazonia aquasoil should be able to buffer the tank water to a pH of around 6.4-6.6 (even if the source tap water is higher pH). I guess for your tank of 142 liters, the smaller ratio of ADA Aquasoil used + the rocks probably combined to reduce the effectiveness of the soil buffering ability, enough that the tank water stays at more alkaline conditions.

Its not really an issue to have higher pH anyways, unless you really need it to be lower to keep sensitive livestock that require lower pH softwater environments.

I'm quite certain the water has been cycled, since there was a spike in ammonia and nitrite and eventually none was detected. I use API test kit.

Also I used old media. There should be bacterial established there.

I use reagent test kit.

I see... yeah, that the reason why your tank was cycled much faster. The existing beneficial bacteria in the old media carry over the cycle and speed it up.

[Wong Chun Kit]

Ok! Thanks for your patience in explaining these matters! Will wait for my hc to adapt.

As you said, I see new growth but the old growth are dying off as well. If need be I shall see if my pocket allows for better light. Haha.


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[Wong Chun Kit]

Oh and I just learnt that the media has been left moist in the canister for a year. So the bacteria survived all this while.


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[WingCher]

Oh and I just learnt that the media has been left moist in the canister for a year. So the bacteria survived all this while.


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Was the canister filter running for that one year? If not i doubt the beneficial bacteria will survive that long. The only bacteria left in it could be only anaerobic bacteria that consumes nitrate to produce Nitrogen and Oxygen gas and doesnt need oxygen to survive.

[Wong Chun Kit]

No. It was not running. Maybe the bacteria didn't survive, but the conditions speed up its growth in just two weeks.


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