Plant not growing well.

[ikan]

I have 4X2X2 tank which is 4 months old. The plants are not growing well even the Java Fern doesn't seem to grow much. Anubias Nana leaf is quite small in comparison to others I have seen.
The tank has 4X 36 watts aquarelle FL (4 months old) and I use trickle filter with bio ball and Eheim 1250 pump. Also few weeks ago I started my DIY CO2. I wonder why the plants are not doing well??
Should I check the CO2 content. The Ph is about 7 and temp 26C. Light is on 12 hours/days. The large amazon sword that I planted a couple months ago got smaller. The fish somehow are doing very well, Apistos lay eggs almost every two weeks. Other tetras look healthty.
Why???

[Simon]

the plants u mentioned, r all slow & hardy plants.. even without C02, anubias , swordplants, ferns shldnt have no probs... and yr lights is suitable too.. how abt fertilization? any base fert? how thick is yr substrate? what other plants do u have? r they growing or do they show sign of grwoth? any pics?

[ikan]

I moved the Java Fern and Anubias Nana from a 3' small tank. They grew better in the old tank and it only had 2 light and no CO2 injection. The different is the filter, the old tank used Eheim 2228 canister filter. I wonder if the trickle filter is removing too much CO2. I realised both plants are slow growing but I still should see the growth in 4 months. I noticed that the anubias nana leaves are smaller now.
By the way the substrate is standard gravel 2 inches at the front and 4 inches at the back. I only added the fertiliser balls near each plants.
Ocassionaly I add JBL liquid fertiliser, usually after water change (once a week). Other plants (I don't know the name) are growing slowly too. The background that grows tall and skinny, none of them has touched the surface yet. They are still about 10 cm below the surface. I know I do not have super fast growing plant light water lily. Still I think they should do much better.
Many years of keeping fish I can't seem to grow plants well. I want to get it right this time. I like to keep discus, but I am willing to let go the idea because of the temp. requirement and try to get my plant to grow still no success. Why Why Why???

[vinz]

Ikan,

What do you put in the trickle filter?

[CK Yeo]

Your tank is great as a fish tank, but not as a planted tank.

1) You have too much light for a tank with super slow growing plants.
2) You have not enough CO2.
3) The trickle filter will strip all the CO2 that you just added with your DIY system. so LPPL.

You can lower your light levels. Ferns and anubius dun need all that light. While you can still you the trickle filter, the idea is that you have to keep the biotower relatively airtight to prevent mixing of water and ambient air (read the George Booth article on tricklefilter in planted tanks). You probably won't need to fertilize in such a setup also, or maybe infrequently.
Like Simon mentioned also, your plants grow slow even in high growth rate tanks... so not too surprising that they are not doing much in yours.

Plants and fish have different requirements. What makes you think that if the fish are doing fine, the plants should also be?

Get a CO2 system if you are serious about growing plants.

[ikan]

It's interesting about the George Booth test. Okay so I know now that the trickle filter system is not the problem. I did reduce the terbulence on the surface few days ago to almost zero. It's used to have quite a lot of surface movement.
About the lights, surely it's better to have too much then too little. 4x 36 wattss FL light on 4x2x2 tank is probably on the low site.
Another thing, is CO2 that critical on my tank, since anubias and Java Fern are slow growing?
If I want to check the CO2 level what will the test kit I should get. Can I get the electronic one? I never check CO2 or O2 level in my tanks.

[bclee]

You can use pH and KH tests and cross reference with this chart.

I use a long-term CO2 indicator in my tank so that just by a glance I know whether the CO2 level is ok. This indicator don't give you exact reading but just too high, too low or ok.

BC

[ikan]

KH and GH is another problem. I have JBL, Tetra KH and GH test kit. I just can't get the solution to change colour even after 30 drops! The same with my tanganyikan tank with hard water. After I tried few time I gave up and got myself a conductivity meter with digital display. Never have problem with that. Maybe I should just get the CO2 indicator, is the Eheim one good?

[bclee]

I have come across faulty GH test kits before. The solution appeared to be expired. The colour simply don't change in colour.

However, with Sera test kits, I have yet to encounter problems. I doubt that your water can be that hard >30dKH.

BC

[ikan]

BC, does the colour change like the PH test, not gradual. For exp. after 5 drops nothing happen and on the 6th drop it change colour?

[bclee]

The color changes quite abruptly.

For KH, the color will start with blue, when near to the end point, one drop problem change the color to green and the next will change to yellow, but sometimes you may not see the green part and jump directly to yellow.

For GH, it is similar, from red to brown to green.

BC