Reply With Quotehi and welcome to AQ! what is your fert regime and your CO2 Bubbling rate? they play a part in causing your plants to pearl. and what type of plants do you have? some plants like riccia pearl easier than others..
I'm new to plants, converted my 4 X 2 X 2ft from marine not too long ago. What attracted me to planted tank setup is the bubbling effect.
And I read in this forum that many of the experts are saying "plants bubbling like mad"... But I'm having difficulty achieving this, can anyone please advise. Many thanks!
Specs:
4 X 2 X 2ft, ~400litres
Chiller temp 27C
PH 6.3
CO2 reactor
3-4inches of sand, with basefert and heater coil
3 X T5 lights
No more saltwater tank for me!
hi and welcome to AQ! what is your fert regime and your CO2 Bubbling rate? they play a part in causing your plants to pearl. and what type of plants do you have? some plants like riccia pearl easier than others..
I add 20ml of Amtra Plant Fertiliser weekly, recommended by PetMart folks. CO2 is around 6-8 bubbles per sec. Almost forget, only Java fern currently.
@ aquastuff.org
This has been discussed many times already, you can do a search. One good thread is at http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...lants+pearling
IMO, you're lacking traces of NO3 & PO4.
visit my photo albums @ flickr!
Riccia bubbled easier than ohters but you still need to get everything right. Tried different bubbling rate for the CO2 and the light source. Too much feriliser will encourage algae growth.
alan, why bother to have a heater coil to heat up ur water and still keep your water chilled by using a chiller? Electricity expensive leh...Originally Posted by alanyeo99
Singapore's weather hot enough to heat water... Anyway, I believe is that you read something about heating the base to prevent anerobic substrate issit?
Good thing you got nothing in the gravel yet... No root plants, suggest you remove the coil... Save electricity and spend these money on the beautiful plants and lovely fishes...
I read that in Dernnerle book, the heater coil underneath the soil is to help to bring the fert up from the bottom of the soil.alan, why bother to have a heater coil to heat up ur water and still keep your water chilled by using a chiller? Electricity expensive leh...
Singapore's weather hot enough to heat water... Anyway, I believe is that you read something about heating the base to prevent anerobic substrate issit?
Good thing you got nothing in the gravel yet... No root plants, suggest you remove the coil... Save electricity and spend these money on the beautiful plants and lovely fishes...
But I never do that because my tanks are all warm enough and I predict my chillers will be running like mad in coming months.
Heater could be necessaryl for cold weather country. For us, our temperature is hot enough already. :-)
Heater coil in substrate encourage healthy roots and activate the fert. In our natural environment, ie. the earth's crust, soil temperature is a little warmer & constant even under a running stream. This helps to promote root growth too. Cannot remember where I read this though...
Chilled tank without coil heater can cause a symptom called "cold feet/roots". Just like olden chinese sayings - when one sleep he/she must maintain a cool head and warm feet, hehe....:-)
Sometime back, I had a smaller 2ft tank that does not have a coil heater. On one occasion, I pull out a large plant and found the bulb/roots smelt like rotten eggs. Having experienced with heater coil on my larger tank, foul smell on bulbs/roots is gone.
The heater wattage is considerably low therefore will not warm up the water significantly. I've trial it before, with coil heater on or off the duration of my chiller running is rougly same. Anyway thanks for all your advise.
Cheers,
Just to comment on that..
I have a 2 feet tank, with chiller... from observation, I did a few experiment, lowering temperature to 23 degrees... i see condensation on the outside glass all over except in the 2-3 inches filled with ada soil...
from that i deduct that the temperature is warmer at the bottom, and colder in water...
So i would say no need a heating coil for tanks in singapore....
how long did you maintain the tank at 23 deg?
my guess is not very long. water in tank is cooled and circulated by your filter/pump. thus, the water is cooled relatively quick. however, the water in the substrate gets very little circulation so the substrate will cool much slower. if you maintained 23 deg long enough, the glass at substate level will have condensation as well.
thomas liew
since you have a chiller, the undergravel heater will not heat up the tank water. it will be a completely different story if you do not have a chiller.
thomas liew
Just to let everyone knows, my plants are bubbling.....finally
Added 4 X 36W PL, works wonder without ever increasing CO2, KH, or fert regime.
Thanks to those who provided feedbacks & suggestions.
it is important to keep up the nutrients dosing and ensure co2 concentration is maintained ~30ppm. do monitor for a while as plants acclimatize to the increased light.
thomas liew
does pearling indicate that everything is going good. cause my amazon swords are pearling a lot nowadays.
No, pearling doesn't mean everything's going good. Lack of algae imho is a better indicator.
Sometimes excessive pearling may mean incoming algae attack or other troubles.....beware!!
cheers!
Aquatic Dreams
Custom Made Aquarium Tanks, Cabinets & Stands
Contact Us: [email protected]
Website: http://www.aquaticdreams.com.sg
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/aquaticdreamsg/
That was exactly wat it meant in my case.. the second day i started seeing my front glass covered with algae..
had to scrape it off..
Hmm.., interesting comment.Sometimes excessive pearling may mean incoming algae attack or other troubles.....beware!!
cheers!
Assuming that there is no foreign introduction of O2, pearling happens when the O2 by-product of photosynthesis of the plants have reached saturation levels. Copious amounts of pearling seem to indicate that the plants are growing (photosynthesizing) well and will out compete algae for nutrients.
Having said that, another observation is the pearling "site". Cut stems and damaged leaves are also hotspots for pearling. For damaged leaves, the question would be how the leaves were damaging in the first place.
O2 is often used as a measurement of plant production. The more O2 produced, the more carbon fixed. So, you would want to look for pearling in a planted tank which is a better indicator than test kits for CO2.No, pearling doesn't mean everything's going good. Lack of algae imho is a better indicator.
Regards
Peter Gwee
Unless you are running things on the lean side, you should not get algae. The other issue is having too many fish.Sometimes excessive pearling may mean incoming algae attack or other troubles.....beware!!
cheers!
Regards
Peter Gwee
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks