Help Needed

[luncheonMeat]

Hi to all in the forum.
I started this hobby about a few months back with a small 1ft tank. And then i bought a bigger one... tried to grow some plants but they eventually all melted away or get eaten up i guess so in my main tank not much plants left.

Then just last week i decided to experiment and try growing some Glosso and hairgrass. But im not sure if it will work out. i have CO2 as well. PLease advice. after a few days the glossos started growing tall so i further pushed them into the soil. but they started growing tall again. any idea what i should do now?

[Merviso]

Hi bro, your Glosso is glowing reaching out for more lights. Your lighting may not be enough for them to crawl along the base. What's your current lighting?

[luncheonMeat]

Hi Bro Merviso,

It says on the Tube PL 11W/ 6400K

Thanks for your help!

[luncheonMeat]

This is a picture that i have just taken. the Glosso looks horrible now. The LFS guy told me my lighting is enough for me to grow Glosso.. I currently turn it on for about 6 hours. Should i have it on for a longer period of time?

Algae also started to invest on the glass surface.... OH NO!!!

Please Advice.

[Merviso]

Hi bro, algae usually comes as a result of imbalance of various factors such as amount and intensity of lighting, amount of various nutrient, amount of CO2, versus the amount of nutrients taken up the plants. It's a long learning process, and you not need to worry about them too much. Just take it as a challenge to overcome them.

As for your lighting, may be it's better to look at your overall setup first before we can make as suggestion. Therefore, it may be good for you to refer to the Help Request Form and tell us more information about your tanks. Good luck...

[Aquaria One]

Gloss has a very high light requirment or else it will grow vertically. The key to growing Glosso sucessfully is having a very intense light. Pluck out the glosso, replant them and get a stronger light set, Pl. The Glosso should then spread carpet-like across the aquarium. The LFS man did not mean the time the light is on, rather he meant the INTENSITY. That is to say you need to replace your light. 6-8 hours should be suffcient. Alage can be taken care of by Ottos and yamato shrimp, cherry shrimps, or malayan shrimps etc. Keeping to the insructions when dosing can help aviod overdosing.With regular water changes. Or the other hand you can follow this "EI fertllization" method of dosing developed by Tom Barr. Can be a bit confusing but worth the time and effort reading.

http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/

[beetlejuice403]

Luncheon Meat, based on what I know, Glosso is a plant that requires high light (recommended more than 3 wpg) & need CO2 (which you have, so shouldn't be the problem here...) too in order to grow well horizontally... In your case, most probably the 11W is not enough to penetrate to the Glossos at the bottom, hence they will grow upwards towards any light source it can detect...

You may wish to try upgrading your PL light to a higher wattage unit, or buy those with T5 or T5HO ones if you intend to plant mainly all plants that requires high light for nice growth... However, do toe carefully as too much light may invite the unsightly algae problems though....

Cheers!!

[luncheonMeat]

Thanks guys, i will see what i can do with the lights. and i might get a new tank the next few days. so i might just try again on the new tank. Probably start a new thread on the new setup. thanks.

Anyways, i attached a picture of my other tank. Theres not much green cause i failed many times with this tank till i sort of gave up. its just rockscape now. i thought i will just share the picture with you guys.

Feel free to comment. thanks.

LM

[Simon]

LM

welcome to AQ, try pushing them back into the substrate everytime they reaches upward. However, like what the rest have mentioned, glossostigma is a high light plant.
I recommend going for at least 2 WPG (watts per gallon), with the increase in light output, you also have to balance it out with more co2 and fertilisation. But your tank is still new, go easy.

please read through the other planted related sub forums.

[Mizu World]

Definitely not enough light for Glosso to carpet. It's a light demanding plant if you want it to crawl. Period.

The wpg rule does not apply in small tanks as there's something called the minimum threshold light level you need to maintain. For eg., you have 3watts over 1gallon of water. Although you have 3wpg (thereotically), it does not mean that you can keep a dense carpet of glosso successfully!

[luncheonMeat]

LM

welcome to AQ, try pushing them back into the substrate everytime they reaches upward. However, like what the rest have mentioned, glossostigma is a high light plant.
I recommend going for at least 2 WPG (watts per gallon), with the increase in light output, you also have to balance it out with more co2 and fertilisation. But your tank is still new, go easy.

please read through the other planted related sub forums.

Thanks Simon... still enjoying the hobby definetly. went to check if i can get a stonger tube for my lamp, the neighbourhood lighting store aunty say 11w is the strongest i can get for the size i want. In anycase, i plan to get a 2ft tank real soon (as soon as i come back from my ICT in 2 weeks time) so i probably use this tank just for misc. purpose...

Thanks for encouragement!

LM