Do I need to restart?

[prodrive]

Hi all, 2 months back I started my hc carpet. Things are not looking good.

My tank is 3 feet by 1.5 by 1.5. These are my specs.

1.Running a 2217 with inlet at bottom back left hand side. Outlet is the rainbar that I attached on the left side.
2.Co2 Diffuser At 7/8 bps on the back of tank right hand side. Misting appears to lose a lot of bubbles at surface. The rest going towards inlet.
3. Ans drop checker using their solution with tank water placed below my rainbar. 2/3 distance from top of the tank.
4. Temp at 28 running fans.
5. Flora are hc, staurogyne, hairgrass, tennelus, peace lily and some aqua fern.
6. Lighting is Aquazonic 39wx4 turn on for 8hrs straight.

My plants are not thriving. And there are algae problems.
I guess it must be circulation issue?although I do see swaying of my hc at certain "quiet" spots.

I need your advices.
How to improve circulation? Get a lily pipe? Get another filter or add power head or wave maker? Where should I put?

Are my diffuser, filter locations correct?

Lastly, will the hc bounce back once I solve the issues? Or I need to restart?

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1348625774.368424.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1348625792.068573.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1348625806.767132.jpg

Thanks.

[alvinchan80]

Temperature might be an issue.. I was chilling my tank at 25deg previously and they grow nicely..

Maybe other hobbyist can advise better..

[thebaldingaquarist]

Temperature is not really an issue with my HC. But i may be wrong.
My 1.5ft tank sits beside the window and i have staurogyne, HC, some gratiola and Frogbits. Temperature is about 29 to 30. all the plants are doing nicely.

Can i ask whether the water surface is agitated (constantly moving).

I ask this because for me, thats the turning point for HC. i used a HOF previously for the tank and the HC did not thrive. now i use a small submerge filter and reduced the CO2 to 1bps.
I also changed the lighting to a more powerful one.
now i have 36w PL.

My advice is to reduce water agitation and improve CO2 diffusion. At the same time, up your lighting. I have another 3ft tank running 4X39W, i find it inadequate, not enough penetration to reach the bottom.

[felix_fx2]

Hello prodrive,

Can I ask where is the inlet of filter?

Your temperature is ok, I'm at 27-29 during the last hot season.

I see your using rainbar and co2 diffuser on opposite end of each other. Then alot of wastage even when you are blasting very high bps.

You might want to make use of the outflow current to keep the co2 bubbles longer in the water.

My setup similar to you, but using inline diffuser and the outlet is to the those larger rainbar.

You might want to take account of the age of those t5 tubes. I had very very bad experience with the current "test scape" I'm keeping now.

[prodrive]

Thanks for all the replies.
My light tubes are brand new when I bought the set in June. 12k bulbs. I may change to osram 6.5k bulbs from NA to try.

Initially agitation is quite abit since I place the rainbar just nice at the water level to eliminate protein film. Now I move 1cm below the water level. Other form of agitation will be from the fans blowing at the water surface.

My inlet and rainbar on the same side of the tank.

I had previously tried placing the diffuser under the rainbar. Though just for a week. Didn't see any noticeably results. May go inline for co2 also. My drop checker is only dark green when co2 is on.

Will a power head help?
And since now my hc is half dead, do I still keep trying or start with new stocks.

[felix_fx2]

Thanks for all the replies.
My light tubes are brand new when I bought the set in June. 12k bulbs. I may change to osram 6.5k bulbs from NA to try.

Initially agitation is quite abit since I place the rainbar just nice at the water level to eliminate protein film. Now I move 1cm below the water level. Other form of agitation will be from the fans blowing at the water surface.

My inlet and rainbar on the same side of the tank.

I had previously tried placing the diffuser under the rainbar. Though just for a week. Didn't see any noticeably results. May go inline for co2 also. My drop checker is only dark green when co2 is on.

Will a power head help?
And since now my hc is half dead, do I still keep trying or start with new stocks.

Actually instead of going for powerhead with rainbar I would do the below few.

1on't use rainbar, just connect until the L joint. (rather personal, but never felt rainbar was making the output any stronger. In fact weakening it)

2lace the diffuser where the output can keep the diffused bubbles of co2 longest underwater.
How effective co2 is absorbed is "time of contact x surface area" simply put it as fine bubbles x longer time in water. (neglecting other factors)

Water agitation/output parallel to the water surface will likely promote more o2 then co2. There should be some fish keepers actually will back this old advice I got long ago.

Btw, 70% melts = just buy new and replant the hc. Waiting for your 30% to grow a lawn will cost you more time.

If you want to still use rainbar, put your diffuser left/front of the tank. Test by looking at the actual bubbles.

A sound word from member in Aq.
"water will always take the easy way back"

Best of luck

[prodrive]

Cheers bro. I'll give that a try

[prodrive]

Just to check.
If I swapped out my rainbar for a single output, where should I place this.same side as the inlet?
should it be side by side with the inlet on the rear left of the tank blowing diagonally?

Where can i buy this?
I only see before the stainless still Borneowild ones that cost quite a bit.

[felix_fx2]

You can use those joints in lfs instead of getting a pretty outflow.

But then, the BW pipes really pretty :X

You can place and see how the water carries the bubbles then decide. No strict method since no identical scapes.

[prodrive]

I lowered the rainbar to reduce agitation. Moved my differser to under the rainbar. Looks promising. Co2 bubbles are travelling to the remote regions of the tank and my drop checker is showing light green. Not lime yet but the shade is a tad lighter the the dark green I use to see. Finger crossed. I didn't add new hc. Lazy and back breaking leh.

[felix_fx2]

Hope things go well.

Oh about backbreaking. Die die you need to have some success. Even abit you will feel very good, the backbreaking will disappear lol.