Plant Help!!!

[chago09]

Hi..... Ok I have a 35 gallon with three 2" discus in it and 3 cories. The tank has a light fixture with only one flourescent tube. I purchased a Hagen Power Glow bulb to upgrade the light slightly. I have about 9 or 10 plants in my tank. Mostly swords I'm not to sure what kind. also some java fern. I used to have white gravel in there and I was told that white gravel is no good because it can cause a rise in phosphates??? Don't know if thats true but anyways I took out as much as I could and there is still some left. I covered over it though with black gravel from Hagen. Then I planted all the plants. I have a nice large piece of driftwood and a piece of mopani wood in the tank. I feed the tank every 4 days with the Plant grow stuff. My plants have not been doing much at all. They all look like there kinda gloomy like there not bright green there getting a little brown. Also it looks like theres cfrap growing on them, I think it's algea. It looks kinda brown the stuff thats growing. My light is on 12 hours a day and latley i've been spilling in that plant grow stuff just to try helping the plants. I know a better light or a CO2 machine would help but i dont have the money right now. Anyone here who is a expert with plants please leave a post helping me in my situation. Is there any other plant foods I should use or maybe those CO2 fizzy things you can drop in?? if yes give me brand names??? make sure its all stuff that is safe for my discus??? Or anything else you think that will help my plants just let me know. thanx

[Wahter]

Hi..... Ok I have a 35 gallon with three 2" discus in it and 3 cories. The tank has a light fixture with only one flourescent tube. I purchased a Hagen Power Glow bulb to upgrade the light slightly. I have about 9 or 10 plants in my tank.

What are the dimensions of your tank (w x h x l) and what is the intensity of the light (wattage) also what is the length of the light?

Practically ALL the standard light strips commonly sold with tanks at stores do not put out enough light to keep most plants other than low light plants, such as java fern, anubias, and some crypts. Some people mistakenly think duration can make up for a lack of intensity, but this can usually end up with just more algae.

[Dissident]

To keep it simple for plants without getting all high-tech 2.5 watts per gallon (2w/g absolute minimum for plants in all honesty) is the range you want to be in. Get some flourish excel, get some root fertalizers and most plants will be ok. Do not go over 3W/gal unless you want to start investing in CO2.

[chago09]

I recently replaced the regular bulb with a Hagen Power glow. My tank is 36" x 12" x 18". The light fixture could fit a 30" bulb i dont know why inside the casing they only put a 24" set up. The bulb is 24" and is 20 watts.

[Dissident]

I recently replaced the regular bulb with a Hagen Power glow. My tank is 36" x 12" x 18". The light fixture could fit a 30" bulb i don’t know why inside the casing they only put a 24" set up. The bulb is 24" and is 20 watts.

Not even close to enough light to grow plants. Doesn't matter if its a Hagen Super Power Glow to the Max. It's a great way for manufactures to get $20 a bulb versus the $6 a bulb for the same thing and a local hardware store. You could get technical with Lux/CRI/etc but it really comes down to raw wattage and K for good plant growth. I'm not discrediting the other factors in lighting they do play a role in the whole scheme of things. Just not as much as they want you to believe. 6500K-10,000K is a good range for plants IME.

They use a 24" bulb because no one makes a 30" bulb. But you can get 36" bulbs but you would need a new fixture.
If you go out and find a 2x30W fixture that would work to keep lower light plants going in your tank.

BTW I'm referring to Florescent wattage not incandescent wattage.

[chago09]

the box of the light bulb says its 18,000 K and 20 W.

[Dood Lee]

I really suggest you go over to www.rexgrigg.com and learn about keeping planted tanks (either high tech or low tech). I have seen so many people here start out keeping planted discus tanks, and not really succeeding because they don't have a handle on what it takes to keep plants healthy.

Read Rex's site and decide on what kind of tank you want to keep. With that information, I can really help you out on how to get your tank on the right track.

[diablocanine]

You will be able to successfully grow algae that way. Reference my previous post on your other thread:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=47363