plants still not well.......

[peteypob]

Hell everyone,

My water sprite and red melon have been turnning brown on parts of them and looks like they are dying off. Cant seem to figure out what im doing wrong.I have Eco-Complete gravel, CO2, and add Serchem flourish and flourish iron everytime a water change is preformed. pH 7.6-7.8, GH 175ppm, temp 87, nitirte 0, nitrate 10, ammonia 0. My light from what I can see doesnt indicate the wattage. ??? I have the light on a timer( 9 hrs ). All my plants are new to this aquarium because it was recently setup. Perhaps you guys could point me in the right direction.
Thanks
-Pete
P.S. I have the CO2 @20psi and two bubbles per second. My indicator was on back order but is on the way now. Is this a problem?

[ChloroPhil]

Peteybob,

What's your KH and specifically what kind of lighting do you have? Is it the regular fluorescent type? If so, how many bulbs are running?

best,
Phil

[peteypob]

Hi Phil,

My KH is @ 8 drops(143.2), and I have just the factory bulb that came with it. It says Eclipse on it and is one bulb going across.

[Wahter]

Hi Phil,

I have just the factory bulb that came with it. It says Eclipse on it and is one bulb going across.


Sorry, I had to chuckle at this - that's like when a car owner calls into the shop to schedule a tune-up. The mechanic asks the car owner "what type of car do you have?" and the answer was, "it's a gray kind of a beige one.". ;D ;D

Peteypob,

Tell us:

1.) what size is your tank (in dimensions and volume capacity)

2.) what is the length of of the light bulb and which Eclipse hood are you using? I take it you are using one of the Eclipse "filter & everything built into the hood" contraptions. Do you know what the wattage is (any indication on the box)?

Let us know, and we'll be able to figure out if you've got enough lighting for the plants. The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is maybe your water has copper which some plants can't handle.

Thanks!


Walter

[peteypob]

Hi Walter,

Yea im not an expert when it comes to lighting. I have a 55 gal 48"x13"x20. The bulb is 48" as well and the only information on the bulb is" Natural Daylight F40t10". No built-in hood thingy, aqua clear 500 filter running. If there is copper present, is there some way of detecting how much? Anyway to get rid of it?
Thanks for the help!
-Pete

[Wahter]

Hi Walter,

Yea im not an expert when it comes to lighting. I have a 55 gal 48"x13"x20. The bulb is 48" as well and the only information on the bulb is" Natural Daylight F40t10". No built-in hood thingy, aqua clear 500 filter running. If there is copper present, is there some way of detecting how much? Anyway to get rid of it?
Thanks for the help!
-Pete



That's okay Pete. You're eager to learn and that's better than most people.

Sounds like it's a standard 40 watt light; you should probably add at least another light over the tank or switch it out to two 55 watt compact fluorescent lights. Pretty much the standard light strips sold with tanks just don't provide enough light intensity for keeping live plants. The only reason, I can figure is that it's less costly (and hence sells better); leaving the people who want to get the live plants or a reef tank to get something more specialized.

Remember, the general rule to aim for is the "2 watts of lighting per 1 gallon of water" (that rule gets skewed as you go to smaller tanks or larger tanks - why? because the depth doesn't follow the same ratio as the increasing volume; ie. a standard 100 gallon tank isn't twice as deep as a standard 50 gallon tank). You can test this out, by floating a portion of the water sprite at the surface; if it starts to do fine as a floating plant, then you know it's a lighting issue.

Hope this helps.


Walter

[peteypob]

Hi Walter,

Good stuff! I will take a trip on over to my LFS and hunt me down a double strip lighting. I have a bundle of plants coming in on Friday and want to have things right. Thanks again!
-Pete

[Harriett]

Pete,
for what it's worth, I had trouble with some of my plants when I kept my temp up at 87....I gradually lowered it to 82-83. The discus do just as well and I found that the plants liked it way better. (My wisteria H. diformens) melted out at the higher temp and does well at the lower, for example. Just a thought to throw into the mix.
Best regards,
Harriett

[Wahter]

Hi Walter,

Good stuff! I will take a trip on over to my LFS and hunt me down a double strip lighting. I have a bundle of plants coming in on Friday and want to have things right. Thanks again!
-Pete


Pete, if you're going to buy another light strip, go for a compact fluorescent light strip with two 55 watt lights (don't get anything actinic - that's for the reef folks). aim for a triphosphor light with a Kelvin color temp around 5000k-6700K (I think the lights look a bit greenish around 5000K and prefer the 6500-6700K. The higher the CRI (color rendering index is to 100), the more natural the light will make objects appear.

Hope this helps.


Walter

[peteypob]

Thanks for the input harriett! I droppred my temp down to 84 ;D

Thanks also walter, i purchased today the CoraLife Freshwater compact flouresent lighting strip. It has two 65 watt with the Kelin color temp at 6700k. Now it time to see if my plants flourish. :D

-Pete

[ChloroPhil]

That's great Pete! Don't forget to increase your CO2 output. You want your pH to be around 7.0, so keep adding CO2 until the pH gets down and stays there.

Best,
Phil

[peteypob]

Hi Phil,

I used the CO2 measuring chart on the site and with my kh @ 10 degrees and 179 ppm also pH @7.4 it indicates my CO2 levels are right on the dot "12 ppm". I want to increase my CO2 to drop my pH down to 7.0 but will it harm my fish? Once again thanks for the help!

-Pete

[Harriett]

Upping your CO2 and consequently lowering your pH to 7.0 in this tank shouldn't be a problem. Increase CO2 slowly and stay on top of your measurements of water parameters as you do it. I have similar water kh and have my tank at 6.8-6.9 pH. Your fish will do fine if you change the pH slowly. For toxicity to the discus, the stress is lowering pH quickly, although raising pH won't bother them, from my experience.
Harriett

[peteypob]

:D Thanks Harriett!

[Harriett]

you're welcome! Good luck with your tank! Let me know how it rounds out with the changes.
Best,
Harriett