[mrhaljordan]

Hey there everyone. I need some advice... I am trying to establish a CO2-injected, fully planted, 55 gallon aquarium with a focus on plants that are NOT green... like alternanthera reineckii, rotala rotundifolia "Orange Juice", cryptocoryne "Pink Flamingo", bacopa salzmanii "Purple", etc. Some of the plants have melted away, many seem to be just languishing in limbo, and plants that supposedly will turn colors once acclimated (like the bacopa salzmanii "Purple") are growing pretty well, but remain bright green. My one shining star is a clump of pogostemon sp. Kimberley, which is thriving! I've done some research on the parameters each plant likes, and the ones I am growing should be more or less compatible.

The tank is only about 2 months old, and fully cycled. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0, and nitrates around 5 ppm. I have a single Fluval Plant 3.0 LED light (59 watts) overhead, and am wondering if I should get a second one? It has a Penn-Plax Cascade 700 canister filter, I fertilize it every other day with this stuff called "Growth Juice" by Dustin's Fishtanks, and it's planted into black Seachem Fluorite substrate. The tank is 48" long, 22" high, and 14" deep. I recently rearranged the filter setup, and added a new power head to facilitate a better distribution of the CO2 bubbles. My CO2 drop checker is greenish-blue.

Livestock: 2 adolescent electric blue acaras, 3 nerite snails, and a crew of 4 bronze-green corydoras. Hoping to add a few angelfish this weekend, as well as a couple of bristlenose plecos.

Any ideas what might be stunting the plants? Should I increase the light by adding a second fixture? Increase CO2? More iron? Root tabs? Maybe I just need to be patient while the tank matures?

 

[Steven F]

Your problem is not CO2 or light. You have a nutrient deficiency that is preventing good plant growth. One or more nutrients ( there are 14) are at levels too low for most plants, but enough for a couple of your plants. Without knowing the ingredients and guarenteed analysis of the fertilizer there is no way to know which nutrient is the problem.

Unfortunately most aquarium fertilizers are tested with tap water. Most fertilizers don't have calcium, insufficient copper which tap water often has. So most fertilizer depend on your water supplying some nutrients. But if your water does not have these the fertilizer won't work for you.

CO2 systems with a drop checker at the correct color will provide 30ppm of CO2 air has 10ppm by mass. So you are already at a level 3 times higher than your plants need.

Also in my experience if you have al the nutrients plants need they will start growing immediatetly when the lights are on. So I don't think you need to let the tank mature. And your light and 5ppm nitrate should be more than enough.

You can test your water GH ( general harness). The GH test detects calcium and magnesium (both needed by plants If your level is low you might need to increase your GH with a GH booster. Also test your PH.

Many have Iron EDTA which is only stable at a PH of 6.5 or less. If your PH is higher than that Fe EDTA won't work. Other fertilizers use Iron Gluconate which is consumed by bacteria and needs to be dosed once every couple of days so at any PH. The Best iron nutrient is Iron DTPA which is stable at a PH of 7.5 or less.

 

[mrhaljordan]

Wow... you are a wealth of knowledge! Thanks for all of this... I'll see if I can try out some of your suggestions over the next couple of days, and I'll keep you posted.