to cover or not to cover

2238 Views 12 Replies 8 Participants Last post by zooman, Jul 4, 2008

zooman

Discussion Starter · Jun 28, 2008

Question. I have a 46 Gallon planted tank and having some difficulties in growing and currently have a regular 30W flourescent light and a 96W coralife compact light. My question is any chance of my difficulties being because i have a glass top to the tank? I know any glass takes UV away but enough to hinder growth?
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zooman

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 1, 2008

Thanks for the views;

I have seen a difference in the amount of beading coming off of the leaves since ive taken the glass off.

I still dont get why the plants have seem to have stunted growth im soo frusterated its driving me crazy.

Can anyone please give me some advice. I have a 46 Gallon tank id say is 95% covered in different plants some slow and some fast growers like amazon sword. I have another sword plant not sure what the name is but I have the
coralife compact flourescent bulb 96W a 30W hagen life glo bulb on another unit.
A DIY yeast system that i bought and working ive done the test and i also add carbon from a liquid fert
I add weekly the 3 macro nutrients, and a mixture of micro nutrients, the lights are on 12hrs a day.
the gravel i never added anything its normal small like bits of brown gravel but the tank has been running since November of 2007 so im sure theres nutrients there, the gravel varies but in places has to be atleast 2inches thick
The water temp is 80ish
there are 17 neons adn 3 clown loaches and 1 pleco which is eating my sword plant daily urgh

My question is what am i doing wrong like i see oxygen beads coming off but little or no change in growth?

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zooman

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jul 3, 2008

Thanks;
im looking into the co2 not sure where to get it in my area, about the substrate i wouldnt want to go through all the work of changing it over would it be an option to add fertilizer to the substrate like ive seen i think seachem makes it, its cubes that you dig into the gravel and its suppose to fertilize an area. Has anyone had any luck with this product? would there be a big chance since mine is heavily planted that i would burn my roots with it like you can do to grass if it dries out ?

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zooman

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jul 4, 2008

I want to first thank you all for the help honestly you folks have helped me alot ive started to see changes in my plants and its coming i can tell, couple questions when do you know when a plant is dead or dormant do aquatic plants do this? The main plants that are thriving or starting to are the large amazon and the crypts had a big jump. There is aonion plant and a couple of sword plants not the large amazon type though that look and feel hard to the touch the leaves havent grown any and I just did a water change and cut a couple leafs off that were def dead and noticed later that oxygen bubbles were escaping the plant that means its still alive no? and does that hamper the plant? now the onion plant the leaves were growing but have since curled up and browned up and have been stuck since like this. Any ideas when i should just should replace? or hang on?
Thanks

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