Day Length

[waterdrop]

So I'm feeling trapped in my low-light, liquid Carbon, reduced EI world at the moment:

I'm running one photoperiod at about 5 hours and I feel as though increasing the number of hours may bring back some brown algae that I try to keep at bay, but on the other hand I wonder if this short 5-hour lighting (I'm just a little over 1 w/g) is signaling some of my plants that they are in a "seasonal" situation, to which they respond by growing smaller leaves or having slower growth or something.

This all started from a discussion with one of the Crypt experts at a plant conference who mentioned that this might be a possibility. I was complaining that my Crypts (I have a wendtii brown/red and a green) were alive and well but seemed not to be thriving or ever growing much.

I realize I may just be doomed to the world of frustratingly slow growth by my low light and lack of CO2 and that I should just "take it." But I know that some of you have done some pretty amazing things in the low-light, non-CO2 world and so I've been making various changes with some success and casting about for other changes to try. (Another factor I have that I've been thinking about changing is that my KH and GH are very low (and my pH can hover down around 6) and I've been thinking of trying some of the minimal mineral boosting (Tom Barr's GH Booster discussions)... that's just another little unknown in my head.)

Anyway, I just wonder if I'm missing some whole area of planted knowledge that has to do with knowing which plants will go dormant or change their behavior based on number of hours of light in the day?

WD

 

[lljdma06]

I can only tell you what I know, based on my personal experience, since I'm not especially scientific, but I can grow crypts. Endor has a photo period of about 8 hours, so depending on your lighting level and your plant density, which I imagine has increased since you got back from AGA, go ahead and increase your photoperiod. Wow, run-on! I have found that the more often I change the water on Endor, the better the crypts do. When I change water less frequently, they do worse and then my aponogetons really take off. So there could be something to water hardness or at the very least dissolved solids.

Have you adjusted your dosing to accomodate your new plants?

Llj

 

[waterdrop]

That's a seriously interesting tip. I've been struggling with getting in frequent enough water changes because of too much kid activity and as already stated, I'm suspicious of my super-low mineral content. Maybe my crypts are getting starved of some mineral like magnesium or something! I always feel like when I finally get the water change (that might be sometimes every other weekend when it should be every weekend) I'm at least getting in some feeble little bit of calcium and stuff from the tap water.

I do indeed have several new plants that have made it through from the plane trip (a couple of them are so beautiful(!) (and that rare one, that was still being identified by the PhDs, is doing pretty well!) so my plant load has grown a bit.. but I wasn't thinking I needed to adjust my dosing - I always feel like my reduced EI is overdosing a bit for my 1w/g anyway.

You've inspired me to go crazy trying to find moments to cram in water changes.

WD