Is Substrate Needed?

[Zeiro]

Heya all, i have Pea gravel in my 90g atm and i have the DIY CO2 blowing into my power head and its working finally and also use leaf zone plant nutrition but yet i cannot seem to get my hair grass and other plants to grow at all, they die at the ends and etc. Not sure if I'm not being patient enough since i did all this last Friday and i need to just wait or do i need to use substrate, if so i'm going to redo it and put some on the bottom the gravel on the top. Thanks for the help.

 

[FishBeast]

When I first bought my tank the LFS said all I need to grow plants was pea gravel 120 watts of light. I ended up learning that 120watts wasnt enough for my tank and that I needed 250watts and nutrient substrate, liquid fert and co2. My plants would die also.

How much light do you have? Is it the right spectrum of light? And what sort of light is it? Is T5, T8, etc? Is your co2 diffusing into the water effectively? What size would your pea gravel be? If there is too much water circulation in the gravel I think thats not good. And the roots also probably have trouble getting established in a large grade pea gravel.

 

[Zeiro]

When I first bought my tank the LFS said all I need to grow plants was pea gravel 120 watts of light. I ended up learning that 120watts wasnt enough for my tank and that I needed 250watts and nutrient substrate, liquid fert and co2. My plants would die also.

How much light do you have? Is it the right spectrum of light? And what sort of light is it? Is T5, T8, etc? Is your co2 diffusing into the water effectively? What size would your pea gravel be? If there is too much water circulation in the gravel I think thats not good. And the roots also probably have trouble getting established in a large grade pea gravel.

Humm, well i know for sure i don't have enough lighting i know for sure. I would say my gravel is about a quarter of the size of a dime and smaller. Well come to think of it, it probably is the lighting two crappy single stripe tube lighting that probly put off about 30watts a pop. Looks like i'll be making a trip to the store tom. also yes the CO2 is diffusing perfectly if you want a video/pics i can go do it any time.