Java Fern

SRC

Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants won'
Joined
Nov 19, 2004
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I've had this particular plant for over 6 months. It's produced lots of fernlets and I've seperated them and moved them around my tank.

I have 1 medium size clump (10 leaves) and 3 small ones (3-5 leaves).

They are all attached to something, not buried. they were all doing very well until about 3 weeks to a month ago, when the leaves started turning brown and developing holes.

I did upgrade my lighting around that time.

I went from having 1 15w plain glass bulb and 1 25w blue plant bulb to 2 of the 25w blue plant bulbs. Is this what may be causing this? Should I go back to the 1 plain glass bulb and 1 blue bulb?

I generally turn the light on in the afternoon and turn it off when I get up (its in my son's room and he uses the tank as a night light). Not much natural light can get in..and what does is not direct, it's only difused light that lights the room through the blinds.
This is the only species of plant in the tank.
 
Hi SRC

I think your correct in guessing that it has something to do with the lighting change.

Im curious about these blue bulbs, they probably are as you say for plants, but i wonder if you know what spectrum they are, the k or kelvin rating?

The reason i ask is because as you go up the spectrum range into blue, a lot of the higher kelvin rated bulbs are more suited for marine setups and will normally induce algae in tanks with plants eventually.

Also just another question how big is the tank in question, how many gallons?

Also another problem could be that the duration you are leaveing the lights on is to long, normally you would leave the lights on in tanks with plants no more than 10-12 hours maximum, anymore will just cause problems eventually.

But also the increased wattage has thrown the tank out of balance so to speak and the plants are showing defficiencys, they could need more fertiliser as the increased light would make them grow more quickly and therefore need more nutrients.

If you could post exactly what type of tube it is and the kelvin rating and also the size of the tank im sure we can get to the bottom of the problem.

So its probably a mix of the above thats causeing the problem but it would be nice to be able to rule out the tubes as being at the main source of the problem as well.
 
I'll have to stop by the store to get the measurements on the bulbs..as I threw the box away when I put both bulbs in the hood (they come 2 to a pack). The box did say they were for growing plants....it didn't specify marine or freshwater though...so I didn't really think about it. I got them in the fish section at Walmart.

It's a 10 gallon tank. There are 4 Harlequin Rasboras, 4 Pristella tetras, 2 cory's, and a UDC in there. They are all full grown. I have a 20 gallon Whisper filter. I have never put fertilizer in the tank before, didn't know I needed too with as many fish are in there. -_-

The lights are generally on...around 12-14 hours. Sometimes more sometimes less..depending on if we remember to turn them on or off..but generally we turn it on at night (between 4-6pm) and off when we get up at 6am.

I have a little algae in the tank, but not alot Farida, the UDC, keeps it munched down pretty well.
 
Ok a ten gallon, the WPG rule breaks down when it comes to small and larger tanks, a ten gallon would be considered small, but im surprised you have'nt had any problems up to now even with the old setup, as 40 watts over a ten gallon would be considered medium lighting and would usually require some additional fertiliser, the new setup with 50 watts would also be considered medium ish lighting, to give you an idea, 65 watts would be considered high light and would definatly require Co2 and regular fertiliser, so i would say you are at the threshold of a highlight small tank with 50 watts or 5 WPG.

Small tanks by their nature are usually harder to balance anyway, but im not really great at smaller tanks, i dont keep any small planted ones, Jimboo another member here keeps smaller planted tanks he might be able to advise you a little better than I, but if you could visit the lfs and find out about the tubes i think that would be a great help, and maybe reduce the lighing period on the tank for the time being until you have the problem solved, there would be no point in keeping the blue lights if they will cause you continious problems in the future if you like plants in that particular tank, so you may as well find out one way or the other.
 

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