Lighting And My Tank

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LastBoy5cout

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Have jewul rekord tank which is either 80 -90 litres. 5 platies, 5 red eye tetras and one plec.

Did the WPG calculation and according to the specs my bulb is 20 W and my tank is 17 Gallons so I make my WPG 1.1. Have I got this right?

I have had problems with green spot algae recently and am thinking my bulb isnt up to much and perhaps increasing my bulb wattage/WPG and introducing some Seachem flourish and some CO2 it should increase my plants growth thus not giving the algae chance to get a look in.

Also my broader leaved plants have been turning yellow and looking generally grotty.

Have I kind of got the right idea or am I going in the wrong direction altogether?
 
Hey :)

The WPG isn't the best rule around as it was designed about when T12s were the main lighting (I think, I saw that on these forums! :p), and thesedays most people use T8s or Power compacts, so I lie, it's virtually useless ;P

Anyway, what sort of bulb are you using? How old is it? The WPG rule varies tremendously over the different bulbs.

How long have you had your broad leaved plants and is the die-off a new thing? If it is I would expect you're getting a nutrient deficiency.
 
you don't need to add CO2 unless the tank is full of plants.
As mentioned the plants with rotting leaves could be suffering a deficieny, maybe lack of iron. It could also be you have marsh plants and not true aquatic plants. Then they will rot away because they don't naturally live under water.
Any idea what the plants are?
 
Im planning on taking the bulb out later and having a look at and seeing exactly what Ive got.

The plant that is suffering the most has been doing well for a few months so think it maybe a aquatic plant but as mentioned above soffering form a deficiency of sorts.

DSCF1695.jpg


Not a great picture. Certainly the dieing off is a new thing and the tank was newly set up in November last year.
 
looks like something is eating it.
do you have any algae eaters in the tank? snails, bristlenose catfish, flying foxes, etc.

the other thing would be if the leaf was squashed or damaged then bacteria could be eating it.
 
I have trumpet snails which I have never seen eat them.

Its one of those things that is really bugging, I guess its the joys of fish keeping.

I have noticed a lot of green spot algae on said plants so am limiting my lighting in the hope that it will kerb some of that.

Will extract my bulb tonight and post that up, I'm really going for the planted tank look so am thinking about uping the WPG
 
if you have lots of Malaysian burrowing snails they could be eating it at night. They hide in the gravel during the day so the only way to tell how many are in the tank is to look after dark.
 
Im planning on taking the bulb out later and having a look at and seeing exactly what Ive got.

The plant that is suffering the most has been doing well for a few months so think it maybe a aquatic plant but as mentioned above soffering form a deficiency of sorts.

Not a great picture. Certainly the dieing off is a new thing and the tank was newly set up in November last year.

Look like amazon swords, mine used to get the same! After I had about 6 of the leaves do it I thought it looked pretty cool :blush:

Anyway :) I seemed to fix the majority of the problem by putting iron and trace elements into the water, I used FloraGro and Flora 24. Now I just get the occassional leaf go brown - but I think that's because I recently changed bulb to a higher Kelvin rating so the leaves are dying off accordingly.

can't help you with greenspot though :/ I had heaps of it the other day so I just rubbed it all of the glass and Added Co2, I think if I start dosing again the problem might stop xD
 
Have started dosing with Seachem flourish incase its a deficincy (sp) in the water and having just planted alot of plants on Tuesday am going to invest in a Co2 kit to try and give my plants boost.
 

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