My Plants Have Stunted

[moochy13]

as you can see in my sig, i used to have wonderful swords all along my tank, and a nice bushy crypt at the front.

as i was constantly trimming the swords as they were getting too much in the tank, i attempted to split them at the root and give some to my mate. i split each plant, and replanted the bits i kept. wasted excercise, as they turned into food for his silver dollars, but i digress. this was about 4 months ago at least.

here is a pic i took a week or so ago. excuse the food floating about, those frozen cubes look so small in the pack you can see the swords in the back, barely taller than the wood. this is how they looked when i replanted them, and since then they havnt grown at all. maybe they've bushed out a bit, but they dont get any taller, and looks pretty sad. the crypt has all but vanished.

the only changes since splitting the plants are a couple more fish (not plant eaters), and a new, better filter. i have never used any plant food, co2 or anything, the growth was 'au natural'. despite almost zero growth, they obviously arent dead, but why arent they growing ? im almost ready to pull them out, but they had huge root systems, and i've been holding out hope. i also cant find rooted plants to replace them, i dont have much luck with stem cuttings. a couple of my fish are a bit boisterous when it comes to stems planted in sand.

so whats going on ? my tank used to look so nice

 

[PDSimon]

Hmmmm... This is a bit odd. I hate to always jump to saying you need ferts but in the pic I can't see the tips of them dying which I would imagine is a plant deficiency. I get the impression it was a newish tank? Maybe as it matured the swords demanded more nutrients?

It might be a sign of an iron deficiency, but it might also be nitrate/phosphate but you do have quite a lot of fish which will help keep the latter up.

So I would try ferts as a lot of crypts don't normally die off! Personally I would recommend Tropica plant nutrition +

Hopefully someone with a better understanding can offer their opinion though

also, how long are your lights on for?

 

[moochy13]

the tank was probably 3 or 4 months old when the sig pic was taken, the tank is just over a year old now id say. the tips of the leaves are ging a bit brown now, but only a couple of them. i do have quite a lot of fish, it didnt click that this could be such a problem. the swords were relentless at first, i was cutting 3 or 4 leaves off each one every month almost, and they looked awesome. im trying to move some fish on at the moment, so i might leave them until ive done that, then try again. i really dont want to get into the whole plant food and ferts thing, i had great results without them, and its one less thing to worry about. my lights are on between 10am-7pm, then blue led's until 10pm. thanks for your help

 

[Caprichoso]

It's also normal for a plant to be in a bit of a shock after being split and to take a bit of time to start growing again. As long as you didn't cover the top of the root ball and you have the same nutrient levels as before(when they were growing like crazy) I don't see why they shouldn't bounce back in no time.

 

[PDSimon]

I meant the fish are good for the plants, meaning that when they're 'messy business' breaks down it will convert to nitrate and phosphate, the main nutrients plants needs. Sometimes plants need micro nutrients, which are iron, potassium etc...

My tank is on for 6 hours a day, thats with co2 and heavy ferts!... yours are on for 9 without ferts. The light will encourage the plants to grow more but if the nutrients aren't there then they will suffer. Might be the problem. try reducing it down to 7-8.

TPN+ can be dosed just once a week which wouldn't be too much of a hassle.

If nothing else has changed in the tank thats the only thing I can think of

 

[moochy13]

right ive brought another couple of amazon swords, and also what iw as told was another type of sword, its more bushy than tall, i'll get a pic later. should i remove the plants that are stunted and dont seem to be doing anything ? i think i probably will, just seeing if theres any real reason i shouldnt.

ive also noticed straight away, putting taller swords in has reduced my flow considerably, and im getting lots more debris settling on the leaves of my plants now. good job ive got a more manly filter turning up tomorrow. i know that fish wise you cant overfilter a tank, but can a tank be so filtered it leaves nothing for plants to live on ?

im putting a tetratec ex1200 on it, which is quite a lot for my 130L-ish tank, im hoping the flow and increased turnover will remove the vast majority of the debris thats landing on my leaves.