New And Having Trouble

[stevereade]

Hello people, I've had good luck with my tiny 32litre tank for years, everything I put in it grows so well you'd think I was a pro, but, I decided to get hold of an 80litre nano tank and thought I'll do a beautiful planted tank as I was full of confidence from my little 32litre and most of my other tanksbe it huge or small done pretty well. Anyways I went round my local suppliers and didnt find much I haven't grown before so I went on java plants and bought these:

5 x Hairgrass
5 x Pygmy Chain Sword
5 x Didiplis Diandra
5 x Rotala Indica
5 x Red Cabomba
5 x Ambulia Aquatica
5 x Red Myriophyllum

I already had my tank set up with a load of breeding cherry shrimp, some anubias and java moss rooted to the same rock and a few swords which were looking sorry for themselves and the leaves were going a tad brown (think that was due to my tank not being at my house so I couldnt do any maintenance on it). So I moved it to my house put in all my plants (no substrate, just a mixture of sand and gravel) cleaned it well, trimmed all dead stuff off, added a little filter start due to large water change, set up my nutrafin CO2 kit which was rubbish after using all sachets and getting 4 bpm each time I made up a home made mixture without the baking soda and I get 20 - 30 bpm now (which should be plenty), and added the iron rich liquid which came with the CO2 kit. After a couple of days of beauty the plants have been growing upwards as I took a couple pics but the bushy ones look less bushy and if im honest a little less healthy but how can that be if they are growing upwards that quickly? All the others like the Swords, Hairgrass, Didiplis Diandra, Anubias and Rotala Indica are looking great and shooting so quickly I just wondered if its normal for the other three bushy type plants, Red Cabomba, Ambulia Aquatica and Red Myriophyllum to do that or is there anything I can do, I was kinda hoping someone might say oh yeah if they're growing upwards fine they'll get thick again soon and your just a worrying to much lol any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[stevereade]

Oh the temp is 25 degrees celsius

 

[RadaR]

Looks lovely.
Want them bushy? Give em a trim

 

[stevereade]

Yeah was gonna trim them once they've been settled a few weeks mate. Ok well today i was chilling on the ps3 and i noticed the Ambulia Aquatica had a few stems floating at the top, i took them all out and saw the bottom couple of inches of the stems had rotted already and its only been a few days, i chatted to my other half who told me to re plant them so a few of the leaves were below the sand and that they will turn into roots, so i done that and added root tabs, also added root tabs to the Red Cabomba and Red Myriophyllum as i only had 3, is this a good idea and should i do the same thing with planting the stems so some leaves are below the sand with the Red Cabomba and Red Myriophyllum aswell? PLEASE HELP lol

 

[RadaR]

Well, the leaves wont turn into roots, but the leaves to provide some sort of stability. Aventually they will rot away, hopefully by the time the stem has produced some roots.
Dont disturb the others if they havnt become uprooted.

 

[stevereade]

Thanks for the advice, since the root tabs are in now i wont touch them and hope they'll root any other help would be appreciated, i'm guessing all the other info is good? (water temp, CO2, root tabs and the additives)

 

[RadaR]

water temp is fine
CO2 will be fine as long as you maintain well and keep it stable at 20-30bubbles per second. Might be worth adding Easycarbo just incase.
Watch out for macro nutrient deficiencies.

 

[stevereade]

Right lol whats macro nutrient deficiency and how do I know if I got it? is easycarbo available at most fish suppliers?

 

[RadaR]

Plant Deficiencies

Macro nutrients are NPK. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium. They are needed much more than trace elements (iron, magnesium, boron, copper etc).

If you start to see deficiencies then you'll needed to get a fert containing macro nutrients.

As time increases, Easycarbo is becoming easier to find. Seachem Excel is virtually the same stuff, so if you see that you can get it.



Easylife range


Seachem Excel

 

[stevereade]

Ok thanks a lot mate, is the only way to tell by having a water test or can you tell my colour of leaves etc? Would you say any of the probs with them not being as bushy are to do with problems or more than likely the fact that the tank has changed and the plants need to get used to it? (was one of the things i was hoping it was)

 

[RadaR]

Ok thanks a lot mate, is the only way to tell by having a water test or can you tell my colour of leaves etc?

No, dont test the water, no need. Nitrate test kits and phosphate test kits are notoriously innaccurate. In planted tanks, we generally dont need test kits. If the plants need something then it's obvious. Whether that be because they show unhealthy leaves/stems or because algae is present. Happy plants = better water quality which ultimatly means better life for the inhabitants. We want good levels of CO2 for the plants, and in turn we want good levels of O2 for the inhabitants. The two gases can exist at the same time in good amounts. High CO2 doesnt mean low O2 (which a lot of people think).

Would you say any of the probs with them not being as bushy are to do with problems or more than likely the fact that the tank has changed and the plants need to get used to it? (was one of the things i was hoping it was)

Really hard to say. It's just a case of waiting I'm afraid. Just be on the watch for any algae and any signs of poor growth.

 

[stevereade]

Thanks for all the advice mate, sorry to keep bugging you lol, well they're growing upwards so hopefully thats good start and once all the roots are out, whether that be from the stems dying and me keep having to trim them down and re plant (the 3 bushy plants have roots but they're coming out half way up the stem lol) i should think they'll soon thicken up once they've been established and trimmed, took out the bulb cover today and got rid of all the limescale too so should help a little, is it really worth changing the bulb every year as mine is the stock one that came with the MT 40 nano?

 

[RadaR]

Roots half way up the stem suggests there isnt much nutrients in the water, I believe.
I personally replace bulbs yearly if they are t8s or t5 compacts. t5 linears only need to be replaced when they dont work. However, if you dont see any negative effects after a year then why replace the bulb.

 

[stevereade]

Well I only planted the tank a couple of days ago and those roots were on them when they arrived from java plants but if you have any suggestions of what I should be adding I'll buy it asap I only added the iron rich liquid that came with my Nutrafin CO2 kit so far and a couple of root tabs.

 

[RadaR]

In that case, just continue what you are doing. Didnt realise you recieved them like that.