No Co2

[GSD]

Im having no luck with my plants at the moment, I have decent lighting in both tanks and natural light (although bulb broke afew days ago and the plants will have to do without for afew days ) and im feeding plant food and they still arnt thriving. They have a brownish tinge and just dont look healthy at all. The tank has gravel and has been established 5 years if that makes any difference.
Ive just ordered some java moss and moss balls from ebay and hope they will do alright.

But the question is does anyone else manage a planted tank without co2, what do you do to keep your plants healthy?
Maybe i have just got the wrong plants and should look for plants that need lower light levels, if so what?

This is something i know nothing about, and have just recently made the switch from fake to real

thanks.
Laura

 

[Dwarf-P.]

what plants are you using, how many watts per gallon do you have and which ferts are you using+ substrate ferts??

 

[minxfishy]

Well I dont use co2, because I dont particularly understand it and cant afford a pressurized system, so I got myself some easycarbo which seems to be making quite a bit of difference to my plants, they were going a bit mushy, turning brown, dying, but its now been about 2.5 weeks since I started dosing with this stuff daily and also dosing daily with TPN+ and they are now growing and looking much better, although I must add on a large tank, mine is over 100g its a damn expensive way to do things

What plants do you have, what size tank, light wattage, how long do you leave your lights on daily and what ferts do you currently use, if you can answer those, some of the plant experts will be able to suggest something for you Im sure

 

[GSD]

what plants are you using, how many watts per gallon do you have and which ferts are you using+ substrate ferts??

Im not sure what two of the plants are, they wern't labelled but both are long/tall with lots of fine leaves not one large one.
i know i have one java fern, and soon to be java moss and also moss balls when they arrive.

Tanks are 10 gallon and 20 gallon and both have the same problem, have extra bright bulbs around 15watts i think although i might be wrong with this.

With regards to fertaliser i am currently using Waterlife Tropiflora, as it is the only one i could find, and no gravel fertaliser.

Lights usually on from 9am until 10pm, although not at the moment since it broke

 

[Dwarf-P.]

lights should be on 10 hours a day. basically imo your fert is c**p. and 15 watts is not good, if you work that out, its 1.5watts per gallon, which isnt particularly good. it sounds like you have vailis, in my experience this plant is not very strong and seems to die, try growing java fern, java moss, anubias and crypts.- try using something like the tropica nutrition plus from aqua essentials

 

[Truck]

lights should be on 10 hours a day. basically imo your fert is c**p. and 15 watts is not good, if you work that out, its 1.5watts per gallon, which isnt particularly good. it sounds like you have vailis, in my experience this plant is not very strong and seems to die, try growing java fern, java moss, anubias and crypts.- try using something like the tropica nutrition plus from aqua essentials

1.5 wpg is fine for those kind of plants

i would run some CO2 and see if it helps and switch to TPN+ as recommended above

 

[Dwarf-P.]

i didnt say it wasnt fine, just suggesting that it isnt "extra bright bulbs" as gsd said it was

 

[Truck]

i didnt say it wasnt fine, just suggesting that it isnt "extra bright bulbs" as gsd said it was

i was backing up your point

lol

 

[Dwarf-P.]

lol sorry

 

[GSD]

Just reading what the bulb box says, extra brightness

So i need tropica nutrition plus , anything else you can recomend to give them?

 

[Truck]

Just reading what the bulb box says, extra brightness

So i need tropica nutrition plus , anything else you can recomend to give them?

easy life easy carbo.

1.5WPG is pretty good lighting, so the ferts will help, are the bulbs T8's (1 inch in diameter) or T5s? (less than an inch)

 

[Renate]

Could we see a picture?

 

[GSD]

Just reading what the bulb box says, extra brightness

So i need tropica nutrition plus , anything else you can recomend to give them?

easy life easy carbo.

1.5WPG is pretty good lighting, so the ferts will help, are the bulbs T8's (1 inch in diameter) or T5s? (less than an inch)

Looking at them, id say over an inch in diameter. They are the same as standard Juewl aquarium ones only i upgraded to brighter bulbs.

Could we see a picture?

No camera to hand at the moment, sorry



I have managed to fix the lighting, and have ordered topica nutrition plus and easy life easy carbo which should come soon (ordered from aquaessentials if anyone has had an dealings with them?)
Java moss still hasnt arrived though

Can both the easy carbo and nutrition plus be used at once? Will they affect my tank at all, water quality wise i mean

Thanks for all of your help, im pretty clueless with plants!

Laura

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the easycarbo and TPN+ would both be used. Plants need about 17 nutrients and the easycarbo is trying to supply the Carbon, which is the nutrient that gets lots of focus because plants use a -lot- of it and its difficult to supply is forms that they can use. The tropica is supplying the macro and micro nutrients (the other 16 or so in the plant's diet.) When you use fertilizers per directions or with the types of amount modifications you'd hear from the planted members here, you're not likely to be causing any problems with your water quality or tank maintenance, in fact you should be moving your tank in the direction of being a better place for both plants and animals I'd say.

With plants it is important to work on the details of your lighting and what you're supplying them, as you're doing in this thread. My situation has been pretty similar to yours in the past and I can give my 2 cents that the advice they're giving is good. Like minx, I've used liquid carbon and paid more attention to my fertilizers and light and its helped.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[GSD]

Thanks waterdrop,
Im hoping that the easycarbo and ferts will help, at the moment the plants are doing ok, but they just arnt thriving or growing very much, and some are starting to get a brownish tinge which i dont want. I didnt realise plants needed so much thought, but i have the fish side sorted so its the plants turn now

Another proberbly daft question but do plants prefer gravel or sand?
At the moment i have had the same natural coloured gravel for 5 years and am wanting to change to black gravel or possibly sand, but im nervous about doing it since its been the same for so long!