Not sure my plants are doing well !

[rowdyates]

Started cycling my tank (fishless) last tuesday, so been going 8 days now. I put in some plants when I started, some with roots some I think cuttings, not sure what they all are either, anyway.......the twisted vallis (one I recognise) the leaves are slowly turning brown and going transparent, but there are new leaves appearing, also there is a runner with a new plant with small roots. Two of the other plants one of which I think is bacopia has a few leaves turning brown.

My question is, is this ok in the tank, I have added some liquid fertilizer to try and help them, but is it just a case of sitting it out and waiting while they get used to my conditions. Also if the vallis has created another do I have to cut the runner to the mother plant and when would I do it.

Thanks,

Keith

 

[Lateral Line]

It is not unusual for moved plants to sulk for a while.

The most common problem with plants though, is insufficient light. How big is the tank, and how much light do you have over it?

As a guide, 2 Watts per gallon of full spectrum, (5000K - 6700K), fluorescent light turned on for 10-12 hours a day gives "Medium" light.

Straight leafed Vallis is not that demanding of light, but the twisted cultivars, of which there are several, do require more. Bacopa is also a fairly undemanding plant, again there are several species, some requiring more light then others.

 

[rowdyates]

The tank is a Juwel Vision 180, 180 litres (40 gals ?) with the standard lights 2 x 25w with reflectors on, so I'm guessing I'm not even meeting the minimum 2w. Do the reflectors make a significant difference? Also I have the lights on a timer so they come on at 12 noon and go off at 1am, so they get 13 hours of light.
It does look pretty bright to me!

Cheers,

Keith

 

[illusion54]

The reflectors help but wont boost your wpg from 1 to 2 Your problem is your lighting.

 

[zig]

The light tubes that come as standard with Juwel tanks are not full spectrum tubes, they are not really suitable for growing plants, it would help if you changed the tubes. If you change the tubes to something more suitable this would give you 1.25 WPG.

To give you a better idea on lighting and plants read gf225s pinned article at the top of this section of the forum it will definatly point you in the right direction, you may have to consider upgrading your lighting if you want to achieve more 1.25 WPG, lots of people that use this section of the forum have sucessfully upgraded Juwel tanks to accomodate more lights, but you could always try growing low light plants with the current wattage you have but you will still have to change the tubes.

 

[rowdyates]

Thanks for this, it's dissapointing that manufacturers sell "complete" kits which you could argue arn't really up to the job, especially if you are a beginner, anyway.

I've had a read of the article and I guess my only option is to change the lamps, I don't want to be trying to add any more lamps or do any DIY stuff so I guess the best I'll ever get is the 1.25WPG for now. For a lamp choice Arcadia lamps seem popular in all the lfs so I'll go for those. In the pinned article it mentions the freshwater lamp, but on the website there is also a natural sunlight lamp, what should I look for one of each type or should I go with 2 freshwater lamps.

Then I think I need to research my plant stock a bit more.

Cheers,

Keith