Plant Food

[PrettyDiscus]

I have recently bought king british plant food. My plants were looking brown and dying and they had no food of any kind. I put the plant food in 3 days ago and still haven't noticed a difference. How long would it take until they turn green?

 

[voo]

I think it'll depend on what your tank stats are. How much lighting you have, CO2 ?

If they're dying from lack of light, then adding ferts isnt going to help. Also, are you adding the correct ferts?

Do you know the name of the plants that are dying? They may already be dead, so you'll have to chop off the brown parts and wait for new growth

 

[PrettyDiscus]

I dont have co2. I dont know what size light I have looked but it doesn't say. It is a tube kind of light.
How do i pull off the dead leaves? Do i pull the whole stem its attached to or just the leaf?

The plants are Anubias and amazon swords.

 

[juwelfan]

The wattage should be written on the tube of the light.

As for the plants, take them out, and use some sharp scissors to cut off the dead parts as near to the base of the plant as possible.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

I have looked all over the light and the trasnformer and all it says is 240v.

 

[TammyLiz]

If all you have is the single bulb that came with your typical plastic aquarium hood its almost certainly not enough light for swords, but I wouldn't expect the anubias to be having trouble unless the bulb is old.

If you post your tank size, and the length of the tube (I'm assuming it is fluorescent?) and maybe the diameter of the tube, we should be able to tell you how many watts it is.

 

[PrettyDiscus]

My tank is 48x15x15 inches. The light is called interpet and its like a moonlight colour.

 

[TammyLiz]

I mean the length of the bulb. Is it 48 inches as well? And does it look like it is 1 inch or 1 1/2 inches in diameter?

This is why I'm asking--fluorescent tubes of any particular size are always going to be the same wattage as any other of that size. They come in different color temperatures etc, but always the same wattage.

A 48 inch bulb that has a diameter of 1 inch (called T8), is going to be 32 watts, and a 48 inch bulb with a diameter of 1 1/2 inches (called T12), is going to be 40 watts.

When you say it is moonlight color are you saying you have a blue bulb that looks dim, not a daylight bulb? If thats what you have its almost like not having a light at all as far as your plants are concerned.

Over a 4 foot tank you are probably going to want to have two 48" T8 bulbs in order to grow anything but java fern. It would still be considered a low light tank.

HTH.