Too Much Light?

[Chuck & Veronica]

I've got this 10-gallon (U.S.) tank that's driving me crazy. I've had one problem after another with it.

Lately, the problem has been that I can't grow anything in it. I've maintained planted tanks before, but none have given me so much trouble.

I've been using a liquid fertilizer (Flourish Excel), and I've tried different plants and different levels of lighting. Lately, I've been going with very bright lighting (65 watts) but even my anacharis is fading (it's leaves are becoming very thin and falling off). I've since started using CO2 (those fizzy tablets), but no effect yet.

What am I doing wrong? What are the effect on plants when the lighting is too strong?

Thanks!

Chuck

 

[Matt_B]

Sorry about this, it has nothing to do with your question but what bulb/s are you using to get 65 watts in a 10 gall?

 

[Chuck & Veronica]

Sorry about this, it has nothing to do with your question but what bulb/s are you using to get 65 watts in a 10 gall?

It's one compact fluorescent bulb (55 watts, not 65 -- sorry for the typo).

Chuck

 

[Lateral Line]

Light is the most important factor, quantity AND quality. Masses of light at the wrong spectral frequencies will not help.

If you have enough light, then CO2 is usually the next limiting factor. After that trace elements.

Another issue is the plants themselves. A lot of plants sold for use in aquariums really are not aquatics, so with even the best conditions, they will drown and rot.

Have you looked through the pinned topics at the top yet? If not, there is a lot of info there.

 

[zig]

Hey Chuck.......Flourish excel is not really a fertiliser as such, well it is a fertiliser but will only supply carbon to your plants and nothing else, people use it as an alternative to having to supply co2 (co2 also only supplies carbon) so its not a surprise you have been having problems especially with 65watts over the tank, that is quite a lot of light and would require you to be on top of the game as regards fertiliseing and co2 as well, i would cut back on the light and buy a more general purpose liquid fertiliser something like Seachem flourish.

If you want to continue to use the 65 watts over the tank you would need additional fertilisers, nitrate, phosphorous and potassium along with trace elements (which you would get from the seachem flourish) and co2 at a constant rate of 30ppm throughout the photoperiod.

Also dont have the lights on for more than 10-12 hours per day, i would say the plants are suffering from a lack of food due to the wrong fertiliser being used that would be my best guess.

 

[Chuck & Veronica]

Hey Chuck.......Flourish excel is not really a fertiliser as such, well it is a fertiliser but will only supply carbon to your plants and nothing else, people use it as an alternative to having to supply co2 (co2 also only supplies carbon) so its not a surprise you have been having problems especially with 65watts over the tank, that is quite a lot of light and would require you to be on top of the game as regards fertiliseing and co2 as well, i would cut back on the light and buy a more general purpose liquid fertiliser something like Seachem flourish.

If you want to continue to use the 65 watts over the tank you would need additional fertilisers, nitrate, phosphorous and potassium along with trace elements (which you would get from the seachem flourish) and co2 at a constant rate of 30ppm throughout the photoperiod.

Also dont have the lights on for more than 10-12 hours per day, i would say the plants are suffering from a lack of food due to the wrong fertiliser being used that would be my best guess.

Hi Zig, thanks for your message and advice.

I didn't think about Flourish excel not being a fertilizer. D'oh! Now that you mention it, I see that you're right. I'll go out and buy some seachem flourish and cut down on the light's duration, as you suggest.

Thanks!!

Chuck