yellowing swords

[The-Wolf]

hi all
I'm hopeing you can help me out here

All of my swords are turning yellow and the tiger
lotus is starting to lose its loverly red colour. My wisteria died last week.
My vallis has stopped growing, but seems to be healthy in all
other aspects, nice and green with no dead strands.
All the plants are planted in about 2" pool filter sand (silica)
and I feed with Sera Florena and my NitrAte is 40 ppm.

The tank in question is my blackwater setup (62 us gal),
so I'm sure you are going to say it is a light problem.
There are two 25W tubes, but they are the std tubes that
came with the tank and are therefore not ideal;
If that is the case could you suggest the best
(I.E. the most pennitration) T8 tubes to get for blackwater.

Note:
due to the design of the tank (and finances) there is no way I can go for T5s

 

[Mr Miagi]

Sorry to say it lol but like you guessed, i think its the light!

Swords can live with medium lighting, but wont do as well IMO. The Tiger Lotus is a pretty tough plant to keep and i think gf225 and jimboo keep them, so maybe they would care to comment on that.

I think your vallis is surviving because it doesnt need very much light, although no dought it does benefit from as much as you can give it. Vallis also needs good water flow. Perhaps increase the water flow in and around it and see how it goes!

Id suggest low level plants. Keeping your vall, perhaps adding some hygrophilias, maybe some floating duck weed or riccia up top, java ferns, java moss, and anubias (most varieties). Your wisteria is funny, maybe a fish is eating it? Some of my ex. residents did tend to munch my wisteria.

If you want to go with some more different plants than the norm, you will most likely have to improve your lighting situation. IM not 100% on all things light so maybe someone else would care to comment....

CO2 also helps some plants, but i find if you have good substrate, decent lighting, and quality water, u dont always need it!

 

[George Farmer]

As you are aware your blackwater is filtering out the little (in planted aquaria terms) light you have. Do you use reflectors?

Tubes that are readily available in the UK that I would recommend - Interpet Triplus, Interpet Daylight Plus, Arcadia Freshwater and Zoo Med Ultra Sun. The Dennerle Trocal range of tubes are excellent but expensive. Their Special-Plant is quite warm/yellow (3000K) though and combined with your already "dark" water may not look or perform too well.

If I had to choose two of the above it would be the Triplus and Freshwater, their higher colour temp. should balance nicely with your blackwater.

I fear though that you will not have success long-term with plants unless you either increase your lighting levels overall or lose the blackwater. Changing to decent tubes and using reflectors will give you a higher chance of success though.

Good luck.

 

[The-Wolf]

well I've spent out on 1 sun-glo (200 lux /4,200K)
and 1 power-glo (135 lux /18,000K) both made by Hagen
do you think they will be ok?
oh and BTW I wrongly gave the wattage in the first post, they are 30w (36" tubes) not 25W

the way the hood is designed reflectors is not an option
but perhaps I can add foil to it, when I have some more time to fiddle.

Thanks for the advise mr_miagi32 & gf225
I'm considering adding a CO2 injector, but cost is an issue atm.

EDIT
I've taken the old tubes out and put in the new ones
all I can say is WOW. what a difference.
much brighter now and a nice yellow colour, which makes my neons/cardinals/glowlights even more vivid
I checked the old ones out (NEC fl30ssbr biolux)
on the net and they are rated at 1,240 Luminous
Flux (lm) whatever that is
so what is more important lux or K when using for plants?

 

[George Farmer]

I personally don't rate the Hagen tubes - except for the Life-Glo. At least the Power-Glo is (they state) high-intensity although Hagen's claim that it is 18000K is nonsensical. They also claim their Aqua-Glo is 18000K. If this were true then the light produced would be VERY blue and suitable only for the reef tank. I believe the light is more a purple hue - probably around the 8000K mark.

The Sun-Glo gives a pleasant natural type light which I assume balances nicely with the Power-Glo. Not great for plant growth, although good at bringing out colours as you have witnessed.

As for lighting parameters - lux and lumens are the quantities of light produced, colour temp. is the colour produced. Quantity is important up to a certain extent however if you have low-lighting then more emphasis should be placed on colour temp. as the wrong temp. will encourage algae. At higher lighting levels (>3 WPG) then colour temp. becomes less important as the sheer quantity of light induces enough plant growth to combat algae alone. Read my lighting article for a more detailed view. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=96754

Why not go DIY CO2? Check out this link - read through the entire thread to find my method and recipe. It's on the first page, about 12 posts down. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=98508

CO2 not only benefits your plants but lowers pH too - ideal for your tetras and other Amazonian fish.