plants not growing!

[cichlidboy]

i've mainly got:
Java lance ferns
Blue Stricta
Frontinalis moss
Banana Lillies
green rush
vallisneria
and wisteria

all pretty common types of aquarium plants.
but they seem to be not growing at all!
Sure, some might say to get a CO2 unit.
But I'm not willing to spend hundreds even thousands just to get my planted tank going.
I've got heaps of iron gravel mixed through.
Fertilisers every two weeks.
Two marine-glo bulbs.
Wha y are they just not wanting to grow?
am I missing something?

TJ

[Woodsy]

Marine-glo tubes, especially 15k, are the wrong spectrum.
Stricta, rush, and wisteria (Hygrophila irregulata), are often grown emersed by plant suppliers, and as such, will often lose all their leaves before starting to grow new ones.
Java fern (Microsorium pteropus) is a shade-loving plant, and hence, a slow grower.
Too much iron can cause problems too.

Hope that helps ;)

[joz]

Hmmm,my thoughts here others may vary.

For not much dollars go and buy some daylight tubes (not anything else) from your everyday lighting store.
For less than $20 your lighting will be sorted cheaply.

Rig up a DIY CO2 kit from a 2 litre coke bottle, sugar and powered yeast,some air tube, abit of silicon and a 4mm micro sprinkler connector.

Honestly for about $20 the lot you can give it all a try without bustin the bank.
Now if at a later stage you think this is the way you can spend up for some trickier items.

[dearis]

DIY co2 was/is the best thing i ever put in my 130 liter the difference is remarkable and it's easy to do.

[Alasse]

i've mainly got:
Java lance ferns
Blue Stricta
Frontinalis moss
Banana Lillies
green rush
vallisneria
and wisteria

all pretty common types of aquarium plants.
but they seem to be not growing at all!
Sure, some might say to get a CO2 unit.
But I'm not willing to spend hundreds even thousands just to get my planted tank going.
I've got heaps of iron gravel mixed through.
Fertilisers every two weeks.
Two marine-glo bulbs.
Wha y are they just not wanting to grow?
am I missing something?

TJ
You do not need CO2 to have plant growth, though CO2 will speed growth up for many plants.

My 5ft has no CO2 & Val, Wisteria & Java Ferns and they grow like weeds, i have to cut the Val back at least fortnightly (sometimes a smaller cut in between major ones) and the Wisteria, well its a weed *L*, i'm forever picking out pups from both the Wisteria and Java fern, or taking out adult Wisteria plants and replacing with younger. This tank gets no ferts, nor anything special added to the substrate (RichGro Aquatic Mix covered with gravel)

My 2ft has DIY CO2 & has Val, Wisteria and Java fern, the plants definately grow quicker and maybe a bit lusher looking. The Wisteria gets to feral mode VERY quickly, every week i need to do plant maintenance.

Personally i believe its your lighting, marine tubes tend to not be really suitable for plants, you need something in the 6500K range for plants

[cichlidboy]

i'll be getting some power glo tubes on sunday.
could someone please show me a picture of how to make a DIY Co2 unit?

TJ

[dearis]

Ok here you go, my recipe per 2lt bottle is 2 cups of sugar one sachel of bakers yeast topped to within 2 inches from the top of warm water (40 degrees celcius)

when putting the tube inside the bottle cap you use a drill smaller the the standard air tube, cut the end on a 45 degree angle and push it in and pull it with pliers. I use 2 x 2 liter bottles but you can use one. The smaller bottle is to catch any rubbish produced you see diy co2 does not produce pure co2. To run it into the tank I bought a really cheap powerhead and drilled a hole the same size as the bottle fed it in, now it fires micro bubbles though into the tank.

If you have questions just let me know, the pic is my setup the link is from the net.

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g151/dearis_photos/IMG_8031.jpg

[joz]

i'll be getting some power glo tubes on sunday.
could someone please show me a picture of how to make a DIY Co2 unit?

TJ

I rebtly bought some 4' Crompton Tri-Phos Daylight tubes,about $6 each from the local lighting store,working well with plants responding nicely in my 30" deep tank.


Ok here you go, my recipe per 2lt bottle is 2 cups of sugar one sachel of bakers yeast topped to within 2 inches from the top of warm water (40 degrees celcius)

when putting the tube inside the bottle cap you use a drill smaller the the standard air tube, cut the end on a 45 degree angle and push it in and pull it with pliers. I use 2 x 2 liter bottles but you can use one. The smaller bottle is to catch any rubbish produced you see diy co2 does not produce pure co2. To run it into the tank I bought a really cheap powerhead and drilled a hole the same size as the bottle fed it in, now it fires micro bubbles though into the tank.

If you have questions just let me know, the pic is my setup the link is from the net.

http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html


http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g151/dearis_photos/IMG_8031.jpg

Hey you built the techy 3 bottle version, mine was only one..:)
I also sealed around the cap where the tube fittings are pushed in with silicon just to make sure I didn't lose CO2 through any little gaps.

Like you I used a power head to push the bubbles deep into the tank but I had my powerhead connected to the timer my lights are on.
So that at night the CO2 would just dissapate at the surface and not be absorbed by the tank at night,the plants have no reason for CO2 at night.

[dearis]

Joz the timer idea is a great idea, might liik into that this week Regards Darren