Plant Problems

[Tracey73]

Hi Guys

Can someone please help me with my plants! I have always put the health of my fish first but would like to get my plants looking nice!

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph 6.8
Temp 29
Seachem Flourish Excel every 2nd day
Seachem Flourish once a week
T5 Lighting/14 hours a day

Co2 unit is on the agenda!

Any help would be much appreciated :)

[ILLUSN]

both swords and anubias are unable to repair damaged leaves, so you need to get them to grow new ones as fast as possible, best advice i can give you is invest in a co2 system, it will do wonders for your growth.

you dont need 14 hrs of light, 12 is plenty i currently run 10.5 on my planted tank (4x2x1.5 340L dupla ground substrate, co2 4x54w t5's with gullwing reflecters, 10 drops flora 24 daily)

whats youe total wattage and what globes are you using in your t5 fitting.

[DiscusDave]

Hi,

Plants required carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium plus various trace minerals like calcium etc. You're providing the carbon from the Excel and the trace minerals from the Flourish and fish waste probably provides enough phosphorous and nitrogen (in the forms phosphate and nitrate) but you're probably deficient in potassium. I'd recomend you get Seachem Potassium as a first step and follow the dosing instructions.

Regards

Dave

[enigmatic]

Would agree about needing to dose some potassium but you may still need to test and check your nitrate and phosphate levels.

This site here has a good diagram of plant problems:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/fertilizing/62876-plant-deficiency-picture-diagram.html