# Plants not doing too well...



## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

My swords and wisteria don't seem to be doing well  Not sure what to do. The tank is across from some large windows and I use Jungle brand Fertilizer 0-0-5 & water conditioner and the plants are in Activ-Flora Floralite (Activ·Flora™ Planted Aquarium Substrate by World Wide Imports Ent., Inc.). Not sure what else I can do. I go in weekly and snip off the dead stuff, but it seems my plants are getting thinner and thinner by the week. Help me please..


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

What kind of lighting on it? Sounds like not enough.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

I have just the light the hood came with. My downstairs is very well lit by windows though. I got a coupon in the mail from Petco, guess I can go out and buy a plant bulb


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

Enough lighting is very important. Even though your room seems well lit to you, it may not be enough light for your plants. You need (as i have heard) about 3-5 watts per gallon for a planted tank with a kelvin rating at or above 6500K. I believe those numbers were for a fluorescent light. I use two 50/50 10000k/actinic lights, two 26 watt compact fluorescents (CFL) and one 15 watt CFL. My plants needed an increase from two 15 watt CFL's and two 50/50's so i went to the 26 watt bulbs. This was for a 55 gallon tank. It will take a bit of time for them to come back. Regular "plant" lights that you would get for your house plants are more than likely not bright enough to penetrate the water. But the 6500K CFL's from any store should help supplement the lighting issue well. I'm not sure what sort of light you have so you may need to go to a pet store for the bulb. Also, regular sunlight may lead to higher amounts of algae in your tank so keep an eye on that.

Another item may be it possibly does not have enough CO2 in the tank. So if you have a bubbler, turn it off or down during the day and up at night. You may also have to find a way to supplement the CO2 in the tank in other ways.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

You may not be able to find any bulbs that is needed to fit into the standard hoods without modifications. Even with the aquatic grow lights your hood won't give it the power it needs. You can build yourself a hood to fit over the 55 fairly easy then retrofit the right bulbs in there. 6500 to 6900 lumen is a good range to start with, but you will probably need 2 bulbs to get plants to do any better. Or you can go with lower light plants if it isn't cost effecient for you.


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## Alasse (Mar 12, 2009)

You dont need 3-5WPG. At the amount of light you will need CO2

Swords tend to be root feeders, maybe some root tabs near them. Wisteria is a water column feeder and will survive with the fish waste, if you are using fertz it should be doing ok, though it does better floating around rather than planted in low light tanks

My 5ft is running at around 1WPG, i have plants growing successfully


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Maybe it just needs time. Is there any prep I am suppose to be doing to the roots when I plant the plants? If I uproot a plant by accident (especially the swords) I really don't see any root growth. I see the root ball but really nothing extending from that :/ maybe Im doing something wrong.


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## Alasse (Mar 12, 2009)

Swords dont like having their roots disturbed either, so might pay to move it to an area it wont get uprooted  Its roots wont be extending much because their are no nutrients in the gravel for them to grow to, i would be looking at root tabs for them


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Ok I will. I think I will also look for some peat moss rounds too, those might help the plant also.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Is this something I should be looking for?
Wave Point Red Wave Plant Growth & Color Enhancer HO T5 Aquarium Lamp at PETCO


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Those definately won't fit in your hood without modifications.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

what kind of socket does your current lamp have?


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

RIght now I have a 8000k Aqueon florescent 17W T8 24" 2 prongs


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

danilykins said:


> RIght now I have a 8000k Aqueon florescent 17W T8 24" 2 prongs


If you decide to go with a T5, you'll have to change the ballasts due to the different electrical needs. You could stay with what you have and add another light to your system.. Is your current a full hood (with lid) or a hood just for the light?


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

yes full hood with lid..

Soo can I just buy a new light casing (keep the lid) to upgrade on my lighting?? and about how much should I be paying for something like that?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Is this on your 10g or your 29g? I just bought a T5HO light for my 29g and it cost $65. It is made by fishneedit.com. Some of the best T5HO setups for smaller tanks I think.

One thing to remember about plants, as I am learning a lot as I go along, is that plants will show ill effects much faster than they will show any healing. So if they turn brown or leaves start to fall off within a week, you could take 2-3 weeks to gain back that health they lost or make a recovery.

Hard to believe that Wisteria is not doing well. Maybe they just aren't getting enough light (lighting period time). Another thing to think about is that the higher light you go, the more you drive the need for ferts. I would get some flourish and flourish excel and add a cap every other day and see if that can get them back to where they need to be. Swords and Wisteria both do fairly well in low light, but maybe you just need to have it on more.

I recently had something similar happen with plants in one of my lo-tech tanks. It has medium lighting and I used ferts for a while and ran out and didn't start dosing after I got more....just figured they didn't need it. I was wrong and it took a toll on some of them and after nearly two weeks they have just started to show some improvement and new growth.

I'll be getting rid of a lot of my Wisteria soon.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Its my 29g. I leave the light on from morning until I go to bed. Its probably too long. I thought it was enough light, the tank looks great. I just noticed the leaves turning yellow and the leaves thinning out, like they became a bit transparent... does that make sense? Im looking at a new light set to replace it... I'll look at the site suggested.. thanks


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You may need to ditch the hood you have. You have a few options....you can go with egg crate and place a light on top of that (personally, I don't like the evaporation rate) or you can get a glass canopy Foster and Smith sells them for about $20.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

Well looking at the prices, I don't have that kind of cash right now.. I think Im gonna have to do it one piece at a time.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

danilykins said:


> Well looking at the prices, I don't have that kind of cash right now.. I think Im gonna have to do it one piece at a time.


This would probably work just fine. You could probably call them and ask to swap all to 6500K lights.
Odyssea T5 High Output Lighting


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

I didnt have the money for a full light setup for my 55 gallon.. so i'm using some cheap light fixtures from home depot (12-14 bucks a piece) and some 6500K GE 26 Watt CFL's ($5 a piece) as well as some 50/50's ($10-12). After was all said and done, i'm getting 100 watts of CFL lighting for as much as a single 65 watt fluorescent. So shop around in different places and you can come up with a good setup.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

I went to petsmart today and got a Life-Glo light for T8 of 6,700 K will this be enough for my 29g?


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

i forget the wattage on the T8.. is it over 30 watts? I also have started using a CO2 supplement in my tank and they seem to be doing a little better. I also noticed they hated the RO water that had no alkalinity in it, so i've brought that back up also. keep check on those.


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## danilykins (Dec 22, 2010)

I checked the wattage on the T8 its 20W with 6,700K.. When I get some extra money, I will get a new lighting system for the tank. But for right now this will have to do.


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