# Bad plant growth



## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

Hello everyone!! I have two 20 gals. Both planted with a similar stock (Amozin sword,moneywort,anacharis) the only difference is one 20 is dirtted. 
However, some of the swords in the dirtted have shown broken and mangled looking leaves on its new growth. I know this is most likely a sign of a deficiency however I can't (due too an extreme lack of knowledge lol) pinpoint as to which one. 
The two 20's are exactly the same as far as: 
lighting- T5 Phillips aquarium/plant bulb: 2700 range and a T5 aqueon full spectrum bulb) they're on for about 8 to 10 hours a day
Dosing- flourish 3 times a week

I've had these aquariums for a little over 6 months now. And the reason the stocks are the same is because they grew so well (in the un-dirtted) that I was able to propagate them multiple times. 
Any help is GREATLY appreciated.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello Mr....

Ideally, you want bulbs in the 6500 to 10,000k range. One of 6500 and one 10000 is best, gives the plants a spectrum variety. A couple of bulbs in this range may help. Florescents are good and won't break the bank. I get mine at the local hardware stores. GE makes a good aquarium plant bulb. 

Most aquarium plants are tropical and used to long hours of daylight. I keep my tank lights on a timer, set for 12 hours on and 12 off. Seems to work pretty well for the standard aquarium plants.

B


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Try putting fert tabs under the roots of the swords, They aren't getting enough nutrients.


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## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

Yea bbradbury a lot of ppl have been telling me the same thing. But what stiles as odd is that I've had the same lighting since the beginning of my hobby. These lights are the same ones that allowed me to get 5 plants off just 1 amazon sword. And countless stalks of moneywort (so much that I've had to throw away cuttings) off of just four 3 inch stalks. 
It's just until a couple days ago that I've started to notice the messed up leaves sprouting out the swords.. All the other plants are still doing great. 
And Susan, even still with the weekly dosing of flourish (not to mention the dirtted substrate) you'd still do the tabs??


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## hotwingz (Mar 3, 2013)

You might be experiencing high nitrates. This will inhibit plants from growing properly. Also how old are your lights? If nothing in your tank has changed its a decent chance you just need to replace your bulbs. They will wear out and in a planted tank they really should changes every six months or so to stay at optimum performance.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

1^ with old bulbs.The average flourescent last 6 months aprox.
2700? I hope that is not the K!You want 6500-10,000 regardless of past experience.
And the root tabs are a good suggestion as some plants pull ferts from water column and others from the substrate.I believe swords pull from substrate.An easy way to tell how plants get their ferts is to think about how they are "planted" and their root growth.If they are like anubias or a moss with roots above sub or no roots then they get ferts from water column,if they are burried and grow good roots then they would prefer ferts from in the sub.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Yes as even with dirt substrate their will be some nutrients that are missing. If the bulbs are old may need to replace but if not just keep in the 65 to 10k range. I grow all kinds of plants with cheap walmart daylight bulbs. 8 to 10 hours a day is plenty.


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## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

It's to my understanding that the Phillips Plant and Aquarium light tube (emits an orangish hue) was 2700k.. It doesn't say it on the box nor website so I googled the crap out of it. The majority consensus that best fit that description dictated it was 2700k also imputing the spectrum (reddish-orange) was best suited for plant growth.. 
I bouts that particular tube about 1 month ago, if my understanding is incorrect please help me to better my knowledge. 
I always assumed that spectrum was more important than kelvin for plant growth (orange,reds,blues, and purples) 
And kelvin was important in regards to light penetration and saturation... 
I'd hate to open the "can of worms" known as the Aquarium lighting topic but I'd like to get any help in assisting me to distinguish fact from fiction... 
As always thanks!!!

And hotwingz my ammonia/trates/trites were 0/0/20ish so idk if that's the case in regards to plant growth... 
I will check out the root tabs tho, but Im still shocked bcuz I though the soul sub along with the flourish was enough (shocker!!)


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

I vote for K every time!It is the spectrum and important.Plants need 6700-10,000k,if you go with those instructions you won't have any choice in color that I know of.The higher the K the more blue"ish" the white light will look.The red is still in there as K when it gets higher contains all lower forms I believe?
We go up past 20k in salt!I run 12k in most my tanks (including fw with my leds).


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## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

Food for thought here BUT do you think instead of going the root tab route I should just up the dose on the flourish or is there a difference in nutrients between the two??


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

Swords especially will benefit from the root tabs, they are heavy root feeders, liquid ferts are more suited to fast growing stem plants which pull nutrients from the water column

Also be careful about over dosing the liquids, you may very well end up with algae problems


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I wouldn't go by what you have done with that 2700k bulb in there. You still have a bulb that is in the right spectrum. That just tells me that that one bulb has been doing all your work. 

I have never heard of high nitrates harming plants especially since many people that keep plants push to much higher levels than normal non-plant levels...would love to read that article. Plants need nitrates. I would say that the Swords would benefit from root tabs, but I have never used them in my tanks and my Swords grew to 24" leaves. They are however high light, CO2, and dosed daily. Flourish is not all your plants need. It will cover some, but not the micro/macro/trace your plants need. Not to say that is your issue. I think it is mostly a lighting problem and surprised if it works in one it won't the other. I don't believe in the bulbs go bad in such a short time. I kept mine for two years before I replaced them and didn't seem to have any issues.


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## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

To better describe the shoots that are coming out; the appear as if almost crumbled and multiple holes (like a caterpillar has been munching on it) 
I don't have snails, and the other plants (moneywort, anacharis) have been/ and still are growing with a healthy appearance. It's only my swords that show distress and it's new leaf growth at that.. 
Would the root tabs provide the swords with the nutrients it lacks.?
I don't wanna sound dismissive (on the contrary I am and have always been GREATLY APPRECIATIVE on any and all advice given) but since introducing the Phillips plant bulb a couple month back, all my plants have shown a boost in growth.. This "bad growth" has been noticed for about 3-4 days now as my swords constantly send up new shoots, but these "new" shoots have been really crappy...


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## Chang Cindy (Sep 17, 2013)

6000-10000k is good for the plants grow


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Aquarium Gallery - Nutrientdeficiency
The Low Tech Plant Tank - Aqua Botanic's Aqua Bloggin
Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Dry Fertilizers, Dry Fertilizers, , , Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Macro Micro Nutrient Mix, Macro Micro Nutrient Mix,
IMO you are over fertilizing. The directions on Flourish say to use after each water change. That would need to be once a week if the water changes were more than one week apart. But three times a week seems serious overkill unless using less than the prescribed amount each time of course. Without changing anything else...try using only the prescribed amount for 60 days. Balance is a word
that gets used a lot around here. It won't cost anything to do that just to see.


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## Mr. Wood (Aug 3, 2013)

Dude AWESOME links.. It's can get difficult to find CLEAN CUT information like that online, many stuff online can really lead you down a rabbit hole and have you end up more confused than when you started. The last one tho had me nervous lol scared the "Feds" might be watching LOL JK JK (I was only kidding meng!!) 
Naw but really tho Thanks for the links!!!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

> IMO you are over fertilizing.


You would be surprised at how wrong this statement can be. Go to plantedtank. Most people there use ferts on a daily basis. As long as there is at least a 50% water change weekly to reset the parameters there shouldn't be a problem.


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