FH1 Posted September 23, 2021 Share Posted September 23, 2021 (edited) Hello everyone, My fish breeding rack has been running since last June. The fish are doing amazing and breed like crazy. However the plants do not grow, or grow very slowly in all of my tanks. Ofcourse I want to resolve this issue because plants help me keep the tanks clean. The plants are starting to grow algae from not growing quickly enough. My setup is as following: Every shelve of my rack has six 10 gallon tanks with 1 light per 3 tanks. The lights are the 90B from Twinstar and has an output of 33Watts. The lights are also directly above the tanks. Every tank has a sponge filter and has weekly automatic waterchanges + the addition of fertilizer. The tanks also have fish in them. My PH is 7.5. Also notable: All the plants I have are bought as non-Co2 Invitro plants and look nearly the same as 3 months ago. What do you guys think the main issue is here? Thank you in advance. Plants I have: Phyllanthus fluitans Sagittaria subulata Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Green Alternanthera reineckii 'Mini Cryptocoryne crispatula Bacopa caroliniana Photos are taken with Iphone. colors are not this vibrant in real life. Edited September 23, 2021 by FH1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Zenzo Posted September 23, 2021 Administrators Share Posted September 23, 2021 In my opinion, nothing looks wrong. Your tanks look clean, and the plants look great! Remember that when you first start a planted tank, it can sometimes take several weeks for the plants to get going. Often times they are grown immersed rather than submerged, and have to convert. Sometimes you will have plants die back before starting to grow, and sometimes some plants are just slow growers. Overall I think that your plants look healthy. I wish that some of mine were that green! It has only been about 4 months. Give it some time and they should start to flourish. Also, you mentioned using fertilizer. Are you also using a root tab fertilizer? These can help quite a bit for root-feeders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tihshho Posted September 23, 2021 Share Posted September 23, 2021 I agree with Zenzo, quality wise plants look to be in great shape, so I'm not sure you're doing anything wrong. If you're looking for booming growth, give it time for plants to establish and they will take care of the rest as long as they get adequate light and nutrients. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FH1 Posted September 23, 2021 Author Share Posted September 23, 2021 Thank you for the feedback guys. My main problem is that most of the plants have not converted to submersed state after four months and start to grow algae on them. Does it normally take this long? Do you think 33watt output is enough? On 9/23/2021 at 7:53 PM, Zenzo said: Also, you mentioned using fertilizer. Are you also using a root tab fertilizer? These can help quite a bit for root-feeders. I am using liquid fertilizer for the plants. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Zenzo Posted September 23, 2021 Administrators Share Posted September 23, 2021 I think your light output is just fine for the size of tanks (depth) that you have. Yes, it can easily take this long, and I think that yours look great after 4 months! Some root tabs can do wonders though. If you are in the US or Canada, you can get the Easy Root Tabs. If you are elsewhere, there are other products available that are root ferts. Here are the ones that many of us use: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-root-tabs?variant=31556920246341 Here is a short vid on them: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted September 23, 2021 Share Posted September 23, 2021 I think those plants look perfect considering you started with tissue cultures and choose somewhat difficult plants. I think they’re going to take of and start growing before you know it. The algae issues might be from a bit to much light. You could try decreasing the photo period an hour an see what happens. You might also want to increase your tank plant mass with some fast growers like potted stem plants or potted Amazon Swords. That can help outcompete the algae. Lastly, make sure you’re dosing enough nutrients to keep them growing. I have good luck with Easy Green and the Easy Root Tabs. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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