Need help regarding plant growth!!!

[TPolk]

Hello everyone, 

I have a few questions for anyone who is very well versed in aquatic horticulture and knows how to grow plants the best under various parameters. Continuously, I have tried and tried to grow plants to no avail. I can keep most plant species alive. I have little to no deficiencies detectable, yet the plants remain stagnant in their growth. After searching on  online forums and YouTube for hours and hours over the course of a year, studying and trying new tactics, I still have little to no growth within all of my plants. The only plant I have had success with in anubias sp.. 

I have the readings of each: the water out of my tap, my tanks current water and tap water after 24hrs of gassing off posted down below. My tank is a 29g tank, inert substrate with aquarium coop root tabs throughout the tank that are replenished every month. I also dose easy green every other day and add 2 tsp of seachem equilibrium after each weekly 50% water change(hence my gh being a few degrees higher in my tank water). The plants look healthy, just little to no growth. The only other possible option I could think to be wrong is that there is some sort of cO2 deficiency in my water. I started injecting cO2 as of yesterday. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Out of the tap:

-2° kh

-4° gh

-6.8-7 ph

-0-5ppm nitrates

Tank water:

-6.5-6.6ph

-2° kh

-7° gh

-5-10ppm nitrates

24hr tap water gassed off:

-7-7.2 ph 

-2° kh

-3° gh

-0ppm nitrate

[Scapexghost]

What kind of light are you using and for what duration? One thing i would try is significantly reduce water changes. Try doing 25% water changes every other week. 20-40 ppm nitrates is what is generally recommended for planted tanks, unless you are keeping really finicky fish

[Mmiller2001]

Do you have pictures of those plants?

[TPolk]

@Scapexghost I am using a finnex stingray 2, it is set on a timer. I had a bit of hair algae starting to develop(on the other side of the tank that doesn’t get natural sunlight) so I lowered the lighting period from 8 hours a day to 7 hours a day. Other than that, I deal with almost no algae on the glass or any other surfaces. I do slack on water changes, I used to go every two weeks but I have significantly increased my bioload in the tank in the last few months so I usually stay on top of quick water changes, just lowering the water level and filling it back up(no siphoning of detritus since there is none). It is filtered by a fluval 306. The tank readings I posted above are a day after water changes, so nitrates seem quite low. The tank is a South American(based) tank, stocking consists of: 

5x sub adult Bolivian rams

4x skunk Corydoras 

7x von rio tetras 

1x ottocinculus 

Plants:

Dwarf Sagittaria 

helanthium boliviarum

christmas moss 

limnophila heterophylla 

Edited November 7, 2021 by TPolk

[TPolk]

@Mmiller2001i do not have any right now but I will be sure to get some