What’s missing?

[Mrchin932]

I have the following plants:

8 cryptocorne lucens

3 Amazon sword

5 baccopa

1 anubias barteri

1 Mayaca vandeli

2 dwarf tiger Lilly 

Several Java fern and Java fern wendelov

 

I dose easy green twice per week and add extra potassium twice per week also.  My plants are not taking off like I expected.  

Some of the plants are happy (Mayaca, anubias, Tiger Lilly) and others don’t appear to be (Java fern, baccopa, cryptocorne, Amazon swords). I planted four Amazon swords a month ago and they haven’t gotten bigger then when I planted them. I did lower my lights to 50% brightness to help cut down on algae but they still run for 12 hours per day.  Should the lights be brighter?  More fertilizer?

I test water weekly and am stable at 7.4ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and I do 20% water change when nitrates go over 40ppm. I recently tested GH and KH and they came back fine. Same with phosphorous. 
 

 

[Ninjoma]

Are you using root tabs with your Amazon swords? 

[Mrchin932]

Yep, have easy green root tabs too.  I wonder if I am not feeding enough.  Is it so many plants that 4 pumps 2x per week isn’t enough to encourage growth?

[Theplatymaster]

@Mrchin932can you please provide a picture so we can further assess the state of the plants.

also what missings?

Time.

plants can take a while to grow.

Edited March 5, 2023 by Theplatymaster

[Mrchin932]

[JoeQ]

There is a lot to fix here, I have the same tank and placement is a big part of your issues. Where you have your sword on the left and where your Lilly is on the right recieve very little light so that could be a problem. Your fern which needs low light is in a high light area. Then there is a problem with your crypt lucent because the tank is sooo deep you need to blast the light to get it that deep.....

 

If it were me, id start by getting lots of fast growing stems to give you shade on your low light plants.  Id then over fertalize with 3 - 4 squirts a day and a large water change at the end of the week. Also think about adding some nerite snails, they will help clean the dead and thriving algea. Finally be sure you have good flow, remove dead organic material and a clean filter. Trim dead/algae covered growth as new growth appears. 

[JoeQ]

Here is a quick pic of my 36g before I do a massive trim and water change. Notice how i have my low light plants (fern & anubis) well shaded. 

 

[Mrchin932]

Okay, good tips.  Thank you.  

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/4/2023 at 7:18 PM, Mrchin932 said:

I dose easy green twice per week and add extra potassium twice per week also.  My plants are not taking off like I expected.  

Some of the plants are happy (Mayaca, anubias, Tiger Lilly) and others don’t appear to be (Java fern, baccopa, cryptocorne, Amazon swords). I planted four Amazon swords a month ago and they haven’t gotten bigger then when I planted them. I did lower my lights to 50% brightness to help cut down on algae but they still run for 12 hours per day.  Should the lights be brighter?  More fertilizer?

8 hours per day is a good place to be and the max for me is 10 hours.   The plants you have are all very slow growers.  Moss will be a good gauge for your lighting, if you see the lime green / bright tips on the moss the you're doing well. 

Don't do anything different, except for cutting back on the light duration and report back on how the algae behaves to that change.  Keep the plants clean of algae and they should grow.... that's the goal.  Get new growth.  Once you're at that point, then we are close to balanced and it'll be easier to review deficiencies and get advice that's helpful.