Re: [APD] RE: Hemianthus micranthemoides & LimnophilaSessifloraproblems

["william ruyle" <inquartata at comcast_net>]

Graham, your tank is 18.8 US gallons roughly, and two 18" fluorescent tubes
are not enough for the Hemianthus
unless you can bring them closer to the light. Try gluing
some mylar (like from a potato chips bag) to the inside
of the white plastic reflector. That should provide some
improvement in getting light into your tank. Leaf Zone is
great! It's what I use in my insta-plant tanks after every
water change. These tanks have just black lava rock in
the bottom and none of the plants are rooted in anything.
I also use TMG sometimes. You might want to consider
retrofitting with cf lighting or using three 20watt T8 tubes.
I would try this first before overhauling substrate. Reading
Dirk's post, he doesn't seem to think substrate nutrients
are all that important but he does fert the water column.
And he's using more than twice the watts in lighting. Have
you tested your water--KH, GH, ph, nitrates, iron, etc?

HTH,

Bill





 My tank is 24" x 15" x 12" with about 2" of sand over a (relatively thin)
> layer of aquatic compost. I should have put more compost in I think, but
> I've never used sand before and was worried about stagnation and the
compost
> going anaerobic. The compost I used is sold in garden centres over here as
> aquatic compost for use in planting baskets in ponds, so I thought it
would
> be ideal for growing plants in tanks. I was initially going to use
Flourite
> but couldn't find a supply over here.
>
> The tank capacity is 71 litres or 16 UK gallons (not sure about US
gallons).
> I believe the T8s are 15W each which would be around the 2W per gallon
mark,
> though I suppose more would be better. It's a brand new setup so
everything
> is less than a month old. I use something called Leaf Zone which is made
by
> Aquarium Pharmaceuticals and says it contains chelated iron and potassium
> (don't know what else, if anything). I'm not sure I like the reflectors as
I
> think they're quite inefficient. They're basically made of white plastic.
Do
> you think changing them for silver reflective plastic would help?
>
> Graham

_______________________________________________
Aquatic-Plants mailing list
Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
http://www.actwin.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/aquatic-plants