Plants Not Growing

[2Shi]

My plants aren't growing. Am I missing anything important?

Aquarium Specs:
54g bow front corner tank

2x24W T5HO lighting (one 10K bulb and 1 full spectrum bulb). 22in between bulb and substrate. 2in over the surface of the water.
Pressurized CO2 at 2bps with glass diffuser
Lighting and CO2 run 7 hours per day. They turn on and off at the same time.

Potting soil substrate topped with eco-complete gravel.

Dosing with Seachem root tabs, flourish excel, and flourish comprehensive supplement.

Water temp 76 degrees F. Soft water hardness. 6.8 to 7 pH.

Plants are java moss, jungle vals, dwarf hair grass and micro swords.
I though java moss is supposed to grow like crazy and be really tough to kill but I haven't seen any growth for almost a month now. I must be missing something important.

[dprais1]

just in my experience, it seems like most of my plants seem to have a 'break in' period of about a month before they really do much of anything and then they start taking off.

I always assumed it was acclimation and establishing a good root system.

But I could be way off

[Rich Guano]

The excel is stunting the growth of the java moss. I am surprised you have not reported that it has turned brown. excel has been documented to be a problem for java moss.

7 hours seem a bit short of a photo-period. Perhaps bumping up to 9 or 10 hours would trigger more growth out of the plants.

[2Shi]

Haha my java moss is indeed brown.I'll stop dosing excel for a while to see what happens.

Also, I want my plants to pearl but I haven't even seen a single bubble out of them. What else could I be missing?

[Rich Guano]

You missed the bit about lengthening your photoperiod.

Pearling is the result of having your lighting, nutrients and Carbon source jacked way up. This is not a reasonable goal for somebody just starting out.

[2Shi]

O.o why is it not a reasonable goal? Don't I have all the equipment I would need to make it happen?

[2Shi]

Any other advice? :O I really want to see my plants pearl ^_^

Increased light to 10 hrs. If I see any negative effects then I will lower it.

[Kathyy]

The soil ought to provide enough nitrate and phosphate, have you checked how much is in the water? Might need to move to dosing a complete fertilizer like EI or PPS Pro. Soft water might not have enough calcium and magnesium for the light provided, might consider a GH supplement. Flourish might need to be dosed more often.

If you do a water change when lights and CO2 have been on for a while you might see some action. It might or might not be true pearling. Sometimes it is a boost of CO2 and the plants really pearl and sometimes it is just dissolved gases in the tap water coming out of solution on the tank surfaces. Pretty either way.

[Rich Guano]

Originally Posted by 2Shi

O.o why is it not a reasonable goal? Don't I have all the equipment I would need to make it happen?

Trust me, when I ask you this next question I am not being mean in any way. Consider it a thoughtful push in the right direction. I am just trying to initiate an open conversation about the process.

What is pearling? Does it occur in nature? Where and under what conditions?

[2Shi]

Well this is my understanding of pearling.

If a plant pearls then that means it is at its optimal peak of photosynthesis. When the plant is no longer able to put out additional oxygen through natural means, the excess oxygen collects on the surface of the plant in the form of small bubbles.

I hardly believe this is possible in nature but that's just guesswork on my part. I can't think of anywhere that would have such a perfect balance of co2, lighting and nutrients to cause the pearling phenomenon. I basically consider pearling to be a plant on steroids, nothing natural about it.

I understand that pearling is NOT an indicator of how well the plants are doing. Plants can grow just fine without ever hitting the point of pearling. The only reason I set this as my goal is because I'd like to see it happen in real life. :-) plus I've always been taught to aim for the stars :-D

[Rich Guano]

It's seems you have very healthy expectations here. We should begin by learning how to make your plants grow. Lets watch and see over the next couple of weeks how they do with the longer photo-period.

New questions.

Do all plants pearl or pearl equally? Are your plants known to pearl?

Since a good deal of the plants nutrition comes from fish food, talk about what kind of foods you are feeding and who is eating them.

And some pics would be nice.

[2Shi]

All plants pearl, its a result of very efficient photosynthesis. They don't necessarily pearl equally at the same point in time. Different plants may pearl at different times of the day or under different water conditions.

I don't want this topic to go too far off course. I'm really only looking for advice, not a homework assignment. All i will say is that, as far as nutrition, I provide my plants with pure mixed fertilizer which I will be changing to dry dosages using the EI method soon.

[lauraleellbp]

Want to see pearling? Do a big water change, with lots of surface agitation.

Pearling occurs when O2 concentrations exceed what can be held dissolved in the water column, and the O2 needs to gas off. When you do a big water change, you get a big influx of O2 into the water column- so your normal plant respiration (which produces O2) will pearl right off the leaves.

Pearling does NOT necessarily mean that plants are healthy... just that photosynthesis is occuring, and that there's enough O2 in your water that it needs to gas off.

[OVT]

If you want to shoot for the stars.. IMHO, your light is pretty low: 2x24w over a 23" deep tank is not record-breaking. If you want your plants to pearl on a consistent basis you will have to jack up your lights, co2, ferts, and tweak your flow. Once you figure out flow in a corner tank, do please let me know as I do have one and it's been a pain for 6+years.

If things go south on you, at least you will find out that algae can out-pearl plants.

I would start following Rich Guano advise first and get healthy growth out of your plants. Then we can take the 'jacking-up' process step-by-step to squeeze the 02 out of them.

Pearling algae was edited out of this picture :

[fusiongt]

Yea I think the problem isn't enough lighting. Of course with more lighting you'll need more cO2 but that shouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't just increase the photo period, I would look into more powerful lighting while still maintaining 8 hours a day (even if you left the lights on 24 hours a day you'd just get a crap load of algae and no plants pearling)

Also things take time. Maybe all your measurements are good but from my experience plants need time to "dig their roots in" and make the most use of the lighting/co2/substrate/ferts. I've never had a tank I thought was "good" in less than 6 months. By 6 months though I notice the plants really thriving to the point where I have to trim a lot each week and pearling happening.