The Planted Tank Forum banner

75g low tech issues

1K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  F22 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello I'm looking for some help on my 75g low tech tank. I moved from a 29g to this tank and my plants don't seem to be doing as well. My anacharis would grow nice and thick in my 29g but now they are stringy and don't grow nearly as quick. My amazon sword was decent size but since i moved it to the 75g the leaves all started turning yellow, so i clipped them off and the new leaves started to grow to about only a few inches before it stopped growing. My vals would proprogate quite a bit and crew pretty tall but now they haven't pumped out runners since the move. I moved these plants about 4 months ago and just trying to figure out what i could do to get these plants doing better.

I have 0 nitrates, ammonia and nitrate. I have 2 coralife T5NO 28w x4 that I run one of them for 8 hours and the other one for 4 hours in the middle of the first one. I also dose KNO3, flourish and kh2po4 once a week. Also had an outbreak of BBA which seems to be slowing down. I believe it was caused by a water change i did because for some reason fish seem to be dieing while showing no signs of anything. Thankfully the water change seem to stop whatever was happening to the fish.

Fish in tank:
5 neon tetra
4 Harlequin Rasboras
1 Bolivian Ram
1 Blood parrot
2 Corys
1 spotted raphael catfish
6 Otos

Plants:
Vals
Crypts
Sunset hygro
anacharis
Amazon Sword

Any ideas? thanks.
 
See less See more
#4 ·
With the height of a standard 75g tank the lighting you have is more or less like burning a candle over the tank.
(if I'm reading your post correctly)

55g low tech (same height as a 75) 18" 4x15w T8NO plant grows laying directly on the glass tops with very poor reflectors. 11hrs. daily. VERY slow plant growth but nearly zero algae issues.
55g soil substrate tank 48" 4x32w T8NO 65K (all I could find) 6" above the tank. 12hrs. daily. Better growth with minor algae (I clean the glass monthly).
2-75g tanks 48" 4x54w T5HO 3" above the tank tops. When I've run these tanks non-injected I ran one bank (2 bulbs) 10hrs. a day with fair growth. GSA formed on the glass but would only need to be cleaned off about every two weeks.
 
#6 ·
Hey all, if Bobtheturtle has 28x4 watts divided by 75 gallons, doesn't this come to 1.49 wpg? Why is this so terribly low? What did I miss?
 
#8 ·
IMO your lighting is perfect for a low tech setup.

If your nitrates are bottomed out then you probably need to dose more ferts. If it's just your Vals and Swords that aren't doing so well, you might give them some root tabs.

Your bioload looks low for a 75gal tank, so I think you just need to boost the nutrients in the tank a bit.

You know that your rasporas and tetras are likely to end up as fish food down the road for the raphael cat, right?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top