[Tmealey123]

I'm having quite a few issues with my first 20g high tech planted tank.. I'll include some picture and what details I can about it and hopefully I can get some advice here

It's a 20g pressurized co2 injected tank I'm dosed the ei method with green leaf aquarium ferts and also running their co2 system. I do 50% water changes weekly and live stock is shrimp Florida flag fish a baby bgk and a gourami, random mix of fish I know but it's kinda my jail tank for bad fish at the moment the bgk sucked out a gouramis eye ball.. But back to the plants the first four pictures are the current state of my plants with ei dosing a finnex Ray 2 + and a fluval Aqua sky on for 9 hours at 30 ppm of co2 also dosing iron and running a koreli nano 240 for flow and a hob filter

.last image is the growth I cut off and replanted in another tank that looks great.. But the plants in my small tank all look rough the rotala has see through parts dhg seems to have bba?? And the anacharis looks burnt brown it's not melting just brown any ideas on what I'm doing wrong I see good growth out of everything it just seems to all be having a few issues. Any ideas? I need to get this tank in balance but idk what I'm missing

 

[Nlewis]

First things I would do would be cut the light duration back maybe an hour and remove the aqua sky light. That Ray2 fixture will give more than enough light for the plants you have. With that said you may end up raising the fixture to lesson the light. The other thing is if this is a newly setup tank, there's going to be algae until the system reaches some sort of balance.

It's hard to see from the picture if that's BBA on the DHG. If it is I believe it's generally an indication of inconsistent co2 levels. How do you know you are reaching 30ppm of co2? Are you relying on a drop checker or testing ph?

 

[Tmealey123]

Hmm it seems my messege didn't get posted sorry I'm new to the forum, I just turned down the white led on the sky to off and left the blue led on I like how it looks is that probably still too much? And yes I use the drop checker, I do have the full test kit though so I can cross reference it with the drop checker which btw uses the 4dkh solution. Also I might add I run co2 24/7 with a bubble at night should I use the solenoid too? It is a new aquarium so I do expect Algea but what the rotala leaves?what deficiency is that ? And the burnt looking anacharis ?

 

[Nlewis]

Hmm it seems my messege didn't get posted sorry I'm new to the forum, I just turned down the white led on the sky to off and left the blue led on I like how it looks is that probably still too much? And yes I use the drop checker, I do have the full test kit though so I can cross reference it with the drop checker which btw uses the 4dkh solution. Also I might add I run co2 24/7 with a bubble at night should I use the solenoid too? It is a new aquarium so I do expect Algea but what the rotala leaves?what deficiency is that ? And the burnt looking anacharis ?

Not sure on the deficiencies, someone else will have to chime in on that one.

The blue lights being on is no big deal as it provides almost no usable light.

There is no reason for you to be running co2 at night. When doing this you are just wasting it because the plants are not going to use it with the lights off. You should have it set up to where the co2 turns on roughly an hour before lights on and turn off about an hour before lights out. With co2 running with the lights out you are also risking gassing your fish.

Edit: Looking at the pic of the rotala, it looks to be emerged grown. If that's the case it's going through a transition and may not look so hot for a week or two.

 

[Opare]

If you're dosing EI you shouldn't have any deficiencies. The melting and stuff is probably cus the plants are new I would think.


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[Tmealey123]

So then as far as caring for them at this point? Should I trim the hair grass of the Algea covered leaves?

 

[Nlewis]

So then as far as caring for them at this point? Should I trim the hair grass of the Algea covered leaves?

Yes, trim it. DHG takes well to trimming and will spread faster.

 

[Tmealey123]

Figured I'd give you helpful folks and update I took the light off and change the co2 as you suggested already seeing growth in my anacharis I'm assuming there was too much par near the top of the tank that was stunting it? Any ways I'm still working on the kinks I had to increase the co2 a little because it was getting to 30ppm even after a few hours. I also trimmed the dhg down to about a 1/4 inch it looks good and I've noticed that the grown I had when I had both lights on was kinda curling backs towards the substrate? Was that from the high high lift or my pleco laying on it. But everything hopefully should be just about right now

 

[Opare]

Curling is normal in species like Eleocharis acicularis 'Mini', which I assume yours is. It also makes it look better in my opinion, gives a more compact and lush look.
Also, replant the tops of the stems, so you get rid of the poor emersed growth and only keep the new submerged growth.

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[Tmealey123]

So I trimmed out all the sneezed growth also any leaves that jab bba obviously on still seems to like my dhg I started dosing liquid carbon/gluteraldehyde at a 1/4 dose then a half dose and yesterday finally hit a full dose vals seem okay they're actually attempting to take over my tank right now runners everywhere. Will the liquid carbon plus a little extra co2 and maybe shortening the light period be enough? I have 2 flag fish and nerite snails but they don't seem to touch it idk how to get rid of it it's in all my tanks