[evan.f_nz]

Hi everyone,

As mentioned in another thread, http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/138578-lighting-upgrade-low-deep-55g.html I currently have around 1.5wpg of T8 lighting over my 55gallon.

Lighting upgrades and pressurized co2 are in the works, but will still be a couple of months away due to $$$$.

Until recently my tank and plants were doing fine without adding anything but flouish comprehensiv. I bought a heap of plants on special at my LFS, put them in and then growth almost stopped and half of the new plants died. I started using excel daily and upped flourish to 2x weekly and growth has kick started again.

What I'm noticing now is that I have rather unhealthy looking plants compared to before. Alot of the new growth is twisted/deformed, I have alot of small pinholes throughout some of the older plants and many yellow leaves. I also have GSA appearing on some older leaves of a plant thats almost stopped growing (used to trim this every 2 weeks).

Photoperiod is currently 10hrs and always has been.

Do I need to dose macros? I was under the impression that macros weren't necessary for a low light tank but it appears that the increase in plant to fish ratio may be causing these deffiencies.

What does everyone think? This all new to me, all i want is healthy steady growing plants, not crazy fast growth.

Thanks,
Evan.
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[Optix]

im not sure of your substrate

however...dosing macros/micros is NEVER a bad thing and is recommended for EVERY tank
...the only thing that changes is the amount/intensity of the lighting from setup to setup

Flourish Comp is only the micro/trace nutrients tho...so you NEED to add the macros as well...plants need macros on a higher level than micros so get to it :flick:

as far as controlling speed of growth...you should do that with lights, not by limiting available nutrients/CO2 (otherwise you get algae)

 

[evan.f_nz]

ah, thank you! I thought this maybe the case. What do you suggest I start with, am I better to start with too much and work down or starting low and adding more if necessary? And I gather excel will be enough in the meantime? Substrate is just inert sand. Thanks Very much.

Evan