How do i get better plant growth?

Light: fennex stingray 2, 8hours
No co2
1 ml of excel daily
29 gallons
Ph 7
Gh 8
Kh4
dosing these ferts, potassium sulfate 1/16 tsp 3 times per week, nitrate and phosphates i dont dose because i test them and they are always there at pretty high levels. Plantex csm+b 2 times a week 1/16 tsp. Is this light too strong for non co2?
filter: oase biomaster 350

 

Are you getting bad plant growth as-is? How long has the tank been running? How long have the plants been in the tank?

Plants will really only grow so fast, and IME, most plants will take a while to settle in and really start growing. Sometimes, taking your hands out of the tank and giving things time is the best thing you can do.

 

This tank has been up for years but i switched to ro water. Plants have been in for 8 months more or less, but i keep cutting them because of algea plus the old leaved always look malnutritioned. Growth could be better. Im almost certain i dont have the right light on because of algae and i dont feel like getting co2.

 

Wait...don't use RO water. It's missing essential minerals for growth.

 

The growth of your plants looks fine to me. Plants can grow pretty slowly in low tech tanks sometimes.

If you think your light is too strong and causing algae (a real possibility), you could raise it up higher and/or shorten the duration to see if that helps.

Another thing that would probably help is to get some soil. Your substrate looks inert like baked clay or something. This is fine, but soil is better. Using soil has made a big improvement in plant growth for me.

 

I am a big fan of using Nilocg Thrive, along with the seachem line

 

Why do you use RO water instead of regular water?

Also, what substrate do you use?

 

Seachem flourite black. I use a mix of ro water and tap water about 70/30 ro/tap. Plus i add gh booster. I did this in the first place because my tap water comes out really alkaline and hard.
Honestly i'll prolly just get a lower tech light and hopefully that way i wont even have to dose excell. And i would like to get to the point where i do water changes every two weeks, instead of weekly. Is this too much to ask? Lol

 

Seachem flourite black. I use a mix of ro water and tap water about 70/30 ro/tap. Plus i add gh booster. I did this in the first place because my tap water comes out really alkaline and hard.
Honestly i'll prolly just get a lower tech light and hopefully that way i wont even have to dose excell. And i would like to get to the point where i do water changes every two weeks, instead of weekly. Is this too much to ask? Lol

Fluorite is a pretty dry substrate, it only really has iron and nothing else besides that. It's good when mixed in with another substrate.

Seachem Excel also isn't that great tbh, especially if you're only adding 1 ml of it a day. If you want a good liquid fertilizer, then try getting something that has a lot of NPK.

Invest in a proper substrate. It'll save you a LOT of money and time, and give your plants tons of nutrients. If you can't, then make your own root tabs and insert them into the substrate.


I don't want to hijack this thread here, but I would also look to plant some thick plants in the background to make the vegetation look at least a little more dense, other than that, the hard-scaping is good as well as the placement of the smaller plants in the front.

 

What proper substrates are we referring to? I use the nilocg root tabs rn and a mix of diy osmocote plus tabs( which make nitrate spikes i noticed).

 

If you're looking to keep a low tech planted tank with little maintenance, Cherryshrimp420 has some tanks like that.

Otherwise, I've always been intrigued by this article: How to Setup a Low-tech Planted Tank: Planted Aquarium Guide | Bits and pieces of my digital life (sudeepmandal.com) . If you decide to set up your tank this way, I would be curious to hear how it turns out.

 

What proper substrates are we referring to? I use the nilocg root tabs rn and a mix of diy osmocote plus tabs( which make nitrate spikes i noticed).

Fluval Stratum is a bit pricey, but good enough for your tank, especially since you've already added your fish. Currently I'm using a soil substrate.