Lighting Confusion. Planted Amazon Biotope

Hey folks!

I have a 75 gallon amazon tank. PH around 7. Won’t go down or up which is good I guess.

Anyways, I have Anubias, Java fern, amazon sword and Val. I notice some of my Anubias leaves turn yellow and wither away. But I also have a decent amount of new growth and wondering what could be going on.

I dose my own black water extract when I do water changes. I add quite a few Cattapa leaves and do weekly WC. There is also a significant amount of wood and I also leave the leaves the decay and rarely remove them.

Stock list:

5 angles (breeding)
7 Cory cats
1 Bolivian Ram
4 rummy nose tetra
2 bleeding heart tetra

My lighting is a Fluval aquasky 2.0 and I run it fairly low percentage wise. 12 hours a day. Very gradual 4 hour ramp up. 4 hours at my max I set and 4 hour ramp down. I doubt I am using too much light but am I using enough ? Still too much ? Maybe o should dose ferts even though they are slow growing and undemanding plants ?

What could I do to ensure those lovely dark green leaves of a healthy Anubias ?

My light specs are the one on the right

 

Ok......


Well, I went out and got

Seachem Excel

Seachem flourish

Seachem Trace

Seachem advance

Aquavitro Iron

Next paycheck I’ll grab the nitrogen and potassium.

I will he dosing a lot less than what the bottle says for all products and instead of the ones that say daily might be every 2-3 days. I’m also going to dose it as a 50 gallon tank to account for water displacement just to be on the safe side.

I’m assuming my bioload isn’t that heavy and my weekly 20% water changes probably keep the water pretty clean.

My tank is pretty much completely algae free so I’m assuming the available food for algae are missing. Only problem is now I have my plants so they need food.

I put in two oto cats and replaced my beloved Farowella cat that went missing at some point . LFS has some so I HAD to get another one. Lesson learned. ALWAYS check leaf litter for twig cats before tossing . Poor little dude. I missed watching him hop around the tank and play twig. They say they are hard to keep but I kept mine really well so I’ll give it another shot. Amazing camo on wood and leaves. They actually look like a leaf stem

Anyways, maybe some plants people will chime in soon.....

 

Nice tank! I don't think lighting is your problem but 12 hours is a pretty lengthy time for a light to be on. Most tanks should be 6-8 hours. But if you're not having algae issues then you should be alright.

Plant lights are like the gas pedal in your car and nutrients (fertilizers) are like the gasoline. One without the other doesn't do much. Even though your plants are undemanding they still need some food to eat. Yellowing leaves typically means a potassium deficiency.

You might want to look into an all in one fertilizer to save money. You'll spend an arm and a leg buying individual ferts from seachem. A lot of people are kind of moving away from seachem fertilizers in general since they're generally pretty watered down compared to other more potent ferts on the market. (not that seachem ferts are bad, they're just very expensive for what you get)
There's a few different all in one fertilizers out there. The most popular is definitely Thrive by NilocG which I also use. It has literally everything you just purchased plus more, in higher concentrations. All in one bottle.

 

Nice tank! I don't think lighting is your problem but 12 hours is a pretty lengthy time for a light to be on. Most tanks should be 6-8 hours. But if you're not having algae issues then you should be alright.

Plant lights are like the gas pedal in your car and nutrients (fertilizers) are like the gasoline. One without the other doesn't do much. Even though your plants are undemanding they still need some food to eat. Yellowing leaves typically means a potassium deficiency.

You might want to look into an all in one fertilizer to save money. You'll spend an arm and a leg buying individual ferts from seachem. A lot of people are kind of moving away from seachem fertilizers in general since they're generally pretty watered down compared to other more potent ferts on the market. (not that seachem ferts are bad, they're just very expensive for what you get)
There's a few different all in one fertilizers out there. The most popular is definitely Thrive by NilocG which I also use. It has literally everything you just purchased plus more, in higher concentrations. All in one bottle.

Hey! Thanks for info! .

Tell me about it. Just spent $80 and I’m still not done buying their line. I will most definitely look into other options... what I bought and the levels I’ll be dosing I think this should last me roughly 6 months . Will see how this batch goes and in the meantime will be looking at alternatives for sure !

As for the photoperiod I was afraid it was too little but Anubias have been growing and spreading. But now they look hungry. Stupid of me to think I could not have to feed them but a lot of info online raves about how easy they are and undemanding. I figured 12 hours is a light cycle that is found in most tropical places and why I have a 4 hour ramp 4 hour peak (although at around 20% full potential) and 4 hour ramp down. For the frost couple hours it’s pretty dI'm and last couple hours it’s pretty dI'm in there. Will this cheap light have the spectrum needed ? I know green is useless pretty much but white, blue and red are my main options.

I will probably dose way less frequent due to my gas pedal being moderately pressed and my plants not demanding species.

And thanks for the compliments

 

Very Nice,

You keep a lot of the same plants I do.

Here is my 125 divided into 3 pictures left to right










This is what I use for fertz. I have several anubias all doing fine. The tabs are just for my sword plants, and strategically placed.




I buy some of them on amazon and some in 1 or 2 litre jugs. Way cheaper.

This is the dosing schedule I follow. I don’t do 50 percent, I go 100 percent on all.




I have tried all in ones. Too many deficiencies, so that how I ended up here. Not saying there aren’t other ways to go lots of people have success with all in ones and lots of variates out there. It just wasn’t me. The dry fertz guys probably do the best, I’m to lazy to be a mixologist.

I follow the same regiment in my 90 gallon.







As a plant guy, all I can say is it works, it’s hassle free, and yes it’s a little expensive.

Best of luck.

Forgot to mention I go 100 percent lighting, full spectrum led lighting, 8 hours a day on both tanks.

 

Nice tank! Here are my thoughts on the subjects raised:

1. Your lighting period is ok as you don't max out for the full period but run in and then run out at the end of the day with about 6 hrs of maxed out lighting. Considering you have tannin stained water and the plants at the bottom of the tank, I would say you are low on lighting. I would add 2 hours of max lighting.
2. Lighting mix - the pure white LED light is really just for viewing. The plants use a red/blue/green mix to photosynthesise. So switch the white light off when no-one is in the house looking at the fish. It is waste of energy.
3. Plant growth - usually means that the water conditions are good for new growth and that your plants will use up the nitrate in your water for the new growth. One thing to note is that new growth also requires minerals, so if they are not available, the plant will sacrifice the existing leaves to source the minerals for the new growth.
4. I am no expert on Niclog Aquatics ThriveC All in one fertilizer, but I do use seachams products. I use flourish at every water change and the once a week alternate ferrous and potassium. That seems to be enough for the plants to grow well and in fact far beyond my expectations. I have to trim my plants once a week. Yes I do use Co2 6 hrs a day a one bubble per second.

Hope this helps.

 

[QUOTE="RSababady, I use flourish at every water change and the once a week alternate ferrous and potassium. T[/QUOTE]


I am going to try this regime with my 40 gallon tank. I have all the Seachem products but question myself on my dosing, so have bought Thrive all in one for all tanks. I have a little bit of green spot on my crypts recently so have thought of dosing with a small amount of Seachem phosphorus and lowering my LED time which has been 11-12 hrs as well. Although I do filter the light using 2 window screens between the LED and tank. I keep the med light plants towards the front of the tank and move the LED past the filter screening.

 

Your tanks are beautiful! Are you low tech or running co2?

 

I would consider my tanks low tech. No CO2. But a tremendous amount of effort and care.

 

You guys are awesome! Great info .

I plan on dosing on the low end. I figure I have my lights low, low demand plants and I REALLY wanna keep an eye on algae. Right now I pretty much have zero and tank has been set up since November 2018. I wanna keep it that way lol. But now I’m in a position where I have plants (which I originally didn’t want) and have to feed them so they can thrive.

EXCEL If it work 2-3 days.

ADVANCE at the 40 gallon measurement after water change.

FLOURISH at water change at 40 gallon dose

TRACE day after water change at 40 gallon dose

IRON at water change for 50 gallon dose or might make it every 14 days and skip one dose at water change.

I figure I’ll keep things low and if I see a sign of algae I’ll tone down the ferts and maybe keep iron and excel dosing until I can figure out exactly what it is the plants want. My methods are purely based on what nothing at this point but I figure I’ll start low and slow .

I did some math albeit majorly sleep deprived and it works out to $8.54 per month after taxes to dose at my regiment. Not sure if that’s good or bad lol. My brain hurts.

 

Hey folks!

I have a 75 gallon amazon tank. PH around 7. Won’t go down or up which is good I guess.

Anyways, I have Anubias, Java fern, amazon sword and Val. I notice some of my Anubias leaves turn yellow and wither away. But I also have a decent amount of new growth and wondering what could be going on.

I dose my own black water extract when I do water changes. I add quite a few Cattapa leaves and do weekly WC. There is also a significant amount of wood and I also leave the leaves the decay and rarely remove them.

Stock list:

5 angles (breeding)
7 Cory cats
1 Bolivian Ram
4 rummy nose tetra
2 bleeding heart tetra

My lighting is a Fluval aquasky 2.0 and I run it fairly low percentage wise. 12 hours a day. Very gradual 4 hour ramp up. 4 hours at my max I set and 4 hour ramp down. I doubt I am using too much light but am I using enough ? Still too much ? Maybe o should dose ferts even though they are slow growing and undemanding plants ?

What could I do to ensure those lovely dark green leaves of a healthy Anubias ?

My light specs are the one on the right

Love your tank!