Planted Pea Gravel. Help.

Have a 55 long with pea gravel and plants.. have had the plants for about two weeks.. they don't look that happy so I added flourish plant tabs.. I don't think that's helping much. But my tank with small reguilar fish store gravel is growing rapidly.. if I add white color small fish store gravel over the pea gravel do you think that would help the plants? Or any advice.

 

Depends on the plants. Some plants want nice sandy places to grow a massive root system, others want gravel, or to stick to a log.

 

The lighting can make a difference too.

 

Have a 55 long with pea gravel and plants.. have had the plants for about two weeks.. they don't look that happy so I added flourish plant tabs.. I don't think that's helping much. But my tank with small reguilar fish store gravel is growing rapidly.. if I add white color small fish store gravel over the pea gravel do you think that would help the plants? Or any advice.

Pics would be very helpful.

Gravel is completely inert, containing no nutrients at all. You could use florescent pink gravel if you want but it wouldn't make a difference.

What might be happening:
-plants in the other tank are column feeders as opposed to substrate feeders
-lighting is different
-plants were emmersed and are adapting to submersed life

What I recommend:
-check if your lighting is adequate
-use a good comprehensive fertilizer like Nilocg Thrive

 

Pics would be very helpful.

Gravel is completely inert, containing no nutrients at all. You could use florescent pink gravel if you want but it wouldn't make a difference.

What might be happening:
-plants in the other tank are column feeders as opposed to substrate feeders
-lighting is different
-plants were emmersed and are adapting to submersed life

What I recommend:
-check if your lighting is adequate
-use a good comprehensive fertilizer like Nilocg Thrive

I don't wanna take that peangravel out couldnI pour the stuff on top.. and there fluorescent bulbs.. standard

 

You can pour gravel over the top, but the substrate is probably not the difficulty your plants are facing. It's more likely that there isn't enough fertilizer, or you need to upgrade the lighting to support plants. The gravel will mix with the pea stuff over time and probably won't make a big difference.

What plants are you trying to grow? Many aren't grown entirely underwater, and the plant needs to change its physiology to survive fully submerged.

 

these plants lol.. should I buy specific bulbs..?

 

these plants lol.. should I buy specific bulbs..?

I could be wrong, but some of those do not look like true aquatics. Tell me, did you buy them in plastic tubes?

If you're using florescent lights just use some that have a color temp of 6500K (Kelvin), it's usually labelled on florescent lighting.

 

The hoods usually have flourescents, but depending on the brand, it might be leds. The light looks, fine, but the plants that are sort of white are non aquatic I believe(The one in front of the water wisteria

 

See how those plants do before adding more.