Plants not doing nearly as well as they used to

speaking from recent experience... same happened to me a month ago...
sharing the knowledge....

Dave, does flourite go bad after 2 years? I'm breaking that tank down and
transferring it and it's residents to a 55g, will be getting another bag to
fill up....

--

RedForeman ©®





"Dave Millman" wrote in message
...
"RedForeman ©®" wrote:

I bet your lights are falling off....

I bet you are right, Red. I could have written the original message: Great
growth during year 1, increasing frustration during year 2 despite
improving
skill and discipline, replaced the lamps and all was well again.

François, replace your lamps and keep up the CO2!



--

RedForeman ©®

"François Arsenault" wrote in message
. ..
Hello everyone,

During the first year of my 40-gallon planted aquarium, my plants
looked
great. In particular, I had a huge, beautiful Echinodorus. My other
plants
were also thriving. In fact, at times I could actually see streams of
tiny
bubbles coming out of them. I assume it was oxygen, which I took as a
sign
of good health.

Unfortunately, they haven't done this in a long time, and they don't
look
nearly as good as before (that was maybe two years ago). If the
bubbles
were
indeed a sign that the plants were thriving and producing great
amounts of
oxygen, what could explain their current situation?

What puzzles me is that I'm actually taking better care of my plants
for
the
last year or so. I've been adding fertilizer on a regular basis (but
not
too
often or too much), and I recently started adding CO2. I've also
always
made
sure I changed my fluorescent tube often enough so the light quality
wouldn't go down too much. Ok, so I only have one main light for a
40-gallon
aquarium with a large surface area, which isn't enough, but the
situation
was the same when my plants were doing better.

Is there anything that could explain my plants' decreased health under
improved conditions? My old Echinodorus was 4 times the size of those
I
have
now, and it didn't tend to turn yellow or brown or lose leaves like
the
current ones do. The situation is similar for other species. Could it
be
that I now have too many plants? I'm pretty sure I have more now than
2
years ago. Are they competing with each other or something?

I realize that it could be any number of things, but any advice would
be
greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Francois

RedForeman ©® wrote in message
...
speaking from recent experience... same happened to me a month ago...
sharing the knowledge....

Dave, does flourite go bad after 2 years? I'm breaking that tank down and
transferring it and it's residents to a 55g, will be getting another bag
to
fill up....


Flourite itself should be inert, however toxins build up in the substrate
over time and closed systems deteriorate... an argument in favor of ugf's,
incidentally.

kush

"Dunter Powries" wrote in message
...
RedForeman ©® wrote in message
...
speaking from recent experience... same happened to me a month ago...
sharing the knowledge....

Dave, does flourite go bad after 2 years? I'm breaking that tank down
and
transferring it and it's residents to a 55g, will be getting another bag
to
fill up....


Flourite itself should be inert, however toxins build up in the substrate
over time and closed systems deteriorate... an argument in favor of ugf's,
incidentally.

kush


Also an argument for substrate heating cables.

Harry




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