Alright everyone. I'm trying this another time. I have been trying a dirted tank for a few months now. It has worked pretty decently but lately my crypts have been growing with dark brown leaves. This all started after I added flourish root tabs. The root tabs helped me get the full growth I needed and was missing. My Val started to grow slightly and my Amazon swords were grew pretty well. I bought more plants today. I bunch more crypts, Red myria and wisteria. I knew my 10 gallon tank was understocked so maybe this will help. I guess I am just asking if I should focus on fixing this problem or tear down the tank to the dirt and start over with the plants. I really want my planted tank to thrive and I plan on raising platies or endlers live bearers in it. Any help would be great such as a possible lack in nutrients, what I can do to fix the problem, and anything else anyone has to say. I'll post a few pictures of my tank with the new plants I planted. Oh and this is my test tank. I want to plant my 29 gallon but don't have the space at my college dorm for the equipment I need for one. Thank you

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I also want to point out the dirt I used is off brand organic. I also did not mineralize the soil at all. The only thing Im doing in the tank is the root tabs and dosing 5ml of API CO2 a day.

Wat kind of lights are u running and how long?

im running CFL 6500K bulbs 13 W for roughly 6-7 hours

How many bulbs ?

2

Just saw the pics. That 1 crypt with the brown leaves is a crypt wendtii brown sometimes they trow out bronze leaves. Ur other plants if they are trowing out green leaves they are green crypt wendtii. Cus u have a dirted tank and ur tanks not heavily planted teirs no need for root tabs just keep up with the co2 dosing and u should be fine.

what is considered heavy planted. and if it should be fine whydo my java fern and amazon sword sometimes send out crab leaves or the leaves go transparent and brown. Also my Italian Val grows short and throws out no runners (same with the sword) I am just curious to why I havent been able to get runners

55gtmp_2013-12-18 00.28.21-1147114712

this is heavily planted more or less. is the rhizome of ur java fern buried? is ur sword always trowing out bad leaves or just sometimes? are the leaves that go transparent and brown old leafs or new leafs? my j.vals always died so i can't help u there. as for swords I've had mine for like 3+ yrs and its only town out runners 2 times and both those times were in same month after like 2 yrs in my tank. planted tanks are more of a patience thing. plants will do their thing and multiply eventually. so long their not straight dying and they are trowing out new leafs u should be ok.

ok yeah my tank isnt nearly that. And they tend to be old leaves. Sometimes I forget old leaves need to be clipped off. Im trying to bring the vals back but I dont know. the rhizome isnt buried but put in between a piece of driftwood so I dont know why it isnt growing. Also do you know why Some plants dont grow taller than how I bought them? is it because the light penetrates so far down they dont need to reach for light? Sounds like I just need to let the tank do its thing and wait. Thanks for the help. I will definitely come to you if I need additional help.

How long has this tank been up?? my suggestion would be let it ride. it looks like your getting a fair amount of new growth already which is very good considering it looks like the tank is pretty new. I would just let it grow, your doing it all right already but plants take time to get used to your tank and to feel comfortable enough to really grow crazy. It will happen though. The only other thing i would suggest is getting your colony of platies or endlers in there and get them pooping and reproducing. let it age! goodluck!

patience is a huge thing with any tank but especially a dirted tank. leave it and wait. I used to have to much time on my hands so I was constantly in my tanks and they didn't seem to do much. then I started school and had no time and the plants just exploded with routine water changes and co2 supplement. in the beginning its more root growth than anything. if you have higher light than where you got the plants then yes the growth will not be as leggy this is a good thing. also I noticed in the second pic that you have green spot algae on your glass scrape this of before it becomes a problem. this is probably the easiest algae to deal with just lower your lights to maybe 4 or 5 hours until your plants are really growing. stop adding ferts in the beginning it is not necessary since you have dirt for that. just prune any melting leaves and maintain it also the co2 seachem excel is a great product used as directed. be patient you have a well put together tank it will look great in a bout six months be sure to post pics of it

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. I guess this is a learning process. I am learning something new everyday and I guess you have a point George, with all this free time I am always in my tank. Maybe if I focus on doing water changes, CO2 and pruning I will see more of a take off. Im still learning a lot about the planted tank and using dirt and hope to plant my 29 when I have this small 10 gallon down. If anyone has any tips on starting that tank I would appreciate it greatly. Thanks everyone!

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