Hey everyone,

I need a little help from some of the experienced members here.

I am new to the whole planted tank thing, or should I say inexperienced. Ive had dirt tanks for about 2 years or so now. I started with dirt. But I decided to try a tank with Seachem Flourite and my plants are having a real hard time. Its been about 4 months now and there is very little growth, and it seems that the roots are melting away because sometimes some of my plants with just pop out of the gravel and the have no roots on them.

 My setup:

30 gal long

60lbs. of Flourite covered with gravel ( Flourite color sucked )

4 - 36" 21watt T5 bulbs 6500K ( I have them on for 3hrs. then off for 2hrs. then on for another 3hrs. )

Ive been using Seachem Flourish for the past 2 months.

I used Seachem root tabs about 3 months ago but that only gave me an algae bloom, I saw very little growth from the plants.

I have amazon swords, chain swords, ruffled swords and ludwigia.

the swords put out new leafs but they stay short, like 5 or 6 inches, they would grow like 10+ inches in my other tanks. I dont know if my light is too high wattage for the tank or plants I have in there and that is keeping them short.

The chain swords in other tanks would grow like crazy, putting out runners and multiplying very quickly. now they dont grow at all really and just continue to get covered with some black algae. Same with the ludwigia, no growth and getting covered with algae.

I do regular water changes and my water conditions are good. I cant seem to control this algae or get my plants to grow normally.

Any help or advise anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, I looking forward to getting this under control and having the healthy tank I envisioned.