How can I speed up the growth of my plants?
How could I speed up the growth of my plants?
Fertilizers will do no good if you don't have all of the other ingredients for plant growth.
Think of plants like a production line in a factory with 3 pipes of input feeding into a big mystery box that spits out widgets in its output. If the materials arrive in disproportionate ammounts or at different rates, its just going to gum up the system instead of making more widgets.
If you increase the supply of one ingredient, you must increase the supply of the others proportionatly.
Light, co2, Fertilizer are the 3 main ingreedients in the plant factory.
Unless you're prepared to add more co2 %26amp; light to your system, I'd stick with things the way they are. Especially if your plants are living %26amp; not dying off. Many beginning plant keepers are lucky if they can prevent a losing war of attrition with plant death %26amp; plant decay. You're already a step ahead of them.
But since you asked WHAT you should try instead of IF, then I'll give you this advice. If I had to pick one thing to increase I'd start with co2. Most tanks with biowheels and airstones outgass all the co2 in the tank within the first couple hours of having the light turned on in the morning, then the plants are left starving for co2 the rest of the day. Maximizing the ammount of dissolved co2 in the water will go a long way to accelerating plant growth.
Flourish Excel is a product that some people have had reasonable luck with. Its dissolved organic carbon compounds that plants can use in place of co2. It can be cost prohibitive, and its not as effective as the real thing, but it can make a difference for many species of plants.
You can do a diy co2 system for about $10 with a 2 liter bottle of coke, some airline hose, and a ceramic airstone mounted below your filter intake. Much more elaborate (and efficient setups) are out there by googling "DIY co2"
Use a hot nail to burn a perfectly circular hole in the cap to the soda bottle, just big enough to shove the hose through it. You can seal it with silicone if you want, but its not necessary.
Rinse the soda bottle in hot water,
fill with: 1.75 cups of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of yeast (any kind will do), and warm (ideally 105 degrees) tap water to about 2 inches from the lid.
Shake Shake Shake.
Hook the apparatus up to the airstone (and a check valve!) and wait a few hours. it will start producing little bubbles.
The process will raise your dissolved co2 and lower your ph.
Depending on room temperature, bacterial contamination, and the quality of the yeast, the brew will last 1.5-2 weeks.
Responsable keepers would also buy a carbonate hardness test kit and buffer with either malwai buffer or baking soda to prevent PH crashes if the KH of the water is on the soft side.
The reason I vote for co2 over fertilizer as a first step towards plant growth is this... The Light %26amp; the co2 increase the respiration rate of the plants. If you have enough of them, you will see oxygen bubbles rolling off of the plants. Unless you see these oxygen bubbles rolling off of the plants, then your fish's poop is enough to supply the organic fertilizers your plants need. If the plants aren't respirating visibly, then they probably don't need fertilizers.
Good Luck!
Oh, and even in ideal conditions Java Moss grows rather slowly. The fastest growing plant I ever had was Wisteria Deformis also sold as water wisteria. That stuff grows fast.
Reply:Lots of light and CO2. Extra light will also increase your algae too though so catch that before it begins to cover the plants.
Reply:Hi aquatic plants are like fish they need the right amount of light, temp, food, and water quality to grow. Also some just naturally grow slower than others. Take Java moss it is normally a very slow grower. It only needs low light levels, average temps, should be attached to a log or rock, and be give some aquatic plant food about once every 2 months. Why'll Bacopa on the other hand is generally a fast growing aquatic plant that needs med to high amounts of light, temps of about 76 degrees, and can be grown so that it is planted in the tank or floating on the top of the tank. They also need to be given aquatic plant food monthly. I would suggest that you get a book on aquatic plants and do some reading up on them.
Reply:vort3xyz is one of the few people on this board that I would say knows what the hell he is talking about when it comes to plants. Light, carbon, and fertilizer all have to be present in the proper amount for plants to do well. If your plants are growing well, with good color, and no algae, the I would leave well enough alone. With increased plant growth also comes a greater chance of increased algae growth if everything is not balanced. I will say that adding co2 is one of the single greatest things you can do for your plants, but they will also more nutrients to sustain greater growth.
Light should be your limiting factor here. You want enough light to sustain and propagate the plants, but not so much that the plants starve(yes plants can and will starve) from lack of carbon or other nutrients. If you are running a lower light level(less than 2 watts of fluorescent light per gallon of volume), and have a moderate bio-load, you can get away with just dosing a little potassium and micro supplement such as flourish. Any more light and co2 is a must, and you will most likely have to also add nitrates, phosphates.
Here is a great source for some no nonsense information that is actually correct. You have to be care full what you read on the Internet, for every good answer you get you will get five that are incorrect.
www.rexgrig.com
Reply:Plants like music, it has been proven before. If you play nature music, like birds chirping, or someone talking to their plants, they will appreciate this. They will grow faster for you if you have appreciated them.
Reply:is this the 10 gallon? If so, you're overstocked. Java Moss will take off like a weed. Cabomba will start to grow well within about three weeks and will bacopa. Your biggest problem will be your sword plant. It will grow too tall for that tank, suck up all the nutrients, starving the other plants, and block out the light to the other plants.
Remove the sword and use the correct dosage of aquarium plant fertilizer. Also, get a plant grow light for your tank. Only use this once you tank's nitrogen cycle is stable. If not, all that light, food, and nirtrogen will cause an algal bloom.
Also, about your other question... Do not use proper Ph with a planted tank. It will cause a phosphate buffer and affect your plants. I did it and ended up with a mess on my hands years ago.
Reply:Perhaps a good fertilizer would help. I use compost horse manure and it is great.
Reply:Use fertilizers!
Reply:improve lighting that will help a lot!! i would also add some trace elements... if you check out www.liveaquaria.com, or www.drfostersmith.com, they have a lot of info on a lot of plant species and fish.
Hope that helps
rain roots
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