poor plants

[falcon]

why are my live plants got fine hairs growing on the leafs and stems.i have a 260 ltr bow fronted tank i dont use co2.my plants are just in graval

[Algenco]

sounds like hair algae, you either have issues with light ,nutrients, or both.

[zackish]

What is inhibiting the tank right now and how long are you leaving your lights on?

[Dave66]

What is inhibiting the tank right now and how long are you leaving your lights on?

Light doesn't matter, zackish. Mine are on 14 hours a day in summer and have no algae as I feed little often and the live plants eat up all stray nutrients. The poster just needs to be patient, his plants will settle in and eliminate the problem. It's the nutrient levels that's the problem, not the amount/time of light. Eliminate the cause and the algae will melt away.

Dave

[Chrona]

Light doesn't matter, zackish. Mine are on 14 hours a day in summer and have no algae as I feed little often and the live plants eat up all stray nutrients. The poster just needs to be patient, his plants will settle in and eliminate the problem. It's the nutrient levels that's the problem, not the amount/time of light. Eliminate the cause and the algae will melt away.

Dave

That may work in your particular case, but it does not in most. I guarantee you that in the vast majority of tanks, leaving the lights on for 14+ hours will get you green spot algae, green water, etc, etc. Algae is eating up nutrients at the same time as plants, and after something like 10-12 hours (depending on setup), plants stop photosynthesizing (meaning you are only providing light to the algae)

Light, CO2, nutrients are all equally important.


How long have you had these plants? How much lighting do you have? How long are you leaving the light on each day? Fish stocking level? Are you adding any kind of plant fertilizer?

[Dave66]

That may work in your particular case, but it does not in most. I guarantee you that in the vast majority of tanks, leaving the lights on for 14+ hours will get you green spot algae, green water, etc, etc. Algae is eating up nutrients at the same time as plants, and after something like 10-12 hours (depending on setup), plants stop photosynthesizing (meaning you are only providing light to the algae)

Light, CO2, nutrients are all equally important.


How long have you had these plants? How much lighting do you have? How long are you leaving the light on each day? Fish stocking level? Are you adding any kind of plant fertilizer?

Higher plants will outcompete algae for nutrients every time. I've had my tanks set up a minimum of five years. The eldest is approching nine years. I average roughly 4 wpg full spectrum, 30 ppm Co2. And all the lights aren't on all the 14 hours as I use dawn to dusk with timers. As to stocking, in the 75 to my right as an example, there are 36 lemon tetras, 18 rosy tetras, 12 Corydoras guapore and six Ancistrus claro.

Dave

[Chrona]

Higher plants will outcompete algae for nutrients every time. I've had my tanks set up a minimum of five years. The eldest is approching nine years. I average roughly 4 wpg full spectrum, 30 ppm Co2. And all the lights aren't on all the 14 hours as I use dawn to dusk with timers. As to stocking, in the 75 to my right as an example, there are 36 lemon tetras, 18 rosy tetras, 12 Corydoras guapore and six Ancistrus claro.

Dave

Higher plants will outcompete algae only when it has everything it needs to grow, ie nutrients, CO2, and light. After about 10-12 hours, plants stop photosynthesizing, so it makes it pretty hard to for it to compete with algae then. Furthermore, the original poster mentioned that he does not inject CO2. Try turning off your pressurized CO2 and run your lights for 14 hours a day and see what happens.

The second part of my post was directed at Falcon btw. I should have been more clear, sorry.