what did i do wrong

[totto2222]

i have a 55 gallon tank with 112 watts T5 lighting 6700K
dual fluval 305 canisters
my water parameters are
amonia 0
nitrites 0
nitrates 10
my substrate is fine grade gravel
i use flourish root tabs and dose with excel and liquid flourish once a week
im runing a diy co2 generator into on of my canisters
my java moss is brown on the tops
my swords are yellow and brown and black splotches
my java ferns are wilting but still green
im at a loss as what to do?
is this my substrate,eco complete,laterite,flourite
is it my lighting
not enough co2

[Trillianne]

Try checking a nutrient deficiency chart like the one here:
http://www.aquariumplantsandsupplies...-deficiencies/

Yellowing of leaves sounds to me like there is some specific nutrient missing.

[dmagerl]

I would suggest you have too much light and not enough CO2 & ferts. I assume the light fixture is sitting on the top of the tank.

High light drives the plants to grow and really suck up nutrients, hence they're showing a nutrient deficiency. Dialing down the light dials down their nutrient requirements. Also, Flourish does not provide a lot of the major nutrients. Its good for low light tanks but not for high light.

As for the root tabs, you're putting them in gravel so I would assume whatever they're releasing into the gravel is also in the water. I can only assume they too are lacking in major nutrients for high light, though I've used tabs in high light and my swords grew like gang busters. Or maybe you arent using enough. Whats your spacing on them?

I think you're lacking in CO2 too. I tried DIY in my 55gal tank and just wasnt ever able to get enough into the water, especially with using a CO2 diffuser. The volume of water was just too great and the diffuser too inefficient.

Moss and ferns also dont like high light. So I would start by turning off one of the bulbs, or raising the fixture, or putting a screen under it, anything to lower the light. Lower light means lower nutrient requirements. Then I would look into dosing some NPK in addition to Flourish. I'm still stumped with the root tabs though, unless its CO2 deficiency and high light thats causing the problem.

With lower light, you might be ok using DIY CO2. Are you using a drop checker to measure CO2 in the water? If not you should consider buying one.

[totto2222]

from what ive read i assumed id need around 2.5 wpg to reach the bottom of the tank but i will do as you suggest and turn one of the bulbs off and see what happens
i wondered if i might have too much light as my java moss was looking like it was burnt on the top but looks great further down my piece of driftwood
dont know if my swords are gonna make it though
i put tabs about every three inches in the gravel
as for the co2 i have 2 2litre bottles going into a diy drop checker
im getting 1 bps but i think its not enough because i only see bubbles come out of the return line about every 2 or 3 minutes
thank you for the reply tho and i think you might be right as my plants do resemble getting sunburnt
i think im going to tear the tank down and replace the substrate with eco and replace some of the plants and see where it goes from there
its my first planted attempt although ive had tanks for years
i wanted to try this to see if i could grow plants before i had to spend the bucks on a co2 pressure system
once again thank you for the imput i will try this