Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Lynne W on March 30, 2018, 06:12:46 PM
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Hi everyone, plant question this time.
Everything in my tank is growing fairly well and some are going positively wild, however the 3 Echinodorus radicans have hardly grown since they were planted 2 months ago. I spend most of my time cutting away their
dead leaves.
I put in some root tabs a couple of weeks ago and they seemed to grow a little, but you'll see from the pic that I've got some strange colouring going on and also a couple of the new leaves are distorted.
I'm considering giving up on them, but any suggestions as to what might be going on?
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Well done on your plants growing fairly well. I've experienced something very similar to this too. You might find this helpful https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-tank-plant-advice/useful-plant-diagnosis-charts/ although often I struggle to decipher the difference between some of them.
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Try some liquid fertiliser and carbon, they will help.
I use TNC Complete and TNC Carbon, but there are others available.
I also tend to dose the ferts at 1/7th dose daily, rather than full dose once a week.
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hiya fcmf, yeah had a look at that, agree it's quite difficult to figure out what one or many it may be.
Littlefish, I've been using liquid fertiliser too, but I'll check re the Carbon, you've reminded me about the daily dose opposed to weekly, someone advised that in one of my first posts, maybe it was you :) but I forgot about that given everything else I've been trying to remember :o
I'll keep at it for a while and see what happens with a daily dose, might just be my water they don't like, given everything else it getting on OK and at least they've not died out completely!
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I'm still a noob at this myself Lynne but believe some Echinodorus can be stubborn for a while before finally getting going... I have some myself that have done exactly this and you may find that at any point soon they start growing nicely... :)
Out of curiosity, how long do you have your tank lights on for per day and is that time the same day in, day out...?
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Hi Topcookie :wave:, I'm hoping that might happen! The lights are on for 7 hours a day, they're on a timer so same time on and off.
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They are a fairly hardy plant once they get going, I wouldn't be too concerned, root tabs will definitely help as they feed quite heavily via their roots. Perhaps give them a wiggle in position to move the roots a little if they are not growing in another couple of weeks.
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Hi Topcookie :wave:, I'm hoping that might happen! The lights are on for 7 hours a day, they're on a timer so same time on and off.
Perfect...!!! You can't beat a timer for consistency when it comes to lights and 7 hours is about ideal... Fingers crossed that the Radicans are about to take off... :)
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Thanks guys I'll keep at it and hopefully they'll come good. :cheers: