Help! Lighting issue.

[Larryfish]

Okay. So I have a 55 gal planted setup
That I recently did. With two fluvial aquasky lights on it 48" when expanded.
I was doing some research on giant hairgrass (because I have it in my tank) and saw that most people were having issues with the plant propagating due to lighting. Most people that were successful were running at 3 plus watts per gallon. I think the aquaskys only put out 27 watts a piece. Which would put me at one watt per gallon? I also have a t5 which I threw on which puts out 57 watts. I just want to know if the plant is going to work out in the long run ? I also have dwarf four leave clover that I feel like I might run into the same issue with ? I can post pictures if I need too

Fert: excel flourish. Once a day.
40% water change every other day.
Gravel substrate

 

[Fat Homer]

Let me see if i can help a little, although i've only ever grow dwarf hair grass and not giant hair grass carpets... (also be prepared for a longish post)

First off, let me ask, by Gravel you mean plain gravel, as in a substrate that won't hold any nutrients / ferts that are added to the tank???

If this is the case, then that could be part of your problem since as with most carpeting plants, they get their nutrients from their roots which are buried below the substrate...

2nd problem is the 40% water changes every other day, unless you have an extremely heavy bio-load, most planted tanks prefer having a water change once a week of approx 20% - 50% depending on your setup... since plants need time to use up the nutrients in the tank to grow...

3rd problem, just using Excel won't get you very far in my experience...

Yes it is a carbon substitute, but you still need to feed your plants with the other required nutrients in order for them to grow properly... not to mention some plants actually do not do well with Excel and may melt / die from its use...

If you look at any well maintained planted tank its a balancing act of lighting / ferts / Co2 and temps to work with their current setup...

Maybe if you can post up a pic we can help give a better idea of what might be wrong?

 

[Deadliestviper7]

A reflector can help, u should also keep snails or other plant friendly algae eaters to clean the giant hair grass

 

[fisheatfish]

I'm with Homer...more info will definitely help.

Careful with snails. The handful of trumpet snails I threw in my tank has become out of control. They do a good job of cleaning but wish I had never put them in.

 

[Fat Homer]

I agree with fisheatfish in the past i've read horror stories here of people who had malaysian trumpet snails take over their tanks..,

 

[Larryfish]

Okay so here is a picture. I also have sand loosely mixed in with the gravel. This is my third try with a planted tank. Also. If I were to buy flourish tabs and use them accordingly. Would that help ? The plant growth. And carpeting. Also. Saw a plant that looked like it might have BBA on it. I'm keeping a close eye on it. I read online. To spot treat with hydrogen peroxide. But I've been on this website long enough to know to ask the pros first

 

[Larryfish]

Trying to post the pictures

 

[Larryfish]

Also. Since these pictures were taken I have done reading. And stopped the air pumps and the wavemaker

 

[fisheatfish]

Here's what caught my eyes:

Coarse substrate along with sand have no nutrients initially but your tank is well stocked so their wastes will provide that to a degree. Root tabs will definitely help with your carpet but more importantly, you'll need stronger lighting and co2 to achieve a nice carpet. Not sure if you're using a glass lid...id remove it if you are to allow the lights to penetrate to the substrate without any obstruction.

I would recommend ferts in the water column as well. I began with flourish products and with more experience have learned to use dry ferts. I let the plants tell me what they need and adjust accordingly.

Co2 and high lighting is not necessary for plant growth...with your current setup, the plants will continue to grow but very slowly.

 

[Larryfish]

Okay. So I'm running two fluvial aquaskys and one t5 does the lighting seem adequate now ?