Jewel Tank Lights - Too Strong for plants?

[shell42]

Hey I have a 4ft 280L Jewel tank, great tank but having trouble growing any plants in it apart from various moulds which thrive

My second tank where my Discus live has very low lighting t3 moonlight and daylight globe in it and plants like anubias and swords and crypts grow terrifically with no CO2 on plenty of bogwood.

water conditions are very similar to the main jewel tank except the PH is 7 in the main tank and there is no wood just rocks

KH is the same in both tanks I forget the exact number but it is not super low.

Main tank has plant fertilisers and iron added too it occasionally where as the back tank does not, both tanks have neutral substrate

the only thing I can think of is that the lighting is too strong in the main tank? do you think the plants would benefit from less lighting? as there are currently 2 strong t5 lights in there.

[swampy1972]

It would depend on the type of plants you're trying to keep. You might find the plants you have are high light plants, in which case you may not have enough light.
Crypts, anubias and swords are all low light plants that grow happily with standard T8 lighting.
Have a look at a site called Aquariumlife. It's the best source of info for aquatic plants I've found and it's Australian making it great for accessing new plants etc.
HTH

[shell42]

Yeah I had my anubius and swords in there, really big bushes of it but it just broke down and it won't grow, put it out in my other tank in which is the equivalent of the dark and it grows like a forest. The sword plants have little swords and everything, in the bright lights it wont even grow a leaf and eventually succumbs to mould.

Put it in the dark tank and it looses it's mould and starts to grow again, the difference in the 2 tanks however is only the strength of the lighting. and one is at 7ph and the dark on is at 6.8

So I'm just thinking the lights are too bright for it to the point where I'm thinking of converting the tank to Ciclids because plants look horrible, but if I can get plants happy in there I'd happily get more discus. Currently running it with my friend's Angel fish who don't care lol

I'll check out the site

[Tommo]

I would try 2 things.

1) co2
2) Ferts

[swampy1972]

I would try 2 things.

1) co2
2) Ferts

Not required for Crypts, Swords and Anubius but you'll have nice lush plants if you do. I have some very healthy examples of both Amazon Sword and Anubius growing under a standard, single T8 tube that have never seen either ferts or CO2.

What type of globes are in the troublesum tank vs the globes you have in the successful one? Are they suitable for plants? They may have a high Kelvin rating for corals which will do your plants no good.. worth a look.