any thoughts as to why this is happening? I'm somewhat of a newbie and it could be that it's still adjusting to my tank but I'm not sure. All of the plants seem to be doing fine .

it's a 46 gallon 22" tall
2x65W PC 12hrs a day
PH 7.6
GH 35

dosing EI method no CO2 just excel (dosing per instructions)
Other plants in the tank consist of

Brown Crypt
Pygmy Chain Sword
Mirco Chain Sword
Limnophila sessiflora
Amazon Sword
Potamogeton gayi
Rotala Rotundifolia
Limnophila aromatica
Stargrass

Hi,
With a lighting level of almost 3 wpg T5 and no CO2 it wouldn't surprise me if the sags are responding poorly to Excel only. Dosing Excel per instructions does not automatically give you the equivalent of 30 ppm injected gas so you may wish to consider lowering the light or adding CO2.

Cheers,

As suggested, cut the light in half and drop to 8-10 hrs per day.


These are fine


Excel can be dosed up to 1.5x the recommended dosage. Don't think anybody here would tell you to go higher. As stated by Ceg, Excel is not comparable to CO2. EI for Excel starts around 1/3 dosing.

Pack as many plants in the tank as possible. Faster growing stems to start with. Weekly water changes (IME) and a reasonable fish load. Observe the tank for 2-3 weeks before making changes.

Good Luck.

The tank is packed with plants mostly stem plants. Fish load is moderate

Thanks. I though with 22" of hieght and PC bulbs with poor relectors that the light was fine. If the light is not enough would doing a 4hr sunburst be a happy medium?


Currently here is what I have in my tank
1 ram
9 cardinal tetras
10 harquin rasboas

Should I reduce NO3, PO4, trace as well? or wait and scale back gradually

Right now I'm dosing

N03 1/4 tsp 3X week
PO4 1/16 tsp 3X week
flourish 3mil 3X week
50% water change 1X week
Excel 5mil 6X week 20mil added one a week with water change.

Thanks for the help.

Just go to one for a while and see what happens. PC lighting is very intense and can overdrive things. Many here have tanks with much less light and we grow weeds well. If you find the lighting unproductive, you can always add it back. The cool thing is you will gain an understanding at a different light level.



I see no problem with this fish load.


I personally use a bit more than 1/3 EI on my Excel tanks, but I gained this level gradually as I watched the plants and adjusted things. Basically Excel is only going to do so much for a carbon source alone. Then you must work within these parameters.


Maybe leave for now. Try working one problem at a time so you can see what you're doing (ie. cause and effect).

The Excel at 1 ml per 10 gallon = 4.5ml x 1.5 = 6.75ml daily. On WC day 5ml per 10 gallon = 22.5ml. So you are close enough based on the tank volume only.

Thank you both for your replies. Good suggestion on reducing the photo period and nothing else. I just want to get things on the right track as quick as possible. I never thought about changing one parameter and measuring each change. I am running only one light for now. If the plants do not respond well to that I will try a sunburst for 4 hours.

Until recently I didn't had any luck with dwarf sags. Some died and some survived. The ones that make it didn't grew or had runners. They just hang in there.
Now they are really growing at about 2 watts per gallon, EI and most important: CO2. I have some in other tank also with EcoComplete with Excel that are very green but no runners. So Excel with good substrate is good....but CO2 is a most.