# Plants stop growing



## punter1 (Mar 25, 2008)

Hi,

I am new to maintaining a planted tank. I started off easy with just some hornwort, anacharis, moss ball and banana plants. What I don't understand is that the hornwort and anacharis grew like crazy for the first 2 weeks, and then growth slowed down dramatically. When I bought a new hornwort plant, the same thing, fast growth for a couple of weeks and then slows down. Any feedback would be appreciated. I have a little green algae on the glass, I remove every 2 weeks. And recently some hair like algae on the plants, but not overwhelming... The moss ball nice and green. The banana plants leaves growing very very slow.

Here are the details:
46 gallon bowfront tank with 36" triple light hood (75W total) 
Lights on 11 hours a day
Established cycled tank since Nov 07 with about 18 community fish
Nitrates around 10-20 with weekly water changes.
No C02 system
I tried some Hagen Plant Gro but not using routinely, 
Total Nitrogen (N): 0.15% - Water Soluble Organic Nitrogen (Cheleated agent)
Iron (Fe): 0.26% - Chelated Iron
Manganese (Mn): 0.05% - Chelated and soluble Manganese
Zinc (Zn): 0.003% - Chelated Zinc
Boron (B): 0.0005%
Copper (Cu): 0.0005% - Chelated Copper
Molybdate (Mo): 0.0007% - Chelated Molybdate

I am using the wrong fertilizer?
Thanks


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Welcome to APC :mrgreen:

The plant grow is a micro nutrient, which is one of the nutrients you need. You also need to add potassium, phosphates & carbon source (Seachem Excel). It seems that you already have enough nitrates, without having to add any extra.

Here is a link you may want to read about plant nutrients... http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_fertilizer_intro.htm

Make sure also that you are using plant bulbs with a K rating of 5500k-10000K. I would also decrease your lighting period from 11 hours to 9-10 hours daily. Using a timer to keep the lights coming on/off at the same time each day is best.


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