# How do I figure out what the plants need going yellow !



## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

I just started a planted tank some of the plants are going yellow

I am using soil 
8-10 hrs of light
Flourish excel once a day as per directions 
Lots of fish like 50 + guppy's and tetras

40 gallon tank 

Pics of the tank can be seen in the pics section


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

What kind of lighting do you have?

Are new or old leaves showing the yellowing?


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## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

5000k 2x 13w home light bulbs


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

not enough light. 5000K 13w is pretty low for 40 gallon. I would add 3X 23w/26w CFL lights.


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## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

Best I can do is 23wx2


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

As GAT mentioned, you have low light.

Adding two 23W bulbs would be a little better, but it all depends on what kind of plants you are trying to grow ultimately.

The yellowing could be due to low light, or just nutrient deficiencies (you never mentioned any water parameters); however, without additional information, it is just speculation on my part (could be nutrients, could be lighting, etc)


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## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

Oh I do daily sera drops as well most likely it the lighting then ill give the 23ws a try for a couple days and see thanks for the help guys


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## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

Does the color of light matter I read it doesn't but just want to double check


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## GAT (Oct 8, 2011)

at least for CFL it doesn't matter. There is a post in plantedtank.net where they show that PAR doesn't change even if you change the color spectrum. 

I don't like yellow color show i choose mine to be cool white or something similar.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Are you asking about light colour or colour temperature ? Colour might make a difference, depends what you tried, but colour temperature is extremely important. Not all flourescent bulbs will be labeled with their temperature, or K value. K stands for Kelvin and colour temperature is measured in Kelvin degrees. True daylight, or sunlight, is made up of all the colours but it's intensity is much greater than most artificial bulbs can produce. Daylight type bulbs are an attempt to match sunlight by the bulb makers.

You have probably seen numbers like 6500 or 6700 referring to light ? Those are Kelvin numbers and refer to the colour temperature, in this case, that produced by flourescent bulbs. The most common flourescent bulbs are Cool White, both tubes and spirals. They are nowhere near 6500 K, they're much lower than that, I think around 3500, though I am not positive and it varies with each manufacturer. Even some plant specific grow bulbs are a lot lower than 6500 K.. and thus not worth the money.

For now, I use 23 W compact spiral bulbs, but I use the ones Phillips makes that are labeled Daylight 6500 K. The number is often only on the base of the bulb itself, though it may be on the package. If no number is listed, don't buy the bulb !

These 6500 K Daylight types produce much more of the kind of light your plants can use than Cool White or Warm White or other types of bulbs do. Lighting plants in water is also different from lighting them in air.. I have an indoor light garden and it used to work fairly well with Cool Whites.. but they were also within inches of the plants, which is something you can't do with an aquarium light. 

Two of them is still not really enough for a 40 G tank but you will get better results using them than any other spiral type you can get.

I saw a startling difference in my plants when I switched to these Daylight bulbs. Home Depot carries them, but it's the only store I've seen them in as yet. Canadian Tire does not appear to carry any bulbs like these. Lowes might have them, I just haven't checked.


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## hiroku (Nov 7, 2012)

perfect that's exactly what I needed to know thanks cause my canopy uses light bulb and i don't have money to upgrade yet but I don't want the plants to die I'll give those bulbs a try and see if it helps


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Good luck. Just try not to get any plants that need high or medium light until you can upgrade the lighting. Stick to low light plants for now. There are plenty of them and they should do well with daylight spirals.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Some plants such as vals do not do well with excel. All of my vals are sad looking even weeks after using excel.

I only use excel for hair algae problems and do Co2 with DIY


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

How much excel did you use ? My vals don't seem to mind it, though I don't use it for dipping. Did that once, used too much and melted a bunch of ferns. But at the dosage called for in my tank, I've had no problems with vals melting.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Double dose for removing hair algae, the vals are slowly recovering, I think they want some ferts to come back all the way.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

In future, I'd just remove any vals or java type ferns before using extra excel to treat algae.. they are certainly sensitive to it in more than the recommended dosage, but do not seem to mind it at the recommended or lower dosages.


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