"Chris Schmelzer" wrote in message
...
I don't like a big fancy testing regime and don't want to buy a lot of
test kits---My newest plant purchase hasn't grown at all!

Ideas? Lack of calcium has been a consideration as the water here is
pretty soft, but there should be plenty of PO4 and Nitrate as there are
a good number of fish in the tank---the substrate is very good Flourite,
what's the deal?!?!


I think the first step to diagnosing this problem should be to start doing
some water testing. You can't assume you have enough of anything when you
have problems this severe. Get the Seachem test kits for NO3 and PO4.
They're about $10 each. NO3 test kits are not very reliable in general, but
they can at least tell you if you have very little NO3 or too much of it.
You have pretty high lighting, and 1-2 ml of PMDD per day sounds like way
too little for your tank. I recommend dosing the traces and macronutrients
separately. You may have to start dosing some PO4, if you're not doing that
already.
__
Alex
pcalex (at) hotpop.com