FishChannel Forums / Freshwater Forums / Plant Particulars

C02 system lights fert the whole shabang

ogum — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:26:39 GMT

Hey everyone,

So I'm getting more and more into plants, and would like to make a plant, shrimp tank (20G). unfortunately I only have 30 watts for this tank, non-special gravel, no C02. I do have some liquid fert that I will use.

Just out of curiosity, how well is my tank set up to create this plant, shrimp tank, and how much do CO2 systems cost? (I know it depends), but on a suitable system.

Thanks

Bannana Plant

FastFoward5k — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:25:37 GMT

I just got one of these today from my LFS and it is really cool. I am probably going to go back tomorrow to get another. I was just wandering if they can move themselves, becuase mine seems to drift around the tank and cling on rocks and the powerhead? And do they require any special care?

Java Fern

FattFishy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:43:26 GMT

Will Java Fern do well/okay in a brackish aquarium?

pH: 7.8

Amount of salt: 1 tbs per 5 gallons

The tank is obviously already established with low light, and 20 ppm of nitrate.

nitrite, ammonia: 0 ppm

I have livebearers (mollies, guppies, platies), cherry barbs, a ghost shrimp, and an oto. Of course the oto won't eat it... just wondering if it'll do well. Java Moss doesn't really look too great.

AH PLEASE HELP

FattFishy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:38:27 GMT

Ok. So I have about 4 of these umbrella plants but guess what? they're not true aquatic plants. PetSmart ripped me off again.

I've bought these before cause they looked nice, so I put it in my 10 gallon and all but one died. I thought it was the salt (I have a light brackish aquarium)... so maybe bigger adults would do better. I got bigger ones, transferred everything to my 28 gallon bowfront. So far they're doing well, so I thought it was luck/adult plant forgivingness. But now I've found out they're not aquatic plants.

What do I do? I have these plants but I don't want them to rot away in my tank.

Fake Aquarium plants Costly?

SCOOTERc268 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:29:15 GMT

Ever checked the prices on "Fake" plants at a petstore? Some prices could be $10.00 for 1-3 medium size plants.

Idea came from my mother, who at one time ran the Pet Department at Woolworth back when I was a kid. She used fake plants from the Floral Dept., at WalMart.

I purchased a 55gal tanks worth of Fake Plants from the Floral Section for about $20.00. I rinsed them in a salted water and placed them through out the tank. The only down fall, you have to secure them good or they'll float away.

My tank is clear and the fish love it. (See Scooter's 55gal). The best part, if the "plants" get too much algae or fray, I will go buy more to replace b/c it doesn't cost that much.

So if you are wanting that "real" planted tank look, try some of the "fake" plants in the Floral dept at your Hobby/Craft store.

Best method for increasing CO2 in alkaline hard water ?

stvnw — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:33:03 GMT

I currently have Red Sea Turbo CO2 Bio system. But with my KH at 6 and a PH of 8 according to my CO2 calculation table, my CO2 value is 1,8 and not in the recommended range. I am wondering if adding Seachem Acid Buffer would be a good idea as this would lower PH and increase CO2?

Bite the bullet and replant?

jmondanaro — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:09:02 GMT

So over the past 10 months my first fishtank has really settled in nicely. The water is crystal clear all the time and the plants seem to be doing well. It is a far cry from the winter when I was constantly struggling with murky green water and losing plants quite regularly. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of the "killing every plant I tried" period is I stopped paying attention to what I was planting where and worried more about just trying to get stuff to grow. So now that my tank is healthy and growing, I have a whole bunch of Amazon Swords up against the front of the glass with micro swords, jungle grass and another unamed small and short plant in the back corners. Basically my 29gallon tank is backwards! Soon I'll be looking and a wall of sword leaves and my fish will be happily hidden behind them. Its also about time to re-fertilize my substrate. So I am beginning to think I should bit the bullet and re-do the tank to get the plants sorted out by size from back to front as is proper. I'm a little nervous about ruining my tank that has finally become problem free in the past few weeks. But at the same time, I have a feeling that re-planting is probably the right thing to do. Would you all agree, and do you have any recomendations on how to manage such a process?

Thanks,

Melon sword losing top leaves

princessotfu — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:05:20 GMT

My ten gallon planted has been growing crazily lately, everything is very green, very lush, and very healthy. My only question is that my melon sword, front and center has been trying to outgrow the tank, sending out very, very long leaves every so often. The very long ones tend to stick out of the water and rot away pretty quickly. The other leaves are red or green and very healthy, not a single sign of deficiency. Should I be changing anything? (other than the size of the tank, obviously)

snails

bettasrcool — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:50:54 GMT

My local Petsmart sells what are called 'gold mystery snails' and I wanted to ask if these are safe to have with live plants or will they eat them? Thank you.

20 gallon planted tank with CO2

David Lass — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:37:44 GMT

This is sort of an "interim" report on the test 20 gallon high where I am using the Red Sea CO2 system, and their substrate. I set the tank up in early February, following the Red Sea instructions, and starting out with as many fast-growing plants as I thought would fit in the tank. I used ½ water from an existing tank, some driftwood and rocks that had been in other tanks, and a small Hi-Q Eco Filter with two cartridges from an existing tank, so I had “instant cycling”, and the tank has never had any ammonia or nitrite after the first two or three days.

I added a fair number of fish, as I am a great believer that the best plant fertilizer in an aquarium comes from the fish – besides, I like a fish tank with plants, not a planted tank with a few cardinal tetras, otocinclus, and algae eating shrimp. The Amano planted tanks are gorgeous, but just not my cup of tea. Over the next six weeks as the plants grew I trimmed them, and added a few new ones.

The plants in the tank are:

· Amazon swordplant – sent out a runner and flowers after two weeks

· The new hygro that has thin brown leaves, and grows like a weed

· Red ludwigia

· Rotal indica

· Crypt. Balansae and wendtii

Micranthemum umbrosum

· Foxtail

· Christmas Tree Moss on driftwood

· Two types of Java Fern – regular and thin-leafed

The fish in the tank are (I know this is crowding the tank, but I do know what I’m doing, and I like to have a lot of fish in a tank:

· 8 large neons

· 5 sunburst wag platies

· 8 bleeding heart tetras

· 3 Siamese algae eaters

· 4 corydoras schwartzi

· 4 (2 pairs) of Apistogramma cacatuoides

· 2 bamboo shrimp

The only problem that I had with the tank was that the water turned green after two weeks or so. I raised the Hagen lighting fixture all the way up on the nice little mounting legs that they give you for just that purpose, and I ran a 7 watt UV unit on the tank for three or four days until the water cleared. After that I have not had any problems with the tank. This photo is of the tank today.

I'm really pleased with how it is doing. What do you think?

Plant fertilizer

felixpaws — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:57:36 GMT

Has anybody tried Big Al's online's brand fertilizer, and did you use any other fertilizers in addition to it(such as trace elements)?

Great Aquascaping Book

MtnFishBoy — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:35:48 GMT

There is a book by Peter Hiscock called Aquarium Designs Inspired by Nature. It gives detailed descriptions of various biotope aquariums, ranging from a mangrove swamp to European Lake. I think that it is a great book for beginners who want to design a beautiful natural aquarium.

black algae on plants

staffordmom — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:52:04 GMT

I seem to have no luck with live plants. My fish are doing beautifully, but the 2 new Anubias plants I bought have black algae growing on them. The Java Moss seems to be the only plant that does well.

staffordmom

New light fixture??

Maraqua — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:27:38 GMT

I just bought this light and all it says is that it's 15 Watts and it's twin tubed. At anyrate doesn't give k reading or anything, it has a purplish hue to it which makes my tank look really cool Just wondering as far as plants are concerned.

Seachem's Flourite substraights?

Tanganyikan_2_NorthAmerican — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:06:44 GMT

I was reading about the Flourite substraights, but don't have enough info on them. I know it is ideal for planted aquariums, but if you use the gravel, can you place natural sand over the top? and if you use the sand, is it really fine sand or is it more like gravel??

I was thinking of either using this or doing the top soil first, then a layer of sand ontop of that. which way is better?

less costly lighting?

Acco — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:57:36 GMT

I found a great deal on a 55 gallon with stand, so I bought it. it came with hood that can take a single flourescent light bulb. I plan to make it a planted tank, but my plant experience is limited so far... I converted my 10 and 20 gallon tanks to low-light planted tanks, with just java ferns and anubias that are planted on driftwood or straight in the ordinary gravel. I want this 55 to be able to support higher light requirement plants.

I read somewhere that it might be possible to buy a light at a hardware store (perhaps the kind people use to grow plants indoors?) and that this is much cheaper than buying a light fixture from a pet supply catalogue or whatever. Is this true? Has anyone done this?

Also, if anyone has any links to good online articles or websites about setting this all up, it would be much appreciated I'm still in the learn-all-i-can phase before I actually begin.

Thanks

When do I start using Co2 and Ferts

Maraqua — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:57:14 GMT

I don't have a ton of plants yet. I do plan on getting 12 more ropes of elodea a few java ferns java moss and maybe an anubia. I'm just confused on when to start co2 and when or if ferts are needed if at all. Are there noticeable signs to look out for? I just want to make sure I don't cause problems or hurt my fish by adding it too early or not early enough

Dust?

Napalm — Wed, 28 May 2008 10:44:42 GMT

I have a few plants and they all seem healthy except for the fact that there is a layer of dust on the leaves. I brush it off and rinse them in fresh water but the dust just manages to reappear. Does anyone know what it is or how to get rid of it?

Betta Bulbs?

midnighter — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:18:20 GMT

I'm new to fishkeeping. I just got a male Betta fish. I have had him for a little over a week. He is in a 2.5gallon tank with a rock decoration, a fake plant, and rock gravel in the bottom. I also have a desk lamp set up near the tank to give him a bit of extra light (my bedroom tends to get a bit dim sometimes) and he really seems to enjoy the extra light when I turn it on for a few hours in the evening, he is much more active when it is on.

anyway, I went to Petco yesterday and bought a package of the Betta Bulbs so that I can have some live plants for him instead of the fake one.

but I am wondering about how to go about planting it. All it says on the package is "Live Plants For Your Betta Bowl" and on the back it says that it guarantees that "All plant bulbs to grow within 30 days" and if it doesn't then I can send it to them and get my money back. But there's no instructions as to how to plant it. so I'm a bit confused.

do I just stick the bulb in the gravel of the tank with my fish? or do I need to do something else like start it in a different container or something?

also, should I just use 1 bulb for now (the package contains 3 bulbs) and save the other 2 for later, like when the first one dies or something? I don't want the plants to overrun the tank and leave little space for Ferdinand to swim around in...

any comments/tips/suggestions/help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

plant suggestions for low light set up

rtague — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:28:22 GMT

Hi guys, any suggestions for low light plants(1-2wpg) for 30 gallon set up?

no co2

Lighting Question

rtague — Sat, 24 May 2008 06:53:15 GMT

Hi Guys,
I'm in the process of setting up my first planted tank. It seems that are setups for low light and high light plants. The light fixture that I have is a Nova Extreme T5HO with one 54 watt 10,000K bulb and one 54 watt fresh water bulb - giving me a total of 108 watts. What category does this lighting fall into, High or Low light?

Another Question:
How does watts per gallon effect plant growth. I was hoping to grow plants like Valisneria, java moss, cabomba, sagattaria, micro sword, etc. Will the light fixture I have be enought to grow these plants.

Thanks in advance,

Dosing

bettasrcool — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:59:59 GMT

For liquid fertilizers, do you need to put some into the tank each week even if you didn't change some of the water? In other words does the fertilizer stay in the water or do the plants use it up completely so you need to always add more?

I know nothing about plants

kommander15 — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:52:20 GMT

I know nothing about live plants and kind of wanted to start a planted setup something i have no idea about. Any help is accepted!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR ANY INSIGHT U CAN GIVE ON THIS SUBJECT

Algae??

Maraqua — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:01:09 GMT

Due to the CF I upgraded to which I mentioned in my other post I now have algae on the substrate. The substrate is really pretty, its medium sized white rocks, so obviously not so pretty anymore Most of it is olive greenish/brown but there are 2 or 3 spots that are bright food color green And a few spots that are turquoise the colorful ones though are very small. Actually I wish all the algae was that colorful as it would actually be pretty. At anyrate what are these bright colors about?? And is the olive green algae diatoms?? And anything I can do to lessen it beside scrubbing all the rocks with a toothbrush??

plants turned brown

staffordmom — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:41:42 GMT

Hi,

I got 3 plants when I set up my tank about a month and a half ago, a Java Moss, a Java Fern and an Anubias. The Java Fern & Anubias turned brown which I read somewhere was from too much iron. I have a single daylight bulb which the guy at the lfs sold me. I was going to forget live plants and just go with plastic, until I heard Davis Lass say he's a firm believer that fish do best with live plants. So, I guess I'll give live plants 1 more try before I go to plastic. I was using Flourish which the guy at the lfs sold me. This time I think I'll try without adding anything. Any ideas on why plants would turn brown?

staffordmom

green hairy goo

uncleroman — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:45:46 GMT

what kind of gunk is this it has exploded and has taken over my tank i have been doing 10 gallon water changes about every 3 days and trying to pull it out by hand but have had no effect also have not used liquid fert just soil conditioning tabs i am trying to attach a couple of photos i hope it works

getting rid of hair algae

TetraCraze12 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:40:47 GMT

I recently had hair algae growing on the edges of my live plant. Does anyone know a way to remove it that won't hurt the plant?

Plants that do good in low lighting

JustKeepSwimming — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:03:33 GMT

Hey

I am looking for some pond & aquarium plants that do good in medium to low lighting.

The pond water would be around 60-70 Degrees F

and the Aquariums about 75-80 Degrees F

Any sugggustions?

thanks

Elodea najas propegating???

Maraqua — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:16:10 GMT

Okay so I got the elodea and it's doing great it had already had some off shoots that have leaves and they're growing longer. Question is there are 3 very strange offshoots that are leafless they look like a long thin string that shoots straight down??? It's very odd...what is that???

Anubias vegitative propagation?

Darth Scohin — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:41:50 GMT

I have an Anubias plant in my 20 gal. and found out that I can get it to vegitativly propogate (exm.strawberry plants) but was wondering how to do it.

BTW: it grows very well and there is only one of them. Also, I have five white ribbon plants...plus fake plants

Good lighting???

Maraqua — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:55:32 GMT

I just switched out one of my 25 watt incandescent bulbs with a compact fluorescent bulb. It only uses 13 watts of power but replaces a 60 w bulb it also says it outputs 900 lumens and 2700 k. So I now have this CF and 1 25 w incandescent how many wpg is this? Also since it's not geared toward plants, is it just usless light. Or because it is so bright the plants will still use it efficiently?

example of bulb:

lunar lights for planted tanks

filipem — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:21:06 GMT

I recently upgraded my lighting to power compacts. I have lunar lights on the unit and I was wondering what effects (if any) these lights have on freshwater plants.

I bought the unit for a great price but the LED lights don't work. I would like to fix them and use them, if it's worth the hassle.

Anacharis vs Elodia/najas

Maraqua — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:54:13 GMT

Okay so I called my lfs to see if they had anacharis which is supposed to be super easy low light etc and a great oxygenater. Of course it is now deemed illegal in the state of Oregon . He did say the alternative that they are selling now is Elodia aka egeria najas. From pictures they look the same except the naja's leaves are thinner. Where as the Anacharis is real stocky and thick.

I also read though that the najas is medium-high light and is moderately difficult. I want it for my tank that has no hood light yet, but in the future it will have double fluorescent t-5 lighting. For now I could house it in my 10 gal that has 1.5 wpg of light. Any ideas on how easy to keep alive would be cool thank you

Photo's below courtesy of plantgeek.net (I inserted pictures using URL address. If this is breaking a rule go ahead and edit as links or ask me to and I'll do it).

Below is "Anacharis" Egeria Densa:

And Below is "Elodia" Egeria Najas:

Water Lily

Finny — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:03:33 GMT

I just bought a water lily and it is doing great. I have 1 question though. When my lily reaches the top, will it be dried out by my 50watt heat lamp bulb? I will mist it daily so it stays moist but I need to know how often or if at all. Any help is appriciated!!!

Planted tank no Livestock

Maraqua — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:10:25 GMT

Hello I was just wondering what may be different in a planted only aquarium. How would you "feed" the plants would you have to do all of the fertz and Co2 even for the simplest plants for example java fern. And my 2nd big question is do you still use dechlorinator??

Ground Cover Plant

jenb — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 06:30:34 GMT

Hello, I was wondering if there was a good ground cover plant or grass that you could recommend for a tank bottom that is only gravel? I wonder if there is such a plant that will spread without a substrate? Or would it be your suggestion to switch my tank bottom before going with a ground plant?

I was also considering getting a few shrimp or a blue lobster and the gravel I have now probably wouldn't be small enough for them to borrow. I was worried though that they would destroy plants on the bottom.

Also, I have always been curious about something and this is probably a silly question, but...

how the heck do you clean the bottom of the tank when you have ground cover plants? I use the siphon method currently, and I just can't see how that would work.

Thank you!

Lighting for tiny tank?

Maraqua — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:23:08 GMT

Hello,

My friend is giving up fish keeping, and is getting some hermit crabs instead. He had too much problems with water parameters and such and it became too time consuming. At anyrate he is giving me his 2.5 gallon tank and I want to make it into a shrimp garden tank. I found this lamp pictured below and it's 11 watts fluorescent lighting. I may be wrong but wouldn't that equal to 4.4 watts per gallon and in that case would it be high lighting? What are good plants for such a small tank? I of course will be getting java moss for this tank but any other ideas?

Also the reason I'm getting a desk lamp is the tank doesn't have a hood, what would be a good substitute? I was thinking a nylon screen, also for filtration I would get a sponge filter powered by an air pump would that be enough. (I know this part isn't about plants but any ideas would be helpful ty )

Amazon plants

fishtk75 — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:33:08 GMT

Can some tell me what is the brown spots on amazon plants?
I saw some where about them but can not find it that need a food type more of.

beware houseplants sold as aquatic plants

Mindnova — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:35:35 GMT

The first one was called "Florida Beauty" I tracked it down to actually be Gold Dust Dracaena, a houseplant with average water needs.

The second one was called "Chicken Gizzard" and is another houseplant "Iresine herbstii 'Aureoreticulata'" with directions do not over water.

The third was called "red hedge" and is another houseplant "Alternanthera ficoidea" which is in plantgeek.net indicating it has been sold as aquatic and will die and foul your tanks.

The salesman was selling them at a deep discount because he was not to sure about them so I decided to risk it without researching.

Well I now have 3 new houseplants and petsmart said they would discount something else when I can get back (closest fish store I have is 55 miles away).

This post was lost when th forums went down, so I just wanted to give a heads up on these plants.

baby tears vs micro swords

Tanganyikan_2_NorthAmerican — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:53:34 GMT

I was shot down on my idea of microswords.. people at my LFS said that I shouldn't do them because they will die without C02, so I was wondering if anyone has kept either species and can tell me anything about requirements (watts per gallon, type of light to use, suppliments to use, etc) I know that babytears grow rampent in the SE US, that is another reason why I am now trying to get info there.