Journal: beginner 10g planted tank

[alter40]

I really can't wait for them to come either . Right now I'm battling a little bit of staghorn algae that is growing mostly one one leaf of my java fern but I have changed my dosing of ferts some and mixed up a new batch of CO2 to help get rid of it. I also changed my timers for my lights today so they will come on an hour later and go out and hour earlier so now they are on 10 hours a day instead of the 12. I hope that helps to remove the algae some because it looks ugly lol.

[Kissyboots]

You totally should have put this thread in the Rate My Tank section. It now has over 400 posts dude!!!!!!!

[alter40]

Well I was looking in my tank tonight and noticed something kinda exciting (at least for me). I was looking at my java moss to see how it was doing and to see if it was starting to attach itself to my substrate. While looking at my moss I noticed behind it that there were some nice large roots coming out of my java fern that weren't there before . This is the java fern that is attached to my large piece of driftwood and it looks like the roots are almost down to the substrate so hopefully they attach to the substrate and my driftwood.

Yes yes I know people would probably want pictures so here is a picture of what I'm talking about.



Another side note: I'm still battling what I believe to be staghorn algae on that particular plant and it looks like there might be a little bit on one of my other plants. I manually removed as much as possible last night doing my water change but will probably go back in the tank later this week and try to remove more. I'm dosing 3 days a week with 2ml of the Flourish Excel and spraying it right on the algae to help. I have also been dosing with 1ml of Flourish days a week as well. I still need to get a bottle of the Flourish Nitrogen for this tank. Are there any other ferts that I should get for this tank?

My new setup with the CO2 air tube actually shoved into the filter intake seems to be working great now as well. I can hear the CO2 go through the impeller every few seconds so hopefully the increase CO2 helps the tank as well.

[Lotus]

You might want to add some Flourish Potassium to your list of stuff to buy. It seems to be an overlooked macronutrient, probably because we don't test for it.

[alter40]

Alright I will make sure to add the Flourish Potassium to my list. What about the Flourish Trace or Flourish Iron; are either one of these needed in my tank?

[Lotus]

The trace would be good. And iron, if you don't have it. I'm assuming it's medium to high light you have (I can't scroll through all the posts to check...lol).

[alter40]

Low light 1.5WPG just the 18", 15W bulb but the bulb as upgraded to the Cora-life plant growth bulb but still not really a high light tank.

[d3sc3n7]

Originally Posted by alter40

Low light 1.5WPG just the 18", 15W bulb but the bulb as upgraded to the Cora-life plant growth bulb but still not really a high light tank.

So everything in that room has a dim bulb?

Sorry, couldnt pass it up!

[fearincognito]

can some one help, all this talk about flourish? I have seen it before but all i bought for my planted tank is liquid fertilizer, is this flourish the same? Like a supplement?

[alter40]

Flourish is Seachem's line of fertilizers for planted tanks. They have a variety of different products that add some different elements that are helpful to planted tanks. I'm really not extremely familiar with ferts and dosing with them yet but I'm trying to figure it all out myself.