Welcome to the Aquatic Plants section!
- Thread starter arcab4
- Start date
that's a great idea. and this is the longest plant board message i've seen. and we're not even talking about a specific plant related topic. hahaha. that's awesome! chris, i got your email. sure! i'll go ahead and put up that profile. Do you know where I can find a picture of the item? I'll do a search for it tonight.
P
ok....you guys asked for it. I need some help.
this is my setup. I finally got my tank setup up for plants today, just a few hours ago.
the only plants i have are (or should i say plant)is dwarf sagitarius. My tank is a 55g that i have had set up for several months with fish in it already. I constructed my own conapy with 4-40w bulbs-160w total. that gives me 2.9w/gallon. this should be perfect for a planted tank. I also opted to go with kitty litter. I read a post that 'special kitty' had a really high level of iron in it. I now have a 1" layer under my gravel of kitty litter. I also contructed a DIY CO2 with the standard 2 ltr bottle.
( I set up a 5.5 gallon tank to test everything before i decided to convert my 55 gallon to a planted tank)
My question is: should i buy fert. and if so what kind or am i even going to need it at all? the plants in the 5.5 gallon are doing great but their growth is not as fast as i think it should be or at least not as much as I want it to be.
what suggestions do you guys have for me at this stage of the tank.
this is my setup. I finally got my tank setup up for plants today, just a few hours ago.
the only plants i have are (or should i say plant)is dwarf sagitarius. My tank is a 55g that i have had set up for several months with fish in it already. I constructed my own conapy with 4-40w bulbs-160w total. that gives me 2.9w/gallon. this should be perfect for a planted tank. I also opted to go with kitty litter. I read a post that 'special kitty' had a really high level of iron in it. I now have a 1" layer under my gravel of kitty litter. I also contructed a DIY CO2 with the standard 2 ltr bottle.
( I set up a 5.5 gallon tank to test everything before i decided to convert my 55 gallon to a planted tank)
My question is: should i buy fert. and if so what kind or am i even going to need it at all? the plants in the 5.5 gallon are doing great but their growth is not as fast as i think it should be or at least not as much as I want it to be.
what suggestions do you guys have for me at this stage of the tank.
hehe.. i feel honored to reply to the first REAL plant tank question...
PJ: yes.. you still need fertilizers... Even though the kitty litter may contain iron, it won't contain the trace elements needed for healthy plant growth.
I would suggest a balanced liquid fert. like Tropica Master Grow, or Seachem flourish, or Kent Freshwater Plants in conjunction with Kent Pro-plant.
I like the Kent products cuz when my nitrates are low, I just add a little bit of the pro-plant to up the nitrates.. whereas the other two products do not contain nitrates in them. However, you can also go with one of the other two products and purchase some potassium nitrate powder at a hydroponics shop... then dose the potassium nitrate whenever your plants need more. Keep in mind that you may not even need the extra nitrates.. it really depends on how heavily you planted your tank, with which plants, and the fish load.
In addition, some root tabs here and there wouldn't hurt.
BTW: thanx Johnny.. =)
PJ: yes.. you still need fertilizers... Even though the kitty litter may contain iron, it won't contain the trace elements needed for healthy plant growth.
I would suggest a balanced liquid fert. like Tropica Master Grow, or Seachem flourish, or Kent Freshwater Plants in conjunction with Kent Pro-plant.
I like the Kent products cuz when my nitrates are low, I just add a little bit of the pro-plant to up the nitrates.. whereas the other two products do not contain nitrates in them. However, you can also go with one of the other two products and purchase some potassium nitrate powder at a hydroponics shop... then dose the potassium nitrate whenever your plants need more. Keep in mind that you may not even need the extra nitrates.. it really depends on how heavily you planted your tank, with which plants, and the fish load.
In addition, some root tabs here and there wouldn't hurt.
BTW: thanx Johnny.. =)
PJ... I just saw some of the pics of your tank... and I didn't realize that that's all the dwarf sag you've got.. So I think I should change my recommendation...
I would think it is safer to use just the substrate fert (root tabs) for now... until you get more plants filled in. Otherwise, there would be a HUGE algae outbreak cuz that little patch of dwarf sag won't cut it.
Also, when starting a plant tank, it is a REALLY good idea to first plant heavily with fast growing plants like the hygro. species (hygro difformis, and hygro polysperma). This way, it gives your plant a nice head start on the algae. I have a 6 gallon where it was a late conversion from a lightly planted to a heavily planted. So far, i'm not having much luck with the algae battles even though I've got both hygro polysperma and hygro difformis in there.
I would think it is safer to use just the substrate fert (root tabs) for now... until you get more plants filled in. Otherwise, there would be a HUGE algae outbreak cuz that little patch of dwarf sag won't cut it.
Also, when starting a plant tank, it is a REALLY good idea to first plant heavily with fast growing plants like the hygro. species (hygro difformis, and hygro polysperma). This way, it gives your plant a nice head start on the algae. I have a 6 gallon where it was a late conversion from a lightly planted to a heavily planted. So far, i'm not having much luck with the algae battles even though I've got both hygro polysperma and hygro difformis in there.
hey..just felt like i had to join in and add my reply. This might be the first time ever that a messageboard only has one topic (especially a plant topic)..a very long one i might add. =D
anyways..just wanted to say thanks to you two for participating. keep it up! in the meantime, i'll try to get more people to join in and visit this site. dont' give up hope !
anyways..just wanted to say thanks to you two for participating. keep it up! in the meantime, i'll try to get more people to join in and visit this site. dont' give up hope !
P
opps...didn't mean to repost it...guess i will edit it.
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SegaDojo----I have know idea what the 'paddle leaf plant is actually called....I really dont count it because it has done so poorly. I hope the knew lights(used to have only 2-15w bulbs until today) will really help out along with substrate. we will see.
I originally bought two dwarfs and the 'paddle leaf'. i moved one dwarf two the 5.5 gallon. and kept one in the 55g(on the left side of my 55g tank on my web site). but I have been fighting some kind of algea graoth on them....dark stuff and don't know why its there. the plants have never really grown much at all in the 55g. I contribute this to low light(standard tank lights that came with tank).any ideas on this ?
Also---how often would you suggest that i vaccum the gravel if at all? I used to do it once a week but lately i have read that plants use the stuff that falls to the bottom of the tank.
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SegaDojo----I have know idea what the 'paddle leaf plant is actually called....I really dont count it because it has done so poorly. I hope the knew lights(used to have only 2-15w bulbs until today) will really help out along with substrate. we will see.
I originally bought two dwarfs and the 'paddle leaf'. i moved one dwarf two the 5.5 gallon. and kept one in the 55g(on the left side of my 55g tank on my web site). but I have been fighting some kind of algea graoth on them....dark stuff and don't know why its there. the plants have never really grown much at all in the 55g. I contribute this to low light(standard tank lights that came with tank).any ideas on this ?
Also---how often would you suggest that i vaccum the gravel if at all? I used to do it once a week but lately i have read that plants use the stuff that falls to the bottom of the tank.
PJ.. with respects to your algae growth on the "dwarf"... there could be many reasons why this is so.. one of them would be low light, so low that your plant isn't photosynthesising.. This lighting level would depend on which plants, and I don't know what the lower limit is for the "dwarf".
another factor could be high phosphates.. which almost always lead to algae growth.
If its black brush algae, or black hair algae, a true SAE would do the trick.
Johnny: The main reason why I keep coming back to this site is cuz of the tidy layout.. everything loads really quick, and the colours are all easy to the eyes. I'm sure in no time, you'll have lots of traffic.. =)
oh.. and one last thing... Why does it say "first fish" on the side?
another factor could be high phosphates.. which almost always lead to algae growth.
If its black brush algae, or black hair algae, a true SAE would do the trick.
Johnny: The main reason why I keep coming back to this site is cuz of the tidy layout.. everything loads really quick, and the colours are all easy to the eyes. I'm sure in no time, you'll have lots of traffic.. =)
oh.. and one last thing... Why does it say "first fish" on the side?
i'll answer that question. hehe. i was bored at work. and u guess it right. segadojo was the first to post. and you were the 2nd. if you don't like it, i can remove it or rename it to something else! hehe. but there are other members but they're not posting.
thanks for the compliment chris. i really appreciate it. I'll be adding a profile for that product you wanted along with maybe one or two more fish profiles that people have requested. checked my stats today, the amount of visitors are increasing everyday. I hope once my url is added to the search engines, it'll increase faster. but as of now, it's just word of mouth,email,forumlinking etc.
thanks for the compliment chris. i really appreciate it. I'll be adding a profile for that product you wanted along with maybe one or two more fish profiles that people have requested. checked my stats today, the amount of visitors are increasing everyday. I hope once my url is added to the search engines, it'll increase faster. but as of now, it's just word of mouth,email,forumlinking etc.