Planting My Brackish Tank

[BiffMalawi]

Tank - 36"x12"x20"

Lights - 2 Coralife compact flourescents 10000K 84watts total

Filter - Penguin 350 Double Biowheel

Bio Load - 2 3" Figure 8 puffers 2 3" Sailfin Mollies.

Substrate - Pool filter sand

Plants
Hygrophila polysperma (6 stems)
Microsorium Pteropus (1 section with 7 or 8 leaves)
Ceratophyllum Demersum(Hornwort - 7 or 8 stems)
Crypt. lutea (3 plants)
Anubias barteri var. barteri (1 plant 3 or 4 leaves)
Sagittaria (3 plants)
Red tiger loturs (Nymphaea zenkeri - 1 plant)
MICROSORUM PTEROPUS 'WINDELųV' (1 section - 3 or 4" by 3 or 4")
Crypt. lutea (2 more plants)
Vallisneria americana 3 stems
Java Moss

Gardener - clueless.

The tank is fresh water and cycled right now. I am going to plant it this weekend. In a couple of weeks I am going to start the slow transition to brackish about 0.001 a week until I hit 0.005. I forsee no difficulties with the fish or bacteria and I can slow down if necessary to ease the plant's transition.

Do I need to add to the substrate.

Do I have enough light?

Do I need C02? Will excel work.

What about minerals and ferts?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[lljdma06]

Today, I have no math skills what is your tank size in US gallons? I'm guessing at around 40g or so? 10000k is good for growing plants, I myself don't care much for the color, however. Too cold looking. I prefer 6700k which looks better to me, but it's your tank.

There is a link in the Brackish section on plants for the Brackish aquarium. From memory, I'm not seeing a huge problem with the plants on your list, but I'd check to be sure.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=143235

What I do need to know is the precise gallons of your tank. I can't tell if your at 2.0WPG or below, and that will determine whether or not you should add CO2. If you lower your lighting by a bit, say to around 1.4WPG or so, you wouldn't need CO2 at all and you'd be able to grow everything on your list easily. Injecting CO2 tends to drive down pH, and I'm assuming you'd want to keep your pH level at around 7.2 or more. Adding Excel doesn't effect pH levels as the carbon source is different, but what I'm wondering is if that is going to be cost effective for a 40g+ tank? If you lower your lighting a bit, you might be able to save yourself some money and not have to add CO2 in any form. You might be able to grow everything on your list with about 1WPG even.

llj

 

[BiffMalawi]

My tank is 37.5 which puts me at 2.24 watts per gallon.

I have read the sticky you mentioned, in fact that is where I got the plant suggestions. Also in that link it said.

"I will tell you one note though that pertains specifically to brackish aquariums, if you are looking for your plants to rid your brackish tank of algae you will need a source of carbon dioxide (c02) and appropriate lighting to match."

It appears that brackish tanks produce large amounts of algae.

I guess I can't avoid using C02.

Excel costs about $20 including tax for 500ml.

5ml/10g = 20 ml/treatment, 25/bottle $.80/treatment

# treatments per week ?

I do need my Ph to remain near to 8.0 as the puffers do best in hard water. I do have lots of calcium carbonate rocks which have buffering characteristics.

 

[lljdma06]

I wonder how low your pH would go if you did a DIY mix? If it doesn't dip too low, you may be able to get a way with it. You really can't reduce your lighting? Halving it would give you 1.1, which is plenty for what you want to grow, especially for your tank size. Also, try adding Egeria densa to your list. It tolerates Brackish conditions quite well, and it is by far the best of the algae-busting weeds. I would also plant densly from the onset, cover at least 50-75% of the substrate with the "weeds". That may help you quite a bit. I also wouldn't have a long photo period, 8-10 hours at the most.

$20 for Excel! That's aweful. What a rip-off. I pay $8 tops for 500mL.

llj

 

[voo]

I have my fig 8 tank with salinity 1.005 and a few plants. I still have a problem with algae and plants keep dying on me.

One thing to be careful of is that puffers are sensitive to nitrates and i'm not sure about other chemicals. Therefore i'm not sure if it's a good reason to be adding a nutrient rich substrate and fertilizers. I did ask once before in the forum, but it was so long ago i've forgotten what was said. I think they advised against a substrate.

 

[BiffMalawi]

The only changes I made to the set up in my original post are;

Lights - 3 10000k and one actinic(sp)

Substrate - I added 1/2" of flourite under the sand.

Plants - No Java Moss

I planted Saturday Jan 13. I planted everything I got in there and will fine tune the aquascape after everything settles. I have not started to add salt yet.

I added 20ml of excel on the 13th and 5ml again on the 18.

I have not added any ferts yet as I have no idea what to add.

Lights are on approximately 8hrs.

Plants are all showing signs of growth except the crypts which of course have not settled as yet.

No signs of algae yet.

Fish love it.