2nd Attempt

[Darkerwhite2]

So this is my 2nd attempt at a fully planted tank, my first one was met with great failure. my first tank was the same as the tank im using now and was planted with combomas. they did no last longat all. Now it is my second attemptwith this tank and here it is.

Tank size: 15 gal
Lighting: 15 watt flourestent
Plants: Hygrophilia polysperm, Hygrophilia comybosa (sp?), Anuibias, Valli spirals, crypocryne something (sp again?)
Substrate: gravel
Ferts: Flourish excel, Flourish (every other day one ml)
Fish: 4 white cloud minnows, anout 8 1/4 inch platy fry 3 algae eating shrimp

Hope to get pic up soon but looking for some feed back from you experts, and there is no co2 injection i want to try to stay away from that as much as possible, there has been very little algae on the glass and i have seen tremendous growth in both the hygr. polysperm and the spirals.

thanks let me know what you think

 

[cleekdaFish]

I think u r putting too much flourish for a low tech planted tank, I also use flourish for my java ferns , java moss, crpt wendetii bronze , lutea , but only twice a week , i think ur putting for times in a week too much. My plants are doing fine and surprisingly growing pretty fast w/out c02 and adding too much flourish

 

[Darkerwhite2]

ok ill cut it down to a couple times a week? i have acually only added it twice since ive gotten the ferts. thank you for you advice it'll prob help me alot

 

[karuna]

Seachem's suggested dosing charts are here.

Click on the dose charts on this page


EDIT: Shame the manufacturer's suggested charts are so cryptic though, they don't really give a good idea of what tank spec's would go with this dosing regime.

 

[Darkerwhite2]

ok cool thank you

 

[karuna]

No probs.

Edited the last post a couple of times while you were probably reading it though so you might want to check again. Sorry for the inconvenience and good luck with the planted tank.

 

[Darkerwhite2]

Its ok i got the drift im now only adding twice a week

 

[n3ont3tra]

I suggest posting pictures. It sounds like it'll be a good tank But do you have room for the platies when they grow up?

 

[fish_master]

I think that u might need abit more light u will only have
1Wpg (watt per gallon)

 

[Darkerwhite2]

I suggest posting pictures. It sounds like it'll be a good tank But do you have room for the platies when they grow up?

no i dont they will out grow the tank full grown so i will move most of them to my 75 gal or another tank if i have one then, this is just a grow tank for them

I think that u might need abit more light u will only have
1Wpg (watt per gallon)

yes i know but its what i have and thats why i chose plants that require less light or dont require lots, but mabey my research was incorrect (as the book was pretty old) please let me know what you think

 

[Darkerwhite2]

bump

 

[Underwurlde]

So your set up is exactly the same as before?
If not, what have you learnt & therefore altered to make your new setup a possible success?

I would at the very least add another 15W light. 2W/G absolute minimum for plants.

By adding ferts as you do then I think you may just end up with a BGA factory (just like my tank). I simply would not add ferts to a low tech tank at all. Consider instead root tabs or infinately better a more suitable substrate?

IMHO low tech tanks are more difficult than their CO2 brothers.

Andy

 

[Darkerwhite2]

What i have learned is that the plants i chose on my first attmept required more light the plants this time around were chosen more carefully and with more research

 

[Darkerwhite2]

Got the pictures...

...

...

dont know y the last one got cut off like that

 

[George Farmer]

You need more plants! Take a look at Dave Spencer's recent thread for an idea.

Also my daughter's tank - http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=166949&hl=