A Little Help Here?
- Thread starter DiddleBug
- Start date
three-fingers
Fish Connoisseur
Sounds like a good start to a planted tank, some nice hardy plants there. API Leaf Zone is OK, it's not really comprehensive when it comes to ingredients, its a weak trace element mix basically.
Start with the absolute minimum hours of light and work your way up. For example, 5 hours a day would be fine and would help to stop algae, but it can be annoying having your tank in the dark when you want to appreciate it!
For anymore specific advice, we will need to know what size of tank you have (dimensions not volume) and how much light you have (what type of lighting and total wattage).
Another good tip for a planted tank is to have at least 10x the tanks volume of flow per hour. So a 5 gallon tank should have a flow of 50gph, this can be achieved through the use of one or more pumps.
To sum it up, if your lighting is low enough (contrary to popular belief, its easier to grow most aquatic plants at lower lighting levels), and you have enough flow, your already sorted!
You might need to add another pump for flow, or reduce your lighting levels, but this depends on your tank!
Start with the absolute minimum hours of light and work your way up. For example, 5 hours a day would be fine and would help to stop algae, but it can be annoying having your tank in the dark when you want to appreciate it!
For anymore specific advice, we will need to know what size of tank you have (dimensions not volume) and how much light you have (what type of lighting and total wattage).
Another good tip for a planted tank is to have at least 10x the tanks volume of flow per hour. So a 5 gallon tank should have a flow of 50gph, this can be achieved through the use of one or more pumps.
To sum it up, if your lighting is low enough (contrary to popular belief, its easier to grow most aquatic plants at lower lighting levels), and you have enough flow, your already sorted!
You might need to add another pump for flow, or reduce your lighting levels, but this depends on your tank!
It's 20"x 12.5"x10.5". I have an aqueon power filter that I believe is 100gph. The lighting is LED lights. 2 of them, probably 2" in length. I couldn't find any info on them. 
When I run out of API Leaf Zone, what would you recommend?
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it!
When I run out of API Leaf Zone, what would you recommend?
Thanks so much for the help! I really appreciate it!
three-fingers
Fish Connoisseur
Could you take a picture of the LEDs? Pics of any stickers with info on them would be good too. Did they come with the tank? Whats the tank model?
Unless your LED lights were very pricy, I'm going to guess they probably wont be good at growing plants, no matter how bright they look. Most cheap LEDs put out loads of lumens (what our eyes can see) but very little in the way of PAR (photosynthetically active radiation - light plants can use). I hope this is not the case though, pics will tell!
Your tank is just over 11g and your filter is rated at 100gph, but this 100gph rating is from the manufacturer without any media in the filter and assuming its clean and working at 100%efficency. Also, since it's just one filter outlet, there will possibly be "dead spots" in the tank with little or no flow. These "dead spots" are where algae will take hold first and plants in these areas will struggle compared to plants with good flow around them. So personally, for a planted tank, I would be adding another small pump just to be safe
.
I would always recommend just buying a "trace mix" in dry powder form and using that. You could either make your own liquid fertiliser using it in your old Leaf Zone bottle or just dose the dry powder into the tank. This would save you loooads of money over time.
Otherwise, since your in the states and Tropica plant fertilisers are often hard to come by, I highly recommend Seachem Flourish.
Unless your LED lights were very pricy, I'm going to guess they probably wont be good at growing plants, no matter how bright they look. Most cheap LEDs put out loads of lumens (what our eyes can see) but very little in the way of PAR (photosynthetically active radiation - light plants can use). I hope this is not the case though, pics will tell!
Your tank is just over 11g and your filter is rated at 100gph, but this 100gph rating is from the manufacturer without any media in the filter and assuming its clean and working at 100%efficency. Also, since it's just one filter outlet, there will possibly be "dead spots" in the tank with little or no flow. These "dead spots" are where algae will take hold first and plants in these areas will struggle compared to plants with good flow around them. So personally, for a planted tank, I would be adding another small pump just to be safe
.I would always recommend just buying a "trace mix" in dry powder form and using that. You could either make your own liquid fertiliser using it in your old Leaf Zone bottle or just dose the dry powder into the tank. This would save you loooads of money over time.
Otherwise, since your in the states and Tropica plant fertilisers are often hard to come by, I highly recommend Seachem Flourish.
Both my tanks are 10 gallons. I must have measured wrong. 
i have an air stone, if that would help. i do have a sponge filter but it's really bulky, I don't really want to have to use it.
I was going to put plants in my tank with LED lights, but I could possibly use the other instead.
So I could just google 'trace mix' or enter in in ebay and get what I'd need? Or do i need brands?
LED lights (tank one):
Tank two (reg. lights):
i have an air stone, if that would help. i do have a sponge filter but it's really bulky, I don't really want to have to use it. I was going to put plants in my tank with LED lights, but I could possibly use the other instead.
So I could just google 'trace mix' or enter in in ebay and get what I'd need? Or do i need brands?
LED lights (tank one):
Tank two (reg. lights):
three-fingers
Fish Connoisseur
Sounds right, 10gal is a standard sizeDiddleBug said:Both my tanks are 10 gallons. I must have measured wrong.i have an air stone, if that would help. i do have a sponge filter but it's really bulky, I don't really want to have to use it.
Pretty much, the trace mix is widely sold for aquarium and hydroponic use. You should find it on ebay easily enough, I don't have any US sites I can specifically recommend for it but here is an example of what you want.
Most branded aquatic fertilisers are just trace mix plus water, but for a 10g something like Seachem Flourish shouldn't be too expensive anyway. Leaf Zone is more dilute and is actually missing a lot of trace elements.
Just as I suspected, those LEDs wont work on a planted tank unfortunately. They could possibly keep Anubias alive, however I wouldn't expect to see much growth. The 15w T8 bulb on your other tank is exactly what you want for a healthy low-tech planted tank!
Stick to 8h of light a day, improve flow if you can and your good to go
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