Advice If You Can

[Keithbaxter]

Hi

Ive had some bad luck with live plants, I went to a LFS that has very cheap equipment but noone had brought fish from there so i had no control.

I brought 3 plants only to discover that they were infact not supposed to be fully submerged dispite being submerged in the shop and sold as aquarium fish.


Anywho those were dissposed of and now ive brought some more, it has been mentioned that the new plants could be very light dependant and might need to be changed or at least looked after to stop excessive algae.

Im attaching some pics please let me know about them or some fast growing plants to counter act the nutrients.

I have 2x 36" 30watt lights

Its a 180 liter tank give or take.

 

[RadaR]

You have about 1.2WPG (watts per USgallon) of lighting. As far as I can see, the plants on the left hand side of the tank should be fine.

some fast growing plants to counter act the nutrients.

Remember, it's not nutrients that cause algae, but rather an imbalance or lack of them. Ammonia will also cause algae. Ammonia will build up by organic waste over time and water changes will reduce this. This ammonia isn't toxic to fish, it's too low to harm them but it can still cause algae if it reaches a certain level. Even a concentration of say 0.005ppm. That's low enough for fish.

I would aim to get more fast growers to reduce the chance of ammonia building up. Aim for 75% coverage of the tank.

(list obtained from the pinned topic "Algae in the Planted Aquarium".)

Examples of Algae-Busting Plants –

Hygrophila species
Ludwigia species
Rotala species
Egeria species
Brazilian Water Ivy
Small Ambulia
Mexican Oak Leaf
Water Sprite
Hornwort
Floating plants (careful they don’t block too much light).

You can get these from Java plants website.

I would also look into buying Easy Life EasyCarbo as a liquid source of carbon for the plants and also Tropica Plant Nutrition+ as an all round fertiliser for the plants, that also contains Nitrogen and Phosphorus. However you might not need the "+" version if you have a high fish load because the fish will produce enough nitrates and phosphates for the plants to absorb. In which case just opt for the regular Tropica Plant Nutrition.