Advice needed

[enchanted]

I'm at a loss on my tank right now. It is my first attempt at a planted tank and I did it ALL WRONG. icon_sad.gif I didn't research properly, and made other mistakes.

Now I am in a pickle because my nitrogen levels are extremely low. I could raise these artificially but I was hoping for a more natural tank system.

Currently I'm running low light, but hope to upgrade to high light eventually. I would like at the moment to base the tank of low/medium light.

Here is the tank:
55 Gallon
1x Penguin 330 Filter
1x Penguin 170 Filter
1x Aqua-Tech 20/40 Filter (soon to be moved)
1x Rena Cal Submersible 300W Heater
1x 48" 40W Strip Light
2x 24" 15W Strip Light

As you can see I'm running about 1.27WPG. This tank also gets direct afternoon sunlight at an angel through a window along with indirect morning sun through a window on the other side of the house.

At this time I'm also trying to finish outfitting the basics of my other tanks, I picked up a bunch of used ones, so I would like to keep from spending anymore money on this tank at the moment.

Now the tank currently has:

1 Driftwood Piece (small about 12" long 2" round)
3x Primrose
3x Tropic Sunset Hygro
1x Anubias Nana
1x Unkown Crypt
1x java moss
2x Java Fern
1x Dwarf Sag
1x patch Micro Sword

For Fish:
5x Guppys
3x Oto
1x Pleco
8x Cory

I do intend to add more fish to this tank.

Now, here is my dilemna, what is going to grow big, what should I pull, etc??

Any ideas, help here would be nice.

Thanks,
Larry

I made a few changes to the plants tonight in hopes to help. They were:
1x Giant Hygro (6")
4x Tropic Sunset Hygro (2"-6")
6x Primrose (2"-8")
2x Java Fern
1x Small Clump Java Moss
2x Dwarf Sag
1x small patch Micro Sword

 

[Link]

What's actually the problem? Are your plants not growing properly?

The first thing I'd do is upgrade your lighting. If you can fit a 48" tube into the hood then I'd go for two or even three more. Also add reflectors to make sure the light reaches the lower plants.

You'll find that with average filtration and an average stocking level of fish the system wont produce enough nitrogen on its own, not in my opinion anyway.
I'd grab yourself a decent fertilizer. I use Kent for mine.

 

[enchanted]

I know I need to do lighting and I have 5 different people telling me to do 5 different things.

Monday I am going to home depot and getting one of there $8.00 2x40W lights. I'm going to bend the reflectors down and put it on top of the tank w/ both 40W lights I have along with the 2x15W strip lights to give me 110W total.

Then I am going to wait and buy an AH Supply 4x55W Kit or a CoraLife PC 4x65. I haven't decided which yet.

Edit: Since I haven't finished stocking the tank, but the cycle is over, I'm adding fish slowly to bring the Nitrate up little by little in hopes this will help.

I just wish I could see a picture of a tank with Primrose in it.

 

[jams.alaskan]

I've also not seen the primrose that you mention. How long has it been in your tank and what is it doing? With your current lighting the java moss, java fern, crypt and anubius should do fine. I have also had some luck with the chain sword near the lighting levels that you mention. The sag however in my tank does little more then "hang on for dear life". How is your hygro doing?
You mention that your nitrogen is low - so is your stocking level. You could add more but that is going to take money... Ottos are a must and maybe a few more would not go amiss. Are you having any algea problems with the direct sunlight? There are some great fertilizer products out there that can help with the levels that you are low on, however, if things are not growing for lack of light, the only thing that you might be feeding will be algea...

ALASKA

 

[enchanted]

When I researched the symptoms I found appeared to be due to Nitrogen Defficiency, but I could be wrong. From what I understood Lighting usually shows up as week spindly plants, which I don't appear to be having.

I am planning to stock more. Monday or Tuesday I'm intending to add 4 more Guppy Females and 4 Clowns. No, it's not the permanent home for the clowns. Once I finish outfitting all my tanks (which is way more expensive than I thought it would be. ) I already have my eye on an 8' Acryllic 240 Gallon. I figure it is about 1 year away.

Yes, the dwarf sag is holding on for dearlife in my tank also, I kind of thought that was probably due to lighting. The Micro Sword actually looks okay, not growing like I would want it (I want it as a carpet) but it does appear to be ok.

The primrose has yellow leaves on the top of it. The Hygros, other than algae, seem to be okay after my plant rearrangement. Which I am considering doing more of today.

I have a couple of options that have been given me on the Nitrate. I use seachem Flourish Tabs for the roots, but I'm going to pick up some Seachem Flourish liquid since the java fern and moss, and from what I understand hygros also, pull there nutrient from the water.

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[Bangin]

Ludwigia repens is very easy to grow. If it's giving you trouble, I'm certain it's the lighting. I seriously doubt your problems are due to low nitrates. Up the lighting and you'll notice a world of difference.

Edited to add: I have Ludwigia repens growing out of my open-top tank. The lighting is at 3.25 watts per gallon with the addition of CO2. It's the fastest growing plant in the tank!

 

[enchanted]

Alright, I give in. I will pull money from other areas on Monday and order a 2x55W kit from AH Supply. I will build the hood tomorrow for it and make it large enough that I can leave my 2x15W Strip Lights on one side.

Basically I will put the 2x55W kit on the back with the 2x15W under the hood in front until I can get the other 2x55W kit.

 

[enchanted]

I decided I couldn't wait. After a talk with the lighting guy at Home Depot I am headed there with $26+ tax.

2- 2x40W Light Strips 6" wide before I either remove or bend in the reflectors. $7.99 each

I already have 2 40W bulbs so I am purchasing 2x40W 6500K Daylight bulbs. On Clearance for $5.00 each.

This will give me 160 Watts (just under 3WPG) and by:
http/users.bluecarrots.com/dave.mann/pet...in/tankcalc.htm

will put me inbetween the Medium-low and Medium-high light range.

 

[Bangin]

I hope the lighting works out well for you.

Just for your future reference, if indeed nitrate levels are low and prevent good growth, then you can use Green Light Stump Remover to increase the nitrate levels. It's pure KNO3 and can be purchased at Lowe's or similar 'home improvement' stores. You usually only need to dose nitrates if you have a heavily planted tank with high lighting and CO2. I keep my levels between 5ppm-10ppm. I use a mixture of 1 tablespoon of Green Light Stump Remover and 125mL of water.

You can use Chuck's page for measurements. http/www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nitrate.htm

Like I said before high light and CO2 is usually in place before you ever have to dose nitrates.

 

[enchanted]

$27.01

2 - 2x40W Strip Lights
1 - 2 Pack Phillips Daylight Deluxe 6500K Bulbs
1 - 6 Outlet strip (5' cords weren't long enough. )

I haven't built the hood yet, but one thing I really liked is all compenents are screwed in and removal and those that snapped in had screw holes for being attached via screws.

Basically if built into a one piece hood over a 55G a person could easily fit 6. Using the premade thing it comes with limits to 4.

 

[konrad05]

I guess I found this thread kind of late. I could have saved you the time and showed you how I did the lighting for my 55 gallon way back which is how you just decided to do yours...

55 gallon planted project website

One really big recommendation I would give you is to return the daylight bulbs you bought. I started with "natural sunshine" bulbs which are more expensive than the daylight deluxe you have, and the growth wasn't ideal, the upper leaves were okay on my hygrophilias, but everything else was barely holding on. I thought it was the nutrients but it wasn't. So then i changed to trichromatic bulbs, 40 bucks a piece but the growth has been amazing ever since I put them in. Hope that helped and good luck planting!

 

[Tempestuousfury]

That was amazing what you did with your tank, but $100 and all that time. Well, I'm not at all a handyman.

Are the bulbs protected from the water right now ddreams?

 

[enchanted]

The thing is cost here. I didn't have $80 to spend on bulbs.

If they do well on these (which is over twice what I had) then I will build the hood around it.

If not I'm going to switch it over to power compact (4x55) and use these on the other 55 or the 45.

 

[konrad05]

Um, if money is the issue, power compact should be completely out of the question then no?

 

[enchanted]

It's not "money" overall, it's money at this moment. I don't have it at the moment to spend on Power Compact, but I had to do something. 70W was just flat not enough.

I can already see improvement in the plants, so time will tell if this is going to be a good solution. Power Compact will actually be less expensive over time based off the price you said for bulbs. 55W Power Compact bulbs are only $18.00.

In a month or so I'm order Power Compact anyways for one of the tanks. I already know I'm going to drop a lot more than I meant to on all these tanks.

I purchased:
2x55G Tanks w/ Double Stand
1x45G Long
1x29G
1x10G

$250.00

I already had a 30G Long

Then I learned about planted and had no clue what I was doing.

Plus the day I bought the tanks I went and purchased the heater, filter, etc... and spent another $90.00 at Petsmart.

I've also purchased a new camera. And I had ordered a hood prior to learning about planted for the 30G.

So, in less than 30 days I have dumped over $500.00 into tanks. I just don't have anymore now to spend.

I should have only spent about $200 this month, but I kind of got out of control buying fish stuff.