Bought some new things for our plants...

[The_Budmaster]

Went out today & bought a new tube for my canopy light, it takes 4x36w flouresent tubes but i'm only using 2 of the tubes right now, got 1 Osram 36watt Deluxe L 860 & 1 36watt Osram Deluxe L 840 for my 30" tank. Also bought some plant food fertilizer tablets & i've buried 2 of them in the gravel ( is this enough tablets for a well planted 30" tank? )

Anyway i've been growing some Dwarf Lobelia for the past month or so in the tank with only a 15watt Aqua-glow & 1 of the 36watt tubes & without any fertilizers ( growing ok but could do better) ......

Full tank pic.....

hopefully i'll get some better growth from them & all my other plants with the new goodies that i've bought, i'll post a update in a week or 2 with new pics, unless it all goes bad hehe then i'll just cry

 

[elgecko]

Nice looking tank.

 

[The_Budmaster]

well i kinda messed up the experiment because i changed the tank layout

I'll post another update in a week or so ( & this time i wont re-arrange the tank )

 

[Tanked]

looks good m8, do you have a co2 system? that would really help with plant growth as well

 

[H2O]

Your tank looks good.
It's only lightly planted so you don't need a lot of light over it at the minute.
The two tubes should be fine for now.
CO2 will not help plant growth under these conditions. Using CO2 can also be detrimental to your fish as it can cause pH swings.
You will only see significant benefit from using CO2 if your lighting is about 2.5 watts per US gallon or above.
The root tablet's will benefit heavy root feeding plants such as Swords / Cryptocorynes. Other plants will benefit form them but not as much.
You don't need to add any other nutrients / fertilizer as yet.
If its increased growth you want then you would be better using all four of those tubes and then adding CO2 along with a lot of fast growing plants to get the tank established.
The main mistake many beginners make with plants is not adding enough plants to begin with. If you have enough light and a lot of fast growing plants then your tank will soon be needing pruning regularly.
If you have plenty of light but not enough fast growing plants then you will get algae.
If you have a low amount of light and a few plants then you should still be fine (like your tank now) but will not get good growth on the plants.
I would recommend using as many fast growing plants as you can along with plenty of light to get a planted tank established. Once it is established and growing like crazy, then you can always remove some of the fast growing plants to make room for the slower growing plants that you want.

 

[BillyBigBananas]

Im impressed with both the tanks... gives me an idea of what to aim for. B)

 

[The_Budmaster]

thanks for your comments H2O, maybe i'll get some more plants for tank in the next couple of weeks.

Here's what the tank looked like last week>

Getting a bit of algae in the tank & on the plants at the min so i've decided to stop feeding & just go with the extra lights for a while

 

[The_Budmaster]

Update!
Added new plants:

Chlorophytum bichetii
Anubias barteri var. nana
Sagittaria subulata
Microsorum pteropus

& also added 4 oto's

 

[The_Budmaster]

31 August> Switched the lighting to 2x20watt bulbs Sun-glo & Triton & added a DIY Co2 system using a 2 litre bottle of yeast/sugar mix

14 September> as you can see the plants are enjoying the Co2 in the water!

 

[revengeishere]

Its looking good!

But I would remove the "algae" ball if I were you, I was never a fan of "geometric" shapes in aquariums...thats just me though