Doing Something Wrong?

[Daigle107]

This is my second attempt at a planted aquarium and so far I have been unsuccessful. The tank is a 29 gallon tank and I currently have a banana plant, Argentine sword, some sort of aquatic bamboo, Cryptocoryne, and another weird looking submerged plant. I just set the aquarium up yesterday with an 18 watt "flora-sun" light. The water is very cloudy and the plants seem to be dying already. I have not begun cycling the tank yet as I am waiting until my next trip to petco to buy all of the necessary testing materials.

 

[Katty]

I think one problem is not enough light, an 18 watt flora sun bulb seems to be rather low light on a 29 gallon tank. The general rule of thumb is 2-4 watts per gallon (there are problems with this rule but it puts things into perspective to see what to shoot for). I had an 18 watt flora sun on a 10 gallon tank which is smaller than the 29g, and those plants were chosen for their ability to live in low-moderate light conditions. Most of the plants in your tank seem to need moderate to high lighting. Cryptocoryone does fine in low light, but it tends to "melt" when moved to a new tank, only to spring back to life months later from a little stump.

The aquatic bamboo I'm guessing is "lucky bamboo", a species of dracaena, a house plant, which actually needs to have the top portion above water or it will begin to rot.

More light and a more careful selection of plants would probably fix things up. What substrate are you using?

 

[Daigle107]

I'm just using a rock gravel, the plants are still in their pots that I purchased them in.

 

[Inchworm]

Welcome to the forum, Daigle107. I'll move your thread over to the Planted tank section where you might get some more comments.

 

[luckyliam13]

yerp deffinatly need more light! and get the filter going to get rid of the cloudy water! cloudy water doesnt allow as mutch light so fix that up asap

i also have a 30 gall tank but it has two 20 watt t8 globes which is still considered to be a low lighted aquarium. i have recaently installed a diy c02 diffuser which seems to be making a difference and have started leaving the lights on for longer now 8-10 hrs.i have also started switching the airstones of during the period that the lights are on. this is suposed to help lock in the co2. atm only have 5 giant valice and 2 baby amazon swords. all seems to be green and healthy atm so fingers crossed they will continue to grow. i am thinking about puting java fern and moss in aswell soon

hope that helps kind regards liam m

 

[SlyPolak]

I think the only TRUE aquatic I have ever seen at PetCo was the banana one. 98% of their plants labeled "aquatic: actually arent, their for terrariums. Go to PetSupermarket.. all their plants are truly Aquatic or "amphibian" i think is the word (Amazon Swords) for example which can grow submerged or with their leaves out as long as theres enough humidity.......... + many more

 

[sampster5000]

This is my second attempt at a planted aquarium and so far I have been unsuccessful. The tank is a 29 gallon tank and I currently have a banana plant, Argentine sword, some sort of aquatic bamboo, Cryptocoryne, and another weird looking submerged plant. I just set the aquarium up yesterday with an 18 watt "flora-sun" light. The water is very cloudy and the plants seem to be dying already. I have not begun cycling the tank yet as I am waiting until my next trip to petco to buy all of the necessary testing materials.

Save yourself some time, stress, and MONEY by NOT going to petco. They sell everything for insanely high prices and are 100% NOT helpful. Well, at mine atleast. They were selling flame angelfish for $65.00 dollars. One of my LFS' sells them for $26.00. I'd much recommend buying online though. There is way more selection and almost always the online store has a number that you can call and ask as many questions as you would like.

About the tank... get that filter running! If it it brand new it will need a cycle asap.

 

[Jen]

Some of your plants will be fine with low light (the sword and the crypts) but the rest will need more. The cloudiness might just be from dust in the gravel... did you wash that before putting it in the tank? For sure get the cloudiness fixed up... run your filter, maybe do a water change (up to 30%) and get some plant food in there. Then you will need to decide what you want to do... stay low light and lose a few plants, or get a different hood and some more lights. With more light comes more work (more fertilizing, the risk of more algae...) but your choice of plants is almost unlimited. There are some lovely low light plants that you can make a gorgeous tank out of without spending a bunch on more equipment.

And definitely try to find a different fish store... There are some great little stores with very knowledgeable staff that can help you pick the right plants for your tank. Call all of them in the phone book and find out if they sell plants, then drive around (if you can) and visit them all to see what they have in stock, and talk to the employees about plants.

 

[Daigle107]

I live in a very rural part of the country, and the closest non-chain pet store doesn't sell aquarium fish/plants/equipment, the closest one that does is a 40 minute drive away, back when gas was 1.39 a gallon, this wasn't a problem haha. I have recently started cycling, and I was able to reduce the cloudiness in the tank by running the filter for a few days. The only plant that doesn't seem to be withering right now is my crypt, to top off my week, my existing light stopped working last night, I have a replacement fixture, but I'm not sure how to set it up exactly, does anyone have any experience with setting up a DIY hood? I plan on increasing the light to 2.5 WPG by using this fixture

http/www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans-Ceiling-Lighting-Flush-Mount/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh7Zaqi6Z1z11zrg/R-100654375/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

and two of these bulbs

http/www.onlinepetdepot.com/flora-bulb-inches-watts-p-12777.html

Anyone have any pointers for this??