Lufbramatt
Fishaholic
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2011
- Messages
- 470
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I have a 350 litre tank which houses a Tanganyikan cichlid community. These guys are great as they're about the only cichlids that completely ignore plants. I have a couple of java ferns attached to rocks, and vallis along the back of the tank to make it all look a bit more natural and avoid the stark rock-and-substrate look of many rift valley cichlid tanks.
I have 2x 36w 48" T8 tubes which are currently on from about 5pm to 10pm, but they're on a timer so no problem with changing this if needed. The plants are growing, albeit quite slowly, with new leaves appearing about one a week on the java fern and the vallis sending out runners and growing new leaves, but I want it to look bushier.
Is it worth adding some sort of fertilisers to the tank to make the plants grow faster? If so, how often and what sort? I don't want to add a Co2 system. I have very hard water with a pH of 8.2 from the tap which is ideal for the fish so don't want to use anything that will affect this.
Above all there must be no risk of harming the fish as some of them were quite expensive.
I have 2x 36w 48" T8 tubes which are currently on from about 5pm to 10pm, but they're on a timer so no problem with changing this if needed. The plants are growing, albeit quite slowly, with new leaves appearing about one a week on the java fern and the vallis sending out runners and growing new leaves, but I want it to look bushier.
Is it worth adding some sort of fertilisers to the tank to make the plants grow faster? If so, how often and what sort? I don't want to add a Co2 system. I have very hard water with a pH of 8.2 from the tap which is ideal for the fish so don't want to use anything that will affect this.
Above all there must be no risk of harming the fish as some of them were quite expensive.
