Getting Started; Co2 Diffusers And Feeding

[TheChards]

Hi guys,

I've tried setting up planted fish tanks in the past but haven't had a lot of luck and so am trying again in a new fish tank which some friends wanted to get rid of. Because of this, I'm not sure of a lot of the specifics such as the type of lighting used.

However, I have now added a few plants to the tank, three of which are spaced out along the back of the tank and buried an inch or so deep into the gravel. I also have a plant which is growing on a small piece of bogwood in the same tank. When I planted them, I rolled the foam padding around them down slightly at the top and up slightly at the bottom so as to free up the roots as much as possible.

I have seen and read about devices which diffuse CO2 into the water and would like to get one of these as soon as possible. Unfortunately this won't be for a few weeks but it sounds like this will help. Can anybody recommend one that I should look out for for a 120-litre tank? Also, do I need to be feeding the plants in addition to this? Again, if anybody can recommend what and how often I should feed (and also if this is likely to do any harm to the fish in the tank) I will be very grateful!

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Nick16]

right first things first.

1) when planting remove all rockwool and foamy stuff, trim the roots a bit to promote new growth and if remove and leaves that are very low on the stem as you dont want these being buried and thus rotting.

2) have you got a plant nutritios substrate like eco complete for example. Even akadama is better than plain old gravel! (double red line of course - ebay)

3) co2 diffusers are cheap, i used to have one on my 120L. look on ebay for them, you can normally get 2 for about £6.00 inc p+p from hong kong. in case you break one you have a spare.

4) what kind of co2 system are you using/going to use? i suggest pressurized. what lighting do you have t8 or t8 and what wattage, - if you could find out that would be great.

5) a good all in one dosage is tropica plant nutrition+ availble from the green machine or aquaessentials. you may want to get some easy carbo as well. especially if you do not have your co2 system up and running but make sure you have no carbon in your filter as it will remove the ferts.

lastly, plants are as picky as fish, some like totally different conditions to others so make sure you do your research before you buy.

HTH

 

[TheChards]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the response. The gravel in the tank is fairly ordinary as far as I'm aware - I didn't know you could get gravel specifically to help plants along. Hopefully a decent CO2 diffuser and some good fertiliser will help to make up for this. Is this likely or are my plants already doomed?

Unfortunately, I have already bought the plants as the woman in the LFS who sold them said they would all do equally well so I wasn't picky. Can anyone please identify the plants in the photos below and give me any advice on how easy they are to keep?

Many thanks in advance!
Dan

 

[RadaR]

Java moss
Anubias barteri
Amazon sword still in emersed form (it was grown outside of water)
Aponogeton ulvaceus
Last one is tricky, could be Hygrophila corymbosa 'Siamensis'.

All easy to grow and don't demand much. If dosing into the water column is lean, then root tabs under the Amazon sword will help it along.

If your lighting is only 30W or so, then CO2 can be added by the use of EasyCarbo.

 

[TheChards]

Hi RadaR, many many thanks for going to the trouble of identifying these plants for me.

Please could you explain in a little more detail what you meant by: "If dosing into the water column is lean, then root tabs under the Amazon sword will help it along."

Do you think a decent CO2 diffuser and some sort of regular feeding will be enough to encourage these plants to thrive?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[RadaR]

If you don't dose liquid nutrients into the tank on a regular basis then some root tabs (little pellets of nutrients) pushed into the gravel where the Amazon Sword's roots are, will prevent some deficiencies for it.
Need to know what lighting you have before we can begin to work out an appropriate course of action for the plants. This is because light is the driving force for the plant's uptake. The more there is, the larger the requirements are for nutrients and CO2.
Less light = less nutrients and less CO2 needed.
High lighting = dosing nutrients everyday and injecting lots of CO2 in and diffusing it in an efficient way.

 

[TheChards]

Hi again RadaR, thanks ever so much for your help so far. It is most appreciated.

I had a look at the lighting in my tank yesterday and have got two different tubes. Both are 24” long and are 20W – T8s but one is a Glo Aqua-Glo and the other is a Glo Sun-Glo. Since I’ve currently got a 33 (US) gallon tank and 2 x 20w tubes, I’m looking at 40 / 33 = 1.21W per US gallon. Is this correct? This is too low by the sounds of things and what I’ve read on here, but can I simply go out and buy two 40W (or higher?) tubes and replace them in order to achieve almost 2.5W per US gallon or isn’t it this simple?

It’s quite a deep tank as well (45cm) so I’m guessing this will probably be quite important as well since the light will need to penetrate further through the water.

Any thoughts/ suggestions/ feedback would be very welcome!

Many thanks in advance,
Dan

 

[RadaR]

If this is your first planted tank, then I would stick with just two tubes. Just 40W will make things a lot easier. You can grow the majority of plants with this lighting too (I have a 33gallon with 36W of light), so long as you've got good CO2 and nutrients.
Steps I would take-
Buy more plants so that 75% of the gravel is occupied by plants.
Light on for 8-9hours a day.
Dose Tropica plant nutrition+ at 2ml a day
Dose EasyLife EasyCarbo at 3-5ml a day.
Your choice if you want pressurized CO2 or DIY fermentation method. Pressurized would be best, however I would try using just the EasyCarbo route first and see if it works. If so then yipee, you've saved money. If plants show sign of Carbon deficiency or algae then you might have to invest in pressurized CO2. Some have tried the DIY fermentation method on a tank this size, however in my opinion it just causes unstable CO2 plus there is a lot of work constantly refreshing the batches of the ingredients (yeast, sugar, water).

 

[AdAndrews]

1 thing somepeople havnt mentioned, is that high dosing of easycarbo can harm plants such as vailis and riccia, also there are someothers, apparently eloda densa. it depends on how much you dose, im sure if you keep the dosing to reccomendations you wont have any problems
just something to have in mind

good luck

 

[TheChards]

Hey guys,

Thanks very much for your great advice and recommendations. I picked up some more plants at the weekend and also got a CO2 diffuser, some root tabs and some fertiliser. I couldn’t find Tropica plant nutrition+ or EasyLife EasyCarbo – are they available in the UK? If so, does anyone know where I can get them from? For the time being though I’ve bought some daily fertiliser which I add to the water first thing in the morning when the lights first come on and have planted the root tabs in the gravel near to the plants.

I haven’t changed the lighting so I am still going with a relatively low 1.2 watts per US gallon provided via 2 x 24” 20w tubes (t8s). The tubes that were in it originally (this is a pre-owned tank) were a Sun-Glo and an Aqua-Glo but I have now replaced the Sun-Glo with a Power-Glo and will replace the Aqua-Glo with a Flora-Glo. Does this seem like a good combination? The guy in the shop recommended the Power-Glo and I think he also recommended the Flora-Glo instead of the Aqua-Glo but there was a lot to take in that day and I can’t be 100% sure this is what he said…

Many thanks again for all the help I’ve received so far, any further thoughts/ suggestions are very welcome indeed!

Dan

 

[RadaR]

Hey guys,

Thanks very much for your great advice and recommendations. I picked up some more plants at the weekend and also got a CO2 diffuser, some root tabs and some fertiliser. I couldn’t find Tropica plant nutrition+ or EasyLife EasyCarbo – are they available in the UK? If so, does anyone know where I can get them from? For the time being though I’ve bought some daily fertiliser which I add to the water first thing in the morning when the lights first come on and have planted the root tabs in the gravel near to the plants.

I haven’t changed the lighting so I am still going with a relatively low 1.2 watts per US gallon provided via 2 x 24” 20w tubes (t8s). The tubes that were in it originally (this is a pre-owned tank) were a Sun-Glo and an Aqua-Glo but I have now replaced the Sun-Glo with a Power-Glo and will replace the Aqua-Glo with a Flora-Glo. Does this seem like a good combination? The guy in the shop recommended the Power-Glo and I think he also recommended the Flora-Glo instead of the Aqua-Glo but there was a lot to take in that day and I can’t be 100% sure this is what he said…

Many thanks again for all the help I’ve received so far, any further thoughts/ suggestions are very welcome indeed!

Dan

You won't find it in many shops. The Green Machine is an exception though.
They have a website too and so does Aquaessentials.co.uk
Both products can be found on these sites.
As for the lighting, it's all about your personal preference. It will do the job, but if you don't like the colour that both of them create then change them.