Glod's 37.5l Planted Tank Journal.

[Glod]

Well, after being impressed with all of your beautiful planted tanks I decided to give things a go. I have a 37.5 litre / 9.9 US Gallon / 8.25 Imperial Gallon tank in my room which I plan to attempt a facsimile of planted with low light and (for now) no CO2. A single 18watt daylight bulb with reflector, tetraplant substrate under silica sand. Filtration is a fluval 1 plus with spraybar along the back and the inhabitants are 1 betta and 2 Otocinclus. I plan on adding some shrimp at some point, but they're hard to find around here.

The tank has been up and running for about 3 months now. The only resident when I got the tank was my Betta, Rocket.

A couple of months ago my tank looked like this ...

Then I found this area of the forum and got jealous . So I asked some questions and tried to follow the advice given by you guys. A substrate change and several plants later it looked like this ...

More reading, lurking and generally absorbing information showed me that I didn't have enough plants so I added more....



(Sorry but he wanted to say hi!)



So, as you can see there are many plants. I'm not happy with it tho, and this is where you guys come in. I'm looking to replace the large leafed plants (hygrophila corymbosa ? and the sword which is hiding at the back) with smaller leafed counterparts. I do like the Rotala Rotundifolia, it seems to be doing great. The stem plants I have at the back that I got as cuttings are also growing really quickly, the corymbosa is doing not bad, they provided all the cuttings at the front. There is a small amount of thread and staghorn algae, almost entirely limited to the crypts. Not too worried about that at the moment unless it gets out of hand.

So can anyone reccomend other small leafed plants I can replace the big leafed ones with ? Any help and advice would be most appreciated

Sorry this rambled on so long...

 

[Liam]

Its such a vast improvement looks great, nice fat otto you got there. The only thing that springs to mind is Hygrophila polysperma instead of the h corymbosa, the leaves are small and it does fine in low light. So many small leaf plants need lots of light but java moss or anubias nana on the wood with the ferns are possibilities. Lots of crypts you could choose from with different leaf shapes and sizes.
Anyway great job, first class betta accommodation.

 

[Glod]

It was polysperma I intended to buy when I went plant shopping initially but the lfs didn't have any in. They won't get another delivery until after the new year so I guess I'll have to give it some time.
Can anyone reccomend any grassy plants that would be suitable for a small low light tank ? I have some brasiliensis but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

 

[lljdma06]

How long has the tank been densely planted like in the third picture? I'd keep the corymbosa in longer if it's been less than three months. Corymbosa is an excellent algae-busting weed. You should be sure that the tank has been nearly algae free for about a month or so. Then you can start tweaking with plant species you like better. Even so, only tweak a little here and there, drastic changes can bring algae. It takes a little longer, but you are rewarded with greater stability. There is nothing to help a low-light tank when algae comes, no CO2 to up, no ferts to fix, no Nitrate to dose. It is essential to get a balance from the start. At least that has been my experience.

That being said, Rotala rotundifolia is a wonderful choice for smaller tanks. It does well without CO2 and in lower light. Another option is Hemianthus micranthemoides, or HM for short. It grows compactly for me and I don't really have much more light than you do in my 8g, and forms a lovely contrast with the rotala. It may, however, grow leggy for you. Usually, it's leggy in lower-light situations, but HM seems to like me. Perhaps it is because my tank isn't very deep. It is leggier in my 20g and 36g, which have more light, but are much deeper.

llj

 

[Glod]

Hmm.. The tank has been more heavily planted for about a month. Tho the corymbosa at the front is cuttings I took about 10 days ago. I guess leaving it another month or two won't be a problem, especially since it's likely to be a few weeks before I can get any new plants at my lfs since they won't get a delivery 'til the new year.
I do like the corymbosa, just feel it's too big for my tank. When the time comes I'll move it into the 4ft tank downstairs.
My Rotala is currently in the middle of a jungle of corymbosa but still seems to be growing happily. The tips are even turning pinkish when they get near the light. I'll probably add more of that / take cuttings once it reaches the surface.

 

[Glod]

Quick question guys. When the light has been on for a couple of hours I start to see little bubbles get knocked off the plants by the flow from the filter. It's slow (maybe 1 or 2 bubbles per 5 seconds) but once it starts it keeps going for the rest of the day. What I am wondering, is that the plants producing oxygen ? The ones that produce the bubbles are the Rotala and the Hygrophila Corymbosa.
I was wondering if that would be because they get the best flow from the filter they get more dissolved CO2 than the rest ? Is it worthwhile me picking up one of those fermentation CO2 kits (nutrafin or jbl) with my level of lighting (18 watts over 10 gallons) ?
I eventually pulled the Crypt. Wilsii since the algae was pretty much solely on that plant and was getting worse.
There is a tiny bit of thread algae at the moment and a little bit of hair algae on one of the plants at the front but no great amount. I added some Amano shrimp to see if they will help keep the algae under control.
Thanks in advance.
Glod.

:edit: Typos...

 

[Themuleous]

Could be pearling, but I would doubt it if you're not adding CO2. You can get false pearling, cant remember how but that would be more likely. And yes adding a yeast type CO2 kit would be a very good idea and very cheap to run. I'm certain the plants would appreciate it.

Sam

 

[Glod]

Yep, that would make sense. If I add CO2 will I need to add fertilisers or will they be fine without ?

 

[Themuleous]

A liquid fert weekly would be a good idea, something like seachem flourish weekly as outlined on the bottle would be ideal, but not really essential, I've got two tanks that I dont add anything to and they have great looking plants, just depends on which plants you grow

Sam

 

[Glod]

Thanks again Sam.
I'm going to take a look online and see if I can source one of the CO2 kits and some flourish, I see it recommended pretty often.
I've been looking at additional lighting, but so far I can't figure out how to mount it on the plastic hood, there is not much space, so I'll leave that for now. I suppose I could somehow fit one of the compact fluorescent lights in place of the existing tube that would double my lighting, tho I think it might be preferable to try and get both running if I want to try more demanding plants. That probably means I need to install pressurised CO2 for consistency and regular ferts.... Too much at the moment. I want to see how far I can take it with the existing light.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeah upgrade the lighting later, there is a world of different between low and high light tanks, in terms of maintenance and equipments, etc.

Sam

 

[vic]

Adding injected CO2 WITHOUT upgrading the lighting is a waste. In order for the plants to efficiently assimilate the injected CO2 they need to enhance the photosynthesis process/rate. This is accomplished by increasing the lighting. With the growth you have I would suggest that you start a fertilization process and defer the CO2 and lighting for several months. A small tank does not behave the same as a larger tank as regards injected CO2 and lighting.

 

[Glod]

Hmm, well I ordered one of the nutrafin kits already. I can always take it back off if it causes problems before I get more lighting (which is not a definite yet..).

Been looking through the plants on Aqua Essentials website, looking at low light tolerant plants. Making a shopping list for when I get some money A few that I might try are...
Hemianthus micranthemoides which may or may not work, but if I am lucky will stay smallish and bushy ( on advice from llj )
Pogostemon helferi which looks nice and is apparently growable as low light. I was planning to use this as a foreground plant rather than having all stems.
Hygrophila polysperma to replace the corymbosa since it has smaller leaves. (Would Bacopa australis be better ?)
Anubias barteri var. nana 'petite' if I can get one to put on my piece of driftwood.
Maybe some java moss or christmas moss, also for the driftwood, I think I'll move the java fern to the big tank, it's quite dominating in this one.

Can anyone comment on the suitability of Bacopa australis for a small tank ? It looks stemmy (is that a word ? lol) but the leaves seem quite small. (Only seen the pics, so have no comparison to e.g. the rotala for size.)

Definitely want to keep my Rotala, I love the way it goes from green to pink when it's near the surface, I think it will be a nice background plant.
The Echinodorus bleheri is too big, so that is going off to the big tank when I get something to replace it. For now my fighter loves to bublenest under its leaves, lol. Is there such a thing as a small sword type plant ? One that won't try to take over the whole place ?
I have an unidentified stem plant that came in a bunch of 3 stems and is now about 15-20 stems, lol. I don't plan to keep it long term, but it certainly grows fast !

The small leaves behind it are Rotala rotundifolia. Any ideas ?

 

[Themuleous]

Adding injected CO2 WITHOUT upgrading the lighting is a waste. In order for the plants to efficiently assimilate the injected CO2 they need to enhance the photosynthesis process/rate. This is accomplished by increasing the lighting. With the growth you have I would suggest that you start a fertilization process and defer the CO2 and lighting for several months. A small tank does not behave the same as a larger tank as regards injected CO2 and lighting.

What makes you say that? Most if not all tanks benefit from adding CO2. Yes as you say it is the light level that determines growth rates, but adding CO2, especially yeast type is a cheap and effective way of getting the most out of your plants in lower light tanks, just because they wont necessarily be able to use it to the best effect doesn't mean they can't use it. I'm sure I read Tom suggesting that lower light, CO2 tanks are often the best, as you get the best of both worlds, no algae but decent plant growth. Ok CO2 would not be essential here, but it would be beneficial.

Sam

 

[Glod]

Well, the hagen CO2 kit arrived yesterday, along with some flourish.

The staghorn algae is getting to be pretty invasive now, tho the hair algae seems to be diminishing on its own. Maybe the shrimp are actually doing something. I also added 6 pygmy corydoras which are incredibly cute and active, makes the tank look less empty since the Betta is in isolation.

Snce I haven't been able to get into town for the last few days due to being ill, I dosed some flourish excel until such times as I get the CO2 kit set up. Believe it or not there is no sugar in this house so I need to go buy some.

Since dosing Excel I've noticed the staghorn has gone from really dark to a mid grey colour. This makes it even more visible, but perhaps the reputed algicidal effect of the excel is killing it ? One can only hope. I've read that CO2 can help with staghorn so I'm hopeful once I get it up and running that will help too.

For now I plan to dose flourish weekly after water changes according to the instructions on the bottle and see how it goes. I figure either my algae garden will prosper, or my plants will grow happier

I've been looking at changing the filter to an external model, the problem being locating a filter that can have it's flow reduced enough that it doesn't completely overwhelm the tank. Anyone know an external filter with a flow rate of about 200 lph or slightly less ? Currently it has a HOB filter which may cause problems when I add the CO2 kit.

Also thought Utricularia graminifolia may be a viable addition to my prospective plants list. Which would mean final planting would be H.polysperma, Rotalia rotundifolia, Hemianthus micranthemoides, one or two pockets of Pogostemon helferi and Utricularia graminifolia as a possible "carpet". Along with some moss on the driftwood and maybe an Anubias barteri var. nana 'petite'. Is that too many plants in a small tank ? I've seen some of the nanos with only 1 or 2 plants and they look really nice so I don't want to go overboard.