My Planted Tank So Far

[Mikaila31]

I've had this tank set up for a couple of months and i added all the plants a little over a month ago. It took me a lot longer then i expected to set it up. It's 20gal with 2wpg and fluorite as the substrate and i dose flourish once a week.

This is what it looked like when i first put the plants in.

This is what it looks like now . The plants i have are: H. polysperma, H. polysperma ''Big leaf'', dwarf hairgrass,Cryptocoryne wendtii brown & green, a red lilly plant, and a very small mystery plant.

As you can see i don't have any fish in it yet . I recently bought a kh test kit and tested the Co2 in my water and got 26.2ppm . I was expecting it to be low, but i guess it's high.

Now for my questions :
*What is the best way to keep the Co2 stable? I have a DIY system with 2 one liter bottles and a microbubbler.
I know some people turn it off at night and others let it run 24/7.

*The red lilly plant was doing really good at first, but the crypt next to it kept growing leaves over it. So i moved it and now it's got holes in it's leaves and the leaves are dying from the holes out. Also there are lots of little hairs growing at the base where all the stems met. How do i stop this ?

* How often do you have to test the Co2, because i'm really bad at remembering to test my water ) ?

Thats all the questions i have for now B) , probably have more later.

 

[pseud]

1) Change bottles weekly. Change one bottle on the weekend, the other mid-week. Prepare the bottle to be changed at least a day in advance. Hook the bottles up at night, right after lights out, on bottle-change day. I leave mine running 24/7.

2) Could be phosphate defeciency.

3) Every day until you get used to the tank's uptake, and the co2 output etc and are confident that testing the water will yield the same result that you expect to obtain.

 

[simonbrown403]

Love the tank, nice start a back ground (black) would look good, it would cover the bottle at the back.

potassium deficiency yellowing at the tips and edges especial on young leafs and dead or yellow patches/spots on leafs.

Phosphate deficiency leafs darker then normal and loss of leafs

 

[pseud]

I knew it was a P word

 

[Phillip.M]

i would move that ammonia detector or w/e the name is and put it on the side of the tank like near the filter. It doesnt look good with that right on the front of the tank.. sorry

 

[Mikaila31]

Thanks for all the tips . I will be getting a black background and i moved the ammonia alert thingy.
The red lilly plant is the only one that's looseing leaves .
here is a picture of it

And here is the base that has all the hairy things on it.

It kind looks like it's rotting or something.