New To Planted Tanks

[shadowhywind]

Hi all, I am new to the forums and to planted tanks. I tried doing a handful of plants couple of years ago, which lasted couple of months before dying off. I just recently had to redo the tank, and decided to try to do a planted tank again. I ended up picking up a few plants recommended by the owner of the store. I have a few questions, hopefully someone might know a answer/solution to.

1) I have had to "replant" every plant so far. (2 the first night, 1 the second night). I have a pleco (about a foot long) which i think is bumping and uprooting them. Does anyone have any experience with this, and have a solution to keeping the plants rooted?

2) I don't know why the first set of plants died off the first time i tried. I think it was due to poor water conditions. But I am not sure if I have the "right" lighting for the tank. From what the owner state, most of the plants require medium-high amount of light. I have a 20 gallon High tank with this light, light @ petsmart. Any recommendations/input would be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mfcphil]

To start with should you have a foot long pleco in a 20 gallon tank...I would think the poor thing needs a lot more space

 

[shadowhywind]

(hangs head in shame) I know. I feel like the time for getting him out of the tank is coming up, but he's so freaken shy. I am afraid moving him (plus the car trip to the fish store) might just kill em. But still I know he needs to go, probably in the next week or two I will try to find a petstore that will take him.

 

[Underwurlde]

God, where to start.....

Plants are 10x more difficult to keep than fish. Period. Expensive too & can be high maintenance.

Do you really, really want to go the planted route?

Re: light. Not enough info there. Need to know what the tube itself is really. What is written on it?

How big is your tank BTW?

Cheers,

Andy

PS I meant to say FISH of course

 

[shadowhywind]

the tank is a 20 gallon tall, The tube is an All-glass aquarium preheat(??) 15W Aquarium lamp.

 

[Underwurlde]

Tall narrow tanks are not the best for plants IMHO, because a lot of the light will get stifled by the depth.

I don't think those are the best lights for plants too, but I am guessing based on the info you've given.

Also I think you'd need to double the power to 30W minimum (i.e. use two lights), but bearing in mind you've a tall tank, then this may have to be more.

30W would be minimal lighting required for your tank for a low tech, non-CO2 planted tank.

Andy

 

[shadowhywind]

Well since the light fixture has a max of 19W, Looks like i will be replacing the lid. Any recommendations? Do I have to worry about the strength of the light with the fish as well? Also any other information or pointers you could give would be great. Thanks

 

[Underwurlde]

What are tank dimensions please?

Do you plan on using EI?

Andy

 

[shadowhywind]

the dimensions of the tank are : 24"L x 12"W x 16"H
Also I don't know what you mean by El.

 

[Underwurlde]

Estimative Index - a way of explosively growing any kind of aquatic plant in basically any substrate.

Pinned topic on it somewhere.

Andy

 

[shadowhywind]

Ok, so after looking at the topic, i probably wont be doing Estimative Index anytime soon. So now that you have the dimensions of the tank. Is it still recommended to use two lights instead of one? Is there a better light fixture that would work better? since It looks like I wouldn't be able to add two lights easily

 

[Underwurlde]

Ok, so after looking at the topic, i probably wont be doing Estimative Index anytime soon. So now that you have the dimensions of the tank. Is it still recommended to use two lights instead of one? Is there a better light fixture that would work better? since It looks like I wouldn't be able to add two lights easily

Oh, right, I see. Not what I'd call a tall narrow tank TBH, quite a 'normal' size really. In fact, very same size to my Jewel Rekord 60.

Perfect lighting... Over tank lumiaires look great too... AG14TF suitable for your tank...
http/www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?pid...p;sub=&id=4

It has two T5 lights, giving 2.4W/US GAL. Tipping the amount of light into the higher side of things, but no different to what I've got. So, what I did was to use 1xPlant growth lighting tube and 1x fish colouration lighting tube.

Also, if you need to back the lighting levels off, just remove the reflectors.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Andy

 

[shadowhywind]

Thanks for all the help. and just to verify, anything over 2 WPG one should add a CO2 diffesur correct?

 

[Underwurlde]

Don't want to say.... BECASUSE the Lighting per Gallon rule is SO general to rend it pretty much useless... but yeeeees kind of....

Not much use am I?

For 2.4WPG (2x 24W / 20US gals), using T5's with shiny reflectors, the T5's being super-duper TriPhospahte plant growing tubes, then yes, I'd say we're getting into the realms of needed more CO2 in the tank to match resulting potential plant growth.

BUT, you DON'T have to have that 'ideal' set up IF somehow you can remove the reflectors... or mix tubes as I've suggested...

See where I'm coming from here?

Andy