Newbie's story.

[DaveW]

Hi,

I’m a newbie at aquatic plants, well I’ve only had my tank running for 3 months now. I have a 33 US gallon tank with normal heater/stat, Ehiem 2213 external filter and twin tubes built into the hood. I have a few live plants, artificial plants, 2 pieces of bog wood and sand as the substrate. The few live plants are, SPATYPHYLLUM MALAYSIA (BORNEO SWORD) which is slowly growing, ACORUS GRAMINEUS (GREEN RUSH) (I think anyway) again slowly growing, and CLADOPHORA AEGAGROPILA (MOSS BALLS) which I’ve had for a couple of weeks and are OK. I had ECHINODORUS TENELLUS (DWARF CHAIN SWORD) which was growing but there was a lot of leaves dieing and rotting, so I took it out.

I have been reading about lighting, CO2, etc, etc on this forum and realise that I can’t afford to spend as much as I would need to at the moment, so I’m trying to work with what I’ve got.

First, lighting. I have two tube totaling 40 watts, so that’s 1.2 WPG (low to medium). Lucky, the plants I have will survive in low light / tolerate significant shading. I am planning on removing the built-in tubes and replacing them with twin 55 watts Interpet T5 tubes. This will give me just over 3.3 WPG with space to add more. This is when I can afford in!

Second, CO2. I do not have a CO2 system. But I have a Nutrafin CO2 system on it’s way. I know it’s not really big enough but it’s better than nothing. Again, when finances allow I will look into some thing better.

If I understand right my sand substrate isn’t perfect but it should work OK.

I have got algae which is not to bad, but I’m not happy about it. So I place an order for some more plants, which I received today. I have got, ANUBIAS NANA NANA (ANUBIAS SPECIES), MICROSORIUM PTEROPUS (JAVA FERN) and VESICULARIS DUBYANA (JAVA MOSS), which I will attach to my bog wood and a couple of stones. I understand that they can survive in low light. I all so have 5 VALLISNERIA TORTA (TWISTED VALLIS) and 5 VALLISNERIA SPIRALIS (STRAIGHT VALLIS) which I hope will be OK. I’m hoping that an increase of plants will help keep the algae under control for now.

I would like to get some quick growing plants that will survive the low light, so if anyone could help, I would be grateful. And any help or advice would be appreciated too.

Cheers
Dave

PS: What does it mean by “semi-aquatic” plant?

 

[DaveW]

Sorry, forgot my stats.

pH 8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

I haven't got a hardness test as yet.

 

[George Farmer]

Welcome to the forum Dave!

Unfortunately fast growing plants generally need lots of light/nutrients to grow fast. You should have success with some hardy stem plants i.e. Hygrophila polysperma with your current lighting.

Be careful when you get your new lighting. 3.3 WPG needs a stable CO2 of around 30ppm, something that is hard to acheive with one Nutrafin unit. Two wouild be better, changing the mixtures alternately to keep a constant level of CO2 output. Also with this light and CO2 you will likely need to fertilise regularly. Are you aware of the EI method? Read zig's article for more info.

Sort out your CO2 and plant heavily with fast growing stems before using your new lighting otherwise you'll get algae.

Semi-aquatic means just that. It grows best with its roots submerged but its main body emerged (out of water). Your Acorus falls into this category and will therefore not grow well, it should last a few months before dying off.

 

[DaveW]

Thanks for the advice.
I think I've got BGA , I think I'll have a look in the lfs for some more plants tomorrow.

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks for the advice.
I think I've got BGA , I think I'll have a look in the lfs for some more plants tomorrow.

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Eliminate the BGA before adding plants. There's plenty of BGA experience on here - do a search. My algae article may help (last section).