Novice Questions & Opinions On My Aquascape

[JordanOsborne]

Hello! I've recently overhauled my aquarium & was looking for some opinions on my aquascape & I had a few questions regarding some of my plants.

My tank is a 20g long. For filtration I use a 150gph filter & a 240gph powerhead. My lighting is a T5-HO 2x24w with giesemann midday (6000k) and giesemann aquaflora bulbs, I keep my lights on for 8 hours a day. Substrate is Flourite black sand. I don't have a CO2 system right now, I'm dosing excel daily & phosphates / potassium / nitrogen / trace / flourish as directed by the bottles.

Heres a picture of the tank as is right now

By jordanosborne at 2010-10-31

I have a cup of micro swords & an extremely trimmed down amazon sword on standby in my aquarium (not in the picture). I removed the micro swords due to a bad hit of algae, and after I trimmed down the amazon sword (leaf damage / algae) I just can't find a good place to put it. To counter the algae I purchased the powerhead & lowered the temperature to 76 degrees.

* I just didn't see much growth from my micro swords & had problems keeping them algae free and green. Can anyone offer advice on these?

* my anubias nana has not shown much growth since I got it about a month ago. It grew one new leaf, but the new growth was covered in algae and the leaf stopped growing so I trimmed it off ( before i upgraded circulation ) Since, I have moved the nana slightly into the shade inbetween my driftwood. Has anyone had experience growing this plant in a similar setup? can you offer any advice to have a healthy plant?

* I would love some opinions on what to do with my aquarium. What would be a good addition?

Thanks for reading

 

[ian]

Without C02 you gonna have a massive algae problem with the light that high. You can either go 2 ways here, lower the light or get pressurised C02. I think that pretty much covers most of your questions. You are looking at 2wpg at the moment, thats before you take the t5 ho into account, which can push it up a further 1wpg, knowbody knows.

 

[KittyKat]

* my anubias nana has not shown much growth since I got it about a month ago. It grew one new leaf, but the new growth was covered in algae and the leaf stopped growing so I trimmed it off ( before i upgraded circulation ) Since, I have moved the nana slightly into the shade inbetween my driftwood. Has anyone had experience growing this plant in a similar setup? can you offer any advice to have a healthy plant?

First piece of adive is "pull it out of the gravel" or the rhizome will rot. It is ok to have the roots underground though. A growth rate of 1 leaf per month is not unusual for this plant, the best I have ever managed to get out of it was about 1 leaf every 2-3 weeks.

* I would love some opinions on what to do with my aquarium. What would be a good addition?

Some stemmed plants along the back, maybe two or three groups, right and left (maybe leaving the centre clear?), and/or the sword on one side; medium Crypts for mid-ground; something grassy at the front? If you look on Tropica.com you will be able to view plants based on their demands.. unfortunately the advanced search where you could look by light requirements is no longer there from what I can see..

 

[myrtle]

You definitely need to get more plants in there as with dosing ferts, high light and only liquid CO2 to accelerate the uptake of the ferts you'll get a lot of algae. If it was my tank, I'd reduce the photoperiod and get some fast growing stems like Ceratopteris thalictroides which is great for new tanks. All the plants you have at the moment are slow growers so are prone to getting algae on their leaves, particularly the Anubias. I'll second the previous comment too, the anubia needs to be out of the substrate. Many people tie it to bogwod or rocks. A good rule of thumb is that if the leaves grow verticaly out of a horzontal 'stem' it probably needs tying as opposed to planting, ie Java Fern, Anubia etc.

 

[JordanOsborne]

Ooh I really like that Ceratopteris thalictroides (water sprite)

I'm really thinking hard about going to the pressurized Co2 route now. I have the money to invest in this, I just don't know much about it.

What would be some other good fast growing, high light demand plants for my set up? Also, any of you have opinions on Co2 systems / parts?