Plant Tips.

[Dan364]

I have had a planted tank running now for about 2 months, it is my first planted tank. I have java fern, hygrophila corymbosa and lobelia cardinalis.It is a 7g tank with guppy fry in there. They dont seem to be growing but are still green but some leafs are brown and apear to be falling of apart from the java fern, which i have tied to some bogwood. My question is what products would you recoment to maintain healthy plants and are these suitible plants? I didnt really know what i was looking for apart from the java fern.
Would i be able to put a java moss ball in there?

 

[lljdma06]

I have had a planted tank running now for about 2 months, it is my first planted tank. I have java fern, hygrophila corymbosa and lobelia cardinalis.It is a 7g tank with guppy fry in there. They dont seem to be growing but are still green but some leafs are brown and apear to be falling of apart from the java fern, which i have tied to some bogwood. My question is what products would you recoment to maintain healthy plants and are these suitible plants? I didnt really know what i was looking for apart from the java fern.
Would i be able to put a java moss ball in there?

When you buy plants from a LFS, to my knowledge, most of them come from nurseries where they are grown under ideal condition and have built up a reserve of stored energy. That explains why for up to several months, plants may seem to be doing well in the home aquarium. Once these reserves, however, are consumed, the plants will begin to deteriorate if the home aquarium doesn't not provide them with their growing needs. The first question I'm going to ask you is what is your lighting? What type of lighting do you have? Actually, your plant choices are not bad for a lower light system, barring that you have the minimum amount of light for this system. Otherwise, the java fern is pretty much all that will do well. If you only have bare minimum lighting then plants for you to try are anubias, java fern, and mosses, perhaps even cryptocorynes would do well as would some stems of Egeria densa. But, you first have to answer my lighting question.

 

[Dan364]

Thanks, the lighting that i have is just the standard light that came with the tank. Which was a aquaone-aquastart 320. here is a link. http/www.aquaone.co.uk/starter_aquariums.php

Thanks

 

[Dan364]

bump

 

[Sammie7]

Yes, but what wattage is the light? Is the fixture like a standard incandescent hood?

 

[Dan364]

Yes, but what wattage is the light? Is the fixture like a standard incandescent hood?

its a PL- 11w

 

[Sammie7]

What does the PL stand for? Can you put fluorescent bulbs in this hood? 11watts isn't much light even for a fluorescent bulb. The java fern would probably survive as well as the moss ball, but I wouldn't expect any major growth from them. As for the cardinal plant, I am not to familiar with that, so maybe someone else could help with that question. The hygro might be ok as well, but I'm not sure.

 

[SuperColey1]

The PL11 in Aqua ones is a 4 pin twin compact fluorecent folded in 2 type. I only know this because there are quite a few threads on Aqua ones complaining about the wattage limitations.

 

[Dan364]

Thanks.
Here is a recent photo of it anyway if it helps

 

[lljdma06]

The PL11 in Aqua ones is a 4 pin twin compact fluorecent folded in 2 type. I only know this because there are quite a few threads on Aqua ones complaining about the wattage limitations.

Ok, supercoley1, thanks for the info. I'm not great with the British all in ones. So it's 11W total?

That isn't much for 7g. I've got 24W over an 8g and that is considered a low-moderately lit tank. In my first post, I gave some lower light plant recommendations that now seem pretty appropriate.

llj

 

[Dan364]

Ok thanks. Could i put some marimo in there?

Also what UK products would you recomend to keep the plants healthy

 

[Sammie7]

A marimo should do fine.