Planted Newbie-need Some Advice

[kristins1877]

OK, so when I set my 40 gal up about 5 months ago I decided to go with live plants. Only figured about 2 or 3, but it soon became an addiction! I KNOW I do not have the correct ANYTHING. Using regular gravel (I do use the liquid fert), No CO2, etc. Heres my question... Many of my plants are growing very well (Wisteria, Cabomba) but some of my plants (Rotala and Ludwigia) are very "mushy" when I go in to rearrange them. I bought them off of Aquariumplants.com and had them shipped and they are pretty new (about 5 days) but they seem weak stemmed and are slimy. Do I need to give it more time or is there something wrong? Also should I take the leaf and stem droppings out of the water immediately or should I leave them in for the fish to nibble on?

 

[Ludwig Venter]

If you have been successfull previously & it is only the new additions not responding, I wonder if these were not collected in "the wild" and have to be acclimatised to aquarium conditions... In that case, they often diminish to the bare stems, & only when they regroup after this, they will get established.

 

[SuperColey1]

Can you give us as much detail about your setup as possible?

Filtration
CO2 and method (if injected)
Fert you are using
% of substrate planted
wattage and T number of lighting (reflectors?)
water change frequency and volume
fishload

With the % of substrate planted it doesn't literally mean that a 2mm diameter stem is 2mm diameter of the substrate. If you planted uniformly over the whole tank then it would be 100% coverage even though there would be an inch between each stem etc.

Any pictures would be even more helpful.

AC

 

[kristins1877]

OK I'll try...

40 gal tall tank
Im using a Aquafilter power 50
no CO2
Leaf Zone liquid plant food weekly
water temp 80 degrees
about 50% of the tank is planted
25% water change weekly
PH 7
regular lighting that came with the tank (for now - I know I need to upgrade to 2 watts per gal)

fish in tank:
2 small angelfish
4 dwarf gourami
2 dwarf blue rams
3 mollies
2 platies
3 swordtails
2 plecos
2 corys
3 glass cats
2 dwarf puffers

(slowly re-homing most of the livebearers)

trying to upload pics this aftenoon...

 

[SuperColey1]

Don't take my tone as anything but straight to the point. Not trying to be nasty just clearing up a few contradictions/myths. lol

Is it Aquafilter or AquaClear? Aquafilter on a quick google comes up with inline tap water filters

No CO2
25% water change weekly
regular lighting that came with the tank (for now - I know I need to upgrade to 2 watts per gal)

These 3 won't work together. No CO2 means you are relying on the CO2 that is naturally processed through gaseous exchange at the water's surface. Because you are relying on the CO2 from gaseous exchange and you still need to keep CO2 levels consistent then water changes should not be done (3/6 monthly!!!) This is because tap water is CO2 saturated and therefore each water change destabilised the levels and in the long run the plants will not be able to cpmete with the algae effectively. Water changes are in effect like someone using pressurised CO2 moving the injection rate all the time.

No one NEEDS to upgrade to 2WPG!!!! This is a myth that is floating around the hobby. At 2WPG you MUST have proper pressurised CO2 (not DIY) to stand a chance against algae. If you don't want CO2 then you should stay under 1.5WPG T8 (1 inch diameter tubes) and under 1WPG T5 (5/8 inch diameter tubes) Whichever you do then you should also have reflectors on them.

I would guess the lighting you have with the tank is sufficient but can you read what is printed on the tubes and see what the diameter of them are?

In planted tanks we tend to get much larger filters than non planted in that we want the lph rating of the filter to be 10 times or more the volume of the tank. Therefore you want to be looking for a filter of more than 1800lph. This will also help deal with the issue of your large fish in a no water change scenario!!

Hope this helps a little

AC

 

[kristins1877]

I appriciate the help - as I said, this is new to me and I rely on the advice of you experienced guys. I checked the filter and its an aquaclear 50. The light and housing actually doesn't say anything on it so Im not quite sure. It is SOOO hard to read through all the contradicting information out there! One site says one thing and then you go to another and its completely different! I found a CO2 "system" on petsmart online called Jungle CO2 fizz factory. Don't know if its any good?
Heres the real contradiction... I want to be successful without spending a fortune! lol (this is probably impossible!!)

 

[SuperColey1]

I want to be successful without spending a fortune! lol (this is probably impossible!!)

Possible but not very easy


The Aquaclear 50 is a powerhead. lph is quite good though!!! Do you have an undergravel filter system?

Ignore CO2 products. 99.9% of them are rubbish. Its nothing, DIY for smaller tanks or pressurised for larger/high light tanks I'm afraid.

Can you give the diameter and length of your light tubes? anything printed on the actual tube?

AC

 

[kristins1877]

OK was looking at the tube and never looked on the back of the light! lol. The bulb says Eclipse Natural Daylight F15T8 18" 47F Hg
And the back of the light says: 120 vac, 60Hz, 17w. I don't have an undergravel filter.

 

[SuperColey1]

How is the aquaclear filtering then? It seems to be a powerhead for undergravel filters when I google it?

Your light is 15W then.

AC

 

[nosoup4you]

Aquaclear 50

 

[SuperColey1]

Hob filter. The ones I checked called it a powerhead. lol. That seems to be OK lph wise. Maybe a little more needed but nothing to worry about.

So you have 15W over a 40USG tank??? That is something to worry about. you need to triple that wattage and add reflectors if you don't have them. I would aim for around 1.5WPG of T8 therefore 60W total 45W minimum.

The filter should be OK but you could do with some extra flow from a powerhead to get the water circulating really well.

Then you should be OK for low to medium light plants with no CO2 addition. Not going to be any HC carpets here though. lol

AC

 

[kristins1877]

Thanks, Ill buy a new light this weekend. The filter seems to be OK, I end up cleaning the plant debris daily because it clogs the suction. This is my trial and error period I guess, lol. I haven't had any deaths or disasters yet so I guess Im not a total flop! (knock on wood) I'll keep on learning and eventually I'll get it!