Planted Tank Attempt 3

[MrJerry]

Hi guys and girls

 
 
So I’m trying to get a fully growing planted tank but always seem to fall short of the mark
 
I first tried with plants that I liked the look of in my lfs (school boy error) bought them and planted them into plain orange gravel with no fertz, no carbon and as you can tell they died L
So after some research into the matter I then went and bought an assortment of low maintenance plants bought in a bundle from the web, I then bought root tabs to place under all plants and then dosed with liquid carbon and ferts, after doing all of this they did last longer but still inevitably died.
So at the moment I’m back to plastic plants and really want a lovely aquascaped tank that continues to grow and not die.
So some info about the tank..
I have a 3foot (length) by 1foot (Depth) by 15/16 inches (height)
1 t8 24w bulb suspended about 4 inches above the water in the hood of the tank, with some aluminium foil as a reflector (cheap I know)
I have an external filter from all pond solutions and think it is 1000l/ph, in the external I have carbon bag, clearmax bag , and zeocarb bag.
In the tank I have a heater, hydro pump to have a bit of water movement
After getting some chrimbo money I was going to buy some new substrate , new 2 t5ho 39w bulbs and if funds stretch then a soda stream co2 kit
 
 
My shopping list so far - http/www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/12X9TSWI1LCOG
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
Some photos of my tank at present
 
 

 
 


 

 

 

 

[Stimo]

i will keep an eye on this one as i too am interested in getting live plants.
i think substrate might play a part here as well as i've heard if it's too loose it doesnt hold the goodness in there too long , easily washed through?

 

[MrJerry]

Yeah I have heared that the size of the grains can hinder the plants growth, hopefully when I purchase that jbl manado and use it to cap the addatives to the bottom hopefully wount washout any of the 'goodness'

 

[Stimo]

i currently have coral gravel about 2-3mm not sure if this stuff is any good for plants ?
 
i have that exact same thermometer on your shopping list and works just fine.

 

[coolie]

I recommend doing what I a currently doing, which is getting a few different plants of varying degrees of ease, to grow successfully, rather than aquascaping an entire tank at great expense and seeing them die. I even found during this process that water cress from Asda grows vigorously in the tank when conditions are just so.

 

[Chaydell]

+1 for what coolie said.  That is my approach at the moment.  I am buying low light hardy plants one or two at a time and adding them to the tank.  Of course the most important step is research.  Some plants are particular about there surroundings while some are less picky.  Also keep in my that while not very picky, some plants like crypts will melt when they are moved.  It might look like they have died but new growth follows.  Other plants like java fern and anubus don't want their rhizomes buried in the substrate.  There are quite a few aquatic plants that don't get their nutrients from the roots, the roots are there for anchoring purposes only.  It is very important that you know how to care for the plant you buy or may keep getting poor results,

 

[tunagirll]

I've just started out with live plants, check out my journal in the sig link for some of my experiences so far.

 

[MrJerry]

Stimo -
 
awh glad to hear that that heater is working for you, read online that they tended to fail quite quickly, how is yours holding up ?
and only 2/3 mm my gravel at the min is liked 3/4 cm haha
 
coolie -
 
awh so gradually bring in plants not all in one go , could you recommend any plants that are good starter plants ? i know that java fern and moss are relatively easy to look after.
would getting new substrate help tho ? and woud the adding of co2 help or is that all a bit over kill at the moment?
Can you actually plant watercress in your tank ?? never thought of doing something like that haha
 
chaydell -
 
i know that java fern is best attached to items like bog wood or rocks because the rhizomes need to be in the water column, i didn't know that crypts melted before regrowth ... probably pulled them out cos they looked dead haha
thanks for the info tho 
 
tunagirll - 
 
cheers for the comment , have to have a good read through the link ....
nigel is lovely by the way , really pretty fish
 
to all -
 
so would upgrading my t8 24 w bulb to 2 x 39w t5ho be 2 much ? or try with the lights ive got so far ?
would new and better substrate for plant growth also be worth it ?
 
cheers for all the comments guys/gals

 

[tunagirll]

I calculated your tank volume to roughly 28 gallons, hopefully that's right as I am not into inches, feet and gallons

if you go by low/medium light 1.5-2w per gallon then you would need 42-56w
 
2 x 39w = 78w which is more around 2.5-3w per gallon and that is medium/high light; probably too much. You want low/medium light to start with because that way things won't go too fast and get out of control like they do when you have lots of light. If you don't get your fertilisers right for example, you'll end up with an algal bloom before you can say pea soup 

Can you get 2 x 24w? That would be about right imo.
 
Now I am not an expert but that is how I understand it and hopefully that helps!

 

[Stimo]

heater i'm not sure on....... i was on about the thermometer

 

im going to try java fern first and pin it to some wood i have see how that pans out first then move onto something else

 

[MrJerry]

tunagirll -
 
yeah my tank is about 22 ish gallons i remember calculating many moons ago haha
yeah getting 2x 24w is no problem .... was just going to get bigger because i thought i didn't have enough light
 
would i still need to add co2 and fertz or because there so slow growing at this light then they will get most of the nutrients from the fish by-products
 
stimo-
 
awh my bad thought you was on about the heater , still glad to know that the thermometer is good

 

[Primous]

The thermometer is perfect. The Hydor heater is the most precise heater I've ever had but the best advice I could give you is to echo what Chaydell said
 

Of course the most important step is research. 

 
And tons of it. A planted tank is like a complex equation, you could get one element wrong and the whole thing falls apart irrespective of experience. The first thing you'll need to decided is if you're going low, medium, or high tech at 2x22w on a 22gal you'll be running at 2wpg and that is at the higher end of high light aquariums. I highlight that (excuse the pun) because running at that level is like a race car going at full speed, one slip and it could crash, quickly. Running at Highlight you'll also need a good CO2 injection and diffusion rate and an abundance of ferts otherwise the plants could starve...
 
A medium setup could suffer from the exact same crashes as mentioned above. However, with this setup you'll have more time to adjust and head off any potential problems. While low light ftank generally frees you of any of the aforementioned concerns. You could run any of these tanks "successfully."  You could buy every plant/set up a scape and hit the ground running so to speak but it genuinely comes down to how much research you're prepared to put in.
 
As for scapes, truth be told you can "copy" other scapes already out there. I mean, every single iwaqumi/dutch/biotope is a copy of the original in some form, right? So copying the plant range/ferts/co2/lighting etc of a particular tank you like and simply modify and put your own spin on things according to your particular tank dimensions has worked for others. The key here is a good planted tank journal that lists everything from individual plant species, to lighting, ferts etc and you could replicate
 

 
If you put in enough research. I recognize that the above could look like an insurmountable task but again a few simple steps and a lot of dedication and it's easily within reach. Also note that you could achieve the exact same look in med/high/and low tech tank.
 
Just my 30 cents really. Dismiss anything that you disagree with. One other thing I should mention is that those green machine ferts are not really worth the price and in my humble opinion isn't something you should invest in.
 
Prime
 
 

 

[tunagirll]

As the above poster mentioned, too much light is not a good thing when you're learning about planted tanks!
If you have a 22 gallon tank, then maybe look at just the one 24W light (just over 1wpg) for now. You can always add to it later once you get the hang of it. Running a 24W light for 6-7 hours a day would be ample for your hardier plants - java ferns and anubias. They will be fine, just will grow slowly.
 
You can start out with a simple regime - pop your plants in, 24W light 6-7 hours a day, add a plant fertiliser at the recommended rate twice a week, add a good trace such as Flourish Trace twice a week, and add a carbon product like Flourish Excel daily. The Flourish Excel I recommend personally as a good starter, it helps suppress your algae as well.
 
My tank is a 6 gallon or so, and I have 8W (1.3wpg) 6 hours daily and my plants are happy including crypts and blyxa which are medium light plants, they did well on the above regime.
Hope this helps!

 

[Stimo]

Apologies to MrJerry for me tagging along on this , saves people having to explain again to me I guess
I'm running at 2.25wpg with two bulbs so removing one bulb and running at 1.125wpg would be the way to go?
I will be going low tech adding just a few hardy plants a time will this be ok? will I still need co2 ferts etc or is that just when you do not have enough requirements in the water when the tank I loaded with them?

 

[tunagirll]

all low tech or high tech means is the amount of work you want to put into the tank - low tech is less work - less light, less long, slower growing plants (and algae!) and a wider window of opportunity to correct things that go amiss. high tech is more work - more light, more involved plants, everything is much faster paced and so is the risk of algae.
 
Start low tech (same as me) more forgiving and you can always slowly ramp it up. You'll still need fertiliser (both macro and micro nutrients) and some form of Carbon (eg Flourish Excel) preferably, but you can get by without it; the carbon is needed for plant growth so all that will happen is slow growth (and then you would need to ensure you're not putting too much fertiliser in the water). 
 
The important thing is to have a routine and stable stats eg light watts, time on etc, because this is what your plants will grow to - when you start whacking about with it things get out of hand pretty quickly.