Regenerating A Old, Dying Fish Tank.

[shahrezsyed]

Oh and as far as plants go.

Plain gravel is the same as bog standard sand when it comes to planting (IE holds no nutrients).

And in my tank I have...
Anubias Nan
Java Fern
Twisted Vallis
Amazon Sword
Cabomba
Ludwidgia
A reed plant
Moss Ball
Java Moss
Amazon Frogbit (although this is a floating plant)

All I do is dose liquid ferts and liquid carbon.

But for...
Anubias
Java Fern
Java Moss
(and a couple of other plants I can't think of now)
Basic gravel + Basic lighting will do the job. No fertilisers needed.

im also a student and have a pocket money of 36 dollars(which is less i suppose) for my 45 gallon,i'll buy the plants slowly of course and which ferts exactly do you buy? AND dont you use a substrate additive or a special substrate for your cabomba and amazon swords??? if i start with amazon,sword and cabomba and the ferts how much will it cost???
shahrez

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Good question shahrez, also would like to know!

Going to buy play sand from argos tomorrow, clean/put it in the tank and also adjust the height of the inlet(filter) so its higher off the surface and doesnt get much sand in it.
Then ill be logging into Ebay.co.uk to buy some plants, anyone have any recommended sellers (london here) or plants i should begin with?

Elodea isnt very nice looking, cabomba looks awesome... is that ok?

Thanks

 

[Curiosity101]

I use...

Fertiliser TPN+ (I bought it from Aqua Essentials)
AE Liquid Carbon (Aqua Essentials own brand of liquid carbon)

If you PM me Chris then I can refer you to Aqua Essentials and we both get a free £10.
But obviously if you can find it elsewhere for cheaper then get it from there.

And sorry I can't help with US ferts n such as what I use you can't get over there. And I'm not plant buff!

As for plants...I'd try n source alot of my plants from here (tbh that is what I've actually done! LOL)
I find ebay is a bit hit n miss for plants...Check out aarons REEEAALLLY good guide on where to buy plants online.
Here you go ---> UK Guide of where to buy plants!

What is your lighting again Chris? I think you have quite a low level of lighting. In which case I don't think Cabomba is a very good idea to start out with.

 

[swordtailz]

Yeah, get the master test kit. The liquid tests are sooo much better!
As for fish, you can go with some Glo-Light Tetras. They are orange and very cool looking when schooling.

 

[Sofia]

People really under estimate elodea densa, it makes a good plant for tanks that are starting out as it grows like wild fire and will out compete algae for nutrients preventing the dreaded algae bloom. You can always pull them out once your other plants have established themselves. You dont even have to plant it into the substrate just leave it floating around.

You existing fish will really appreciate some natural planting and elodea is a cheap plant that guarantees to help in their recovery

Elodea densa looks wonderful in a dense group IMO

 

[Sofia]

I haven't had much luck with camboba I think its the soft water up here in scotland but in london you shouldnt have an issue, Camboba is a beautifull soft looking plant and also grows like nobodies business, cut the stems in half and replant them once they get too tall.

My experience of ebay stores selling plants is that they are very hit and miss, some have arrived dead some are very poor quality and they sometimes bundle non aquatic plants into your 'job lot' these will rot in you tank and cause ammonia spikes. I would avoid them tbh. You get what you pay for basically.

But, if you do buy from them specify to them that you want aquatic only plants.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

i have a Aqua Glo - T8 40W (For my tank which is around 40gallons - See dimensions in sig). So yeah 1WPG i guess, considered low i believe?

My local fish shop sells some (Elodea, cabomba) but they seem very overpriced, specially elodea which supposedly grows like mad.

I guess ill get some elodea(Uh...).

Will the medicines im using kill plants? Would of loved to have my tank all up and running/nice looking for when my parents return in a week

 

[Sofia]

1 wpg is fine for most plants, general rule is anything over 1wpg and you ideally need to use CO2 to grow your plants and generally keep them alive.

You dont have to buy elodea!!!

If you want you can buy some plants from ebay and see what you get, they tend to send easy grow plants like elodea I just think its a waste of money if you buy what you think are aquatic plants and gets house plants mixed in.

I'll send you a pm with a link to some plants on ebay I bought when I needed plants quickly for my new random purchase tank.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Yeah that seems really bad to send those, however i noticed my local pet shop also sold plants that has strong stems (suggesting they weren't to be grown in water, but out of water hence supporting their own weight). Infact years ago i purchased some, they just went yellow/rotted and left a dead stem!!!

Suprising when the stores charge £2-3.

My budget is as close to £0 as it can get, i'll be purchasing play sand tomorrow/cleaning/putting it in the tank.

Im medicating my fish right now though, hopefully the medicines dont kill plants?

 

[Sofia]

It will say on the bottle if they kill plants or not but generally they do not

 

[OldMan47]

A quick way to choose plants that are tough as nails and don't need much light is to buy whatever is cheapest in the pet shop. There is a reason that some plants are more expensive, they are harder to grow and people want to be paid for their efforts. Elodea is among the fastest growing low light plants that I have used. I also find that java fern, java moss and cryptocorynes are fairly easy low light plants. A slower growing low light plant is Anubias and of course slower growing means more expensive. None of these plants require any fertilizers added although they will grow a bit faster with the right added fertilizers. If you are on a budget trying to fertilize plants, do not buy pre-mixed liquids. Instead go to a reputable source of dry fertilizers and mix your own. There are lots of recipes for DIY fertilizer mixes that work quite nicely at a fraction of the cost of pre-mixed liquids. I would be very surprized if the people in our own planted tank section could not tell you right where to get dry ferts depending on where you live.

 

[ChrisChrisChris]

Got my Argos play sand (1 bag...but doesn't look big enough for my tank....Hmmm ill see i guess).

Gotta clean clean clean clean it tomorrow, then turn off filter? throw it in and hope it settles fast! Then filter goes on again i guess?

 

[Sofia]

It usually settles overnight. When I put sand in my tank I put some fine filter media in my fluval filters and had them running while the sand was settling and it didnt damage them. I did this because I had fish in my tank whislt chaging the substrate.

It's up to you, since you have fish in your tanks I wouldnt leave the filters off while the sand it settling if you are gentle about placing it in the tank it shouldn't kick up too much.

 

[OldMan47]

With sand in the tank, make sure you have a good space between the sand and the filter inlet. You don't want to get sand into your filter's impeller.

 

[Princesscoral]

hello

yuc i bet sponing the dirt out was lovley

princesscoral
age 9