What Would You Do?

[PDSimon]

Didn't know that coley, cheers for sharing - regarding the sword that is

Swords was just an example, there are plenty of alternatives available. The idea of it is that you have plenty of space left over, swords grow fast and can easily be cut back but there are plenty of other plants as I said such as the lugwigia repens, hygrophila; polysperma, difformis, corymbosa, bacopa caroliniana, echinodorus cordifolius is a smaller example of the amazon sword. You eithed need to stop dosing ferts or plant up a lot. I don't think your lighting is that much though? Its still less than 1.5WPG (roughly)? although I havn't worked it out.

You seem a bit stuck and by staying in the middle you'll wish you'd have gone one way or the other sooner. Like coley was saying, internet shopping is fine but you get what you pay for. If you buy 40 plants for 5 quid, half of them probably won't even be suitable etc or you could spend 5-10 quid on one plant from the green machine which will be in great condition but expensive.

 

[elisew]

I personally would say your tank would benefit from more plants as has already been mentioned.

I started keeping fish over a year ago and have been unsure as to what plants would be best, not only to help the tank look nice and healthy but also to give my fish a more 'natural' setting. The advice I`ve received and followed from members on this forum has been brilliant and I`m really glad I took their advice.

There`s a pic of my 180ltr tank as it is now in the Member's Aquarium and Fish Pictures section, it`s heavily planted and extremely healthy, I dose with Seachem Flourish 2-3 times a week and have added crypto tabs into the sand and it`s made a huge difference. I`m aware that not everyone wants a tank that`s heavily planted but maybe some of the other photos on the forum could give you some idea of how far you can go with adding plants and which ones to use?

I`ve bought a lot of the plants from a couple of the other members who sell through the classified section here and all have been lovely and healthy plants and they`re great prices too.

 

[mark4785]

Thanks for all the feedback Pdsimon, Elisew and Coley.

I've taken the elodea densa out; getting sick of looking at it lose it's colour instead of grow. I do realise the light is probably too strong and I could have benefited from a different sort of lighting scheme. Unfortunately, when I first started cycling the aquarium that the plants are in, I wasn't very knowledgable with regards to the plants light/nutrition/carbon requirements; not realising there had to be a good balance between those three variables. So, yes, I'm stuck with a lighting scheme that isn't doing me any favours!

As soon as my new debit card is working (had to close old one due to fraudster taking money!) I'll see if I can find anything on offer at the 'green machine'. I'm looking strictly for slow-growers so I will try and do a search for the suggested plants named in this thread.

If anybody is aware of any nice looking slow-growers which haven't been mentioned I'd appreciate it if you could forward the name. I'm really new to planted tanks so I only know one handful of aquatic plant names!

Thank you again,

Mark.

edit: If I see anything that is worth purchasing (maybe 2-3 small growers) I'd appreciate any information regarding what I need to do to care for them when added to the tank. I'm still a bit unsure as to when or if I dose nutrients/carbon. This is despite reading the beginners guides on the planted forum.

 

[SuperColey1]

I think you'll need more than 2 or 3 Best bet is to go to Pets at home or maidehead aquatics (both chain stores in most cities) and have a look in there. You should pick up plants pretty cheap in there

Just to comfort you. This is my first tank (my main one that you see is full to the brim now) in December 2006. Count the 'real' plants.............Mmmm yep 3 We were all newbies once

And this is it a month later, still not really knowing what to do and trying every plant I could find:

6 months later I was getting the hang of things and starting to develop some basic aquascaping:

So thats 6 months in. We all start somewhere. We all have inhibitions until we gain confidence and we all believe everything the LFS tell us right or wrong until we learn otherwise

Patience and research is key my friend and you'll be showing off your planted tank and fish that love their home to everyone and anyone

In answer to your question r.e. not knowing whether to use CO2 and ferts or not. Loads of plants ferts are needed. Not many plants they aren't, the fish and fish food etc will be enough. CO2 is optional for any light below 2WPG (ish) and above 2WPG it is compulsory for people who don't admire algae's growth qualities

AC

 

[mark4785]

Thanks for the advise again SuperColey.

I think judging from the high fuel cost that would be incurred from getting to Maidenhead aquatics, it would be a better option for me to order from the Green machine website. I'm not fond of Pets at Home or its employees so I won't be going there.

I've had a good look around the Green Machine website, and this is what I intend to order and add to the aquarium:

1 x Microsorum pteropus (as seen here)

2 x Eleocharis parvula (as seen here). This one has a medium growth rating which means I need to be providing it with what it needs from day 1 otherwise I'll be taking it out and throwing it due it leaching ammonia into the water.

2 x Echinodorus 'Aquartica' (as seen here).

1 x Bacopa monnieri (as seen here).


If I was to put the above plants in, will anything need to be changed in terms of the timeframe during which the lights are on or fertilizer addition frequency?

I currently add EasyLife Profito weekly and try to keep my Phosphate level at 0.5-1.0 ppm. The nitrate level is currently dictated purely by the nitrogen cycle; in other words I don't add EasyLife Nitro. I also don't add Liquid Carbon anymore. Will any of this need to change if I add the plants above to the already planted aquarium?

I know Supercoley as said a certain amount of light wattage warrants liquid carbon addition, but I'm not too sure whether i've reached the threshold that he mentions.

Mark.

 

[mark4785]

Anyone there?

 

[PDSimon]

I'm not sure about your ferts as I have no experience with them. You've probably got more ferts than you need in there already so by adding more plants hopefully they will soak it up. I still think you should have a few fast growers in there but thats just my opinion. It would just help balance the aquarium I think... I didn't increase my ferts from the manufacturers stated dose for a while even though the plant mass increased a lot. Recently i've increased it to 5ml of tropica plant nutrition+ and 5ml of easycarbo everyday and the plants appreciate it significantly, without any increase in algae.

I have eleocharis parvula in mine, its quite varied in what it does. You break it up into smaller bits. i.e. in this pic, eleocharis is on the bottom left

but i cut it so it looks more like this

You're meant to (according to where you bought yours from) plant it in small bunches, to do that you cut most of the roots off, leaving approx 1cm of roots leaving the rockwool to weigh it down. you also cut a fair amount of the leaves(not sure you'd call them leaves but you know what I mean) to make it 1-2cm. I found some of the bigger bunches are doing better than the smaller ones, so try and get it fairly equal, no less than 1cm squared of plant if you know what I mean! break it into approx 8 pieces. a couple of my bunches died, mostly the ones that were a bit to small. It has slowly grown little runners out that should form more plants eventually. Nice little plant but it really appreciated the overdosing of nutrients and easycarbo. It didn't die when I wasn't dosing as muchbut growth was exceptionally slow. You can see they're doing better in the middle where this is more light.

bacopa caroliniana would have been a better option I think its more suited to less light but it shouldn't really matter. java ferns can grow anywhere really if you kill those you should take all the plants out

 

[SuperColey1]

I think judging from the high fuel cost that would be incurred from getting to Maidenhead aquatics, it would be a better option for me to order from the Green machine website.

Not sure where you are in derbyshire but there is a store in Derby.

Full list of stores here:
http/www.fishkeeper.co.uk/storelocation.aspx

You are in the threshold where you can get away without CO2. Thats not to say you can't use CO2 if you wish. Just remember ading CO2 (or liquid carbon) speeds the plant's growth and therefore speeds their nutrient uptake.

Therefore your dosing is dependent on this as well as anything else. If going non CO2 then a teeny bit of a macro nutrient mix whether you buy some small dry powder bags or TPN+ these are about the only ones that supply the N and P. If the TPN + then just go by the bottle instructions weekly. No need for any more than that. Maybe even go half as much.

There will be enough trace in the tank already from left over fish food and fish poop/wee. they are called 'micros' for a reason. That being that only tiny amounts are needed.

If you do dose liquid C or go for CO2 then you would dose as the other 1ml per 20ltr.

I am wondering what you mean by 'trying to limit P to between 0.5ppm and 1ppm' How are you doing that? and why? Don't be scared of P. My tap is 0.6ppm and I was still dosing 2ppm on top of that when I was doing EI. P doesn't hurt.

Maybe you are a marine person and are transferring your marine knowledge over to planted freshwater. If so you need 2 mindsets. Freshwater planted is as different from Marine as a dog from a parrot. 2 different beasts entirely and go by 2 different sets of 'rules'. You need to seperate your marine thinking from your freshwater thinking because big no nos in marine are often big yes yes' in planted tanks.

AC