betta blue

I need so much help! Afraid you're going to be hearing from me alot til I can have a successful planted aquarium. It's time I started to concentrate on my plants. Just started aquariums a year and half ago...always had a plant or two in my 2-5gal. and 2-10gal tanks. They're surviving but not doing wonderfully. Now I have a 90 gal. tank and my plants aren't doing well at all. I've gone through Ich in that tank and treated it with salt and higher temperatures. Was happy to see that my plants just barely survived...but have gotten rid of the salt and am now at 80 degrees in that tank. I've bought a number of plants since and the longer they are in the tank, the less healthy they look. If I learn how to keep my plants healthy in the 90 gal., I think I can learn stuff for the small tanks.

I first believe that I don't have enough light for the 90 gal. I have one 40 watt (max. for a fluourescent tube) but I only have one tube allowed for my hood? I don't know how to increase the tubes in my current hood. Do I need to buy another hood? Is there a way I can change my current one or do I need an electrician to do it? Stupid question I know...but honestly, I don't know the answer.

I am totally afraid of CO2 injection...I have trouble with the filter cannister to change the elements in it. So you know, I'm a klutz...if I can screw up, I will find the way even though I have the best intentions.

So now you know how inept I am....My 90 gal has a java plant that I attached intentionally to bog wood and 2 grass type plants that attached to the bog wood on their own. I have three amazon swords that are dying. I have about 6 Val that are dying. I bought 3 beautiful plants that I finally got some latin names...hygrophila corymbosa siamensis; hygrophilia polysperma rosanervig; echinosorus osiris. They are beautiful plants in plastic pots...finally found a LFS with healthy plants that can tell me their latin names. I want to add to my substrate to properly plant the last three plants. Looking at finding an LFS that carries fluorite or latrite(sp). Currently, I have small rocks 1 cm in diameter for about one inch in depth with larger rocks for the surfance to keep the plants anchored. I'm only seeing just some small rocks at most of the LFS I've visited. Cause I have a common Plec and Clown Loaches plus mollies and platys, I would like to increase the back side of the aquarium with substrate to keep the plants on a quasi terrace but leave the front lower as it is to allow swimming. I use Nutrafin plant fertilizer sticks (16-9-12) with only four of the plants in the aquarium. How many of those sticks can I put into the aquarium without effecting the fish or should I change fertilizer methods. Can I overload a fish tank with fertilizer sticks for each plant? I've been told our tap water is on the hard side but with two large pieces of bog wood and one small one, my water seems to be soft. I'm only using test strips that I've read are not that dependable but I've used them now for the past 6 months and other than the PH lowering, they are consistent:

NO3 - between 0 and 20 (color in between both)
NO2 - between 0 and .5
PH - between 6.5 and 7
KH - between120 and 180
GH - definate 180

Currently, I do 10% water change weekly. I have one 9in. plec, one 6 in. twig catfish, 4 clown loaches...two weeks ago, have added 4 platy's and last week, 5 mollies. Please advise about substrate, fertilizers, what I have to do to increase wattage and yes, water changes.

Sorry to go on so much...but so many questions...and it's time I got my plants to grow!

Thanks,
Shar

DataGuru

It kinda depends on which way you want to go with it. This forum (enaturale) is mainly people who use topsoil covered by gravel for a substrate. heavily planted and have 1-2 watts per gallon of fluorescent light supplimented with sunlight from a window. Here's the how to doing that method:
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTank.html

Other folks, use the commercial substrates you listed supplimented with water fertilizers, CO2 and lots of light.

There are many ways to increase your lighting. I made pendants using pvc pipe, those aluminim clamp lights and the screw in fluorescent daylight bulbs for one tank. For another, I built a hood and used shop lights to get more light on the plants.

betta blue

Thank you DataGuru! I had wanted to do a natural plant aquarium but think it is too late with my tank already set up for 7 months. I guess I should have posted this in the beginners section. I had hoped not to do the topsoil in an already established tank. Again, I would like to stay away from the co2 cause I understand my ineptness. I appreciate the info on the lights and will try to find someone that can help incorporate them.

Thx again,
Shar

betta blue

PS My husband is an electrician but does not want to get involved in my aquariums...maybe in time...or maybe with your post, I can get him a bit more involved.

DataGuru

You are going to need some more light to grow anything besides low light plants like java fern, java moss or anubias. I'd recommend between 2 and 3 watts per gallon. He could build something easily. You'd just need to look around and figure out what you want. Also if you have a window, plants love sunlight.

dawntwister

You probably don't need co2, for you have low light.The amount of co2 needed depends on the amount of light you have. If light over tank is low and no natural light, there is enough co2 in the water. Basicly co2 has to balanced with the amount of light. A co2 replacement is flourish excel which inadvertly kills algae, most of the time. Some plants are sensitive to it.

You ought to look at the diy light fictures. There are some suggestion there how they set up shop lights over the tank. I beleive I saw 1 at wal-mart for about $20.

Most important nutrient plants need is iron. I learned this from rs79. Perhaps adding iron instead of the spikes would help.

The plants that are perishing need a rich substrate. The hygrophila put out roots on the stems, thus they can get nutrients from the water.

Here is some information concerning the cost of laterite and florite. Laterite greatly reduces the cost of setting up ideal plant growing substrates. For example: It takes at least 4-5 bags of Flourite to setup a standard 55gallon aquarium. At $18-$23 a bag, that's at least $90.00 to shell out. Using the best brand name Laterite (Duplarit) on the other hand, costs $32.00 for a single bag that can be mixed with the bottom 1/3 layer of your pre-existing "pet store" aquarium gravel. Duplarit also comes with proportionally blended nutrients to mix with the laterite.

I have seen laterite at petsmart.

Some people make diy fert balls using osmocote, which can be found at hardware store. More info at this site- http://aquaria.net/articles/DIY/plants/clay-balls/

The best supstrates are eco complete, onyx gravel, and soilmaster select.

If you can afford to order products look at pet solutions.

dawntwister

It has been a while since you post a reply. Anything new? What happened with the aquarium?