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Advices & suggestions pls..........

 

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dwalstad

You've got enough light intensity, but PLEASE 10 hrs/day is not enough to get good plant growth. You need a daylength of 12-13 hours, especially for encouraging emergent and floating plants. I keep lights on from 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM with a 4 hr middle-of-the-day siesta. That way, my lights are only on 10 hrs, but the day length is 14 hours.

Laterite paste and all those added fertilizers? Maybe they will work; maybe not. But it sounds a little strange. For example, if you have a laterite substrate, which is rich in iron, there's really no need to add iron fertilizers to the water.

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Hi Diana,
Thanks a ton,
The laterite is not a substrate.Its just that I have injected the paste in some places at the bottom,which helps the rooted plants & additional iron is added to the water column because I have a lot of Anubias & Ferns.Now that I have incraesed the lights,I need to plant fast growers to avoid algae bloom.Pls advice some plants.Also picking up some Crypts from a friend this weekend.

Thanks
Ravi

Mr Fishies

For fast growers, I have good luck with Hygro difformis and Ludwigia repens (both growing in my tank) with about 1.3 wpg lighting and they are both cheap and readily available here and they both grow very well. I keep the Hygro in it's own pot because it's root system gets big fast and pulling it up inside the tank disturbs a lot of substrate and is very messy - so I pull the whole pot/plant and work on that plant outside the tank.

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Hi All,
Its really difficult to find the cheap kind of potting soil with no fertilizers in my area.
Now,my question is......Can I use the soil that i dig from the forest floor near my house.I found its moist & rich in decayed leaves.Its Black in colour.I thought I'll mix some Laterite & sand in it & then use it.Any advice & suggestions are welcome.

Many thanks
Ravi

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Hi all,
You can see my current tanks pics on the link below.Will soon post the new pics with more planting done.Would appreciate if any advices & suggestions on scaping.......
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28318201@N08/

Thanks
Ravi

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Hi all,

Atlast I could find a nursery where he has Generic potting soil with leaf mold in it.
He also said that he has vermicompost which can be mixed with it.
Is it safe to use his combination of Generic potting soil with leaf mold + vermicompost,or only Generic potting soil with leaf mold will do?
If his mixture is safe,what should be the mixing ratio of vermicompost to the Generic potting soil with leaf mold?

Thanks
Ravi

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Any updates on this pls????????????????

dwalstad

Your new lighting source sounds good. However, I wouldn't use that much lighting until I had a large assortment of fast-growing plants ready to plant. For a 50 gal, I would definitely recommend Echinodorus bleheri (Amazon Sword) and E. major (Rufffled Swordplant). But you will need many other species.

With that much light and weekly feeding of micronutrients, I suspect your tank will be vulnerable to algae. Thus, I would make an effort to get floating plants (frogbit, duckweed, or watersprite. If you are adding micronutrients weekly, then they should do well, but you need to increase the daylength to 12-13 hr. I've got all my tanks on a 14 hr day, but with a 4 hr afternoon siesta. That way, I'm getting good Water Sprite growth, saving electricity, and not heating up the water.

I'm not crazy about your substrate-- gravel injected with laterite paste. It might work, though, if you get enough of the right plants that like the temperature and water conditions in your tank.

Its a waste of time to recommend specific plants. For example, Elodea is a superbly fast-grower, but if you're running your tank at 80F or have a little copper in the water, it may quickly "kick the bucket". My advice has always been to start out with as many plants and different species as possible. There's no way to predict which ones will do well in your particular set up.

For example, I just reset up my 50 gal a few weeks ago with about 16 different plant species. The Cryptocoryne cordata var blassi, a somewhat difficult species, is growing like crazy whereas the Ludwigia arcuata, which was continuously overtaking another hobbyist's tank, has completely crashed [I threw it out when it started decomposing in the tank]. Meanwhile, the Riccia that came as a contaminant with the other plants is growing "full-steam". The two baby Ozelot swords, which didn't even have roots, are putting out big leaves and looking really nice.

To get all these plants for my aquarium, I invited fellow plant enthusiasts to come over. We visited, ate well, and traded plants. We've been doing this for years. It's a fun way to get plants.

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Hi all....

Back again with the pics after setting up my tank.Its been almost a month now that I have set it up.Sorry for the bad quality of the pics.Any suggestions & advices are welcome.You can find the pics on the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28318201@N08/

Many thanks,
Ravi

 

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