Go Back   Aquatic Plant Central > Welcome Forums! > New to Planted Aquariums
User Name
Password

Advertise on APC

New to Planted Aquariums Don't know where to begin? Find your answer here.

 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 11-20-2005, 11:24 AM   #1 (permalink)
Senior Member
 
Pyro's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Posts: 166
iTrader Ratings: 5
iTrader Positive Rating: 100%
Pyro is a regular member
Plant Points: 11605
Default Need help setting up/maintaining planted aquarium

Hey everyone, I'm extremely new to the hobby of aquariums in general and maintaining plants in the aquarium. I've visited other forums and read a fair ammount of articles on the hobby, but I'm still having trouble with fertilization, CO2, and how to maintain a properly balanced aquarium. Here's what I have so far.

29 gallon all-glass tank (2.24 WPG)
65 watt Sattelite Power Compact Light (Dual 6700k/10000k Daylight bulb)
15 lbs. Eco Complete with added layer of gravel on top
I treat the water with Stress Coat, although I'll be moving to Prime soon.
10% water changes down weekly.

Tank is filtered with a Penguin 125 Biowheel (The up to 30 gallon ones)
Test Results show 0 ppm of Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate
KH is between 110-125 ppm
pH is 7.8
Last week, GH was at 200+ ppm, and pH was at 8.4 (I didn't measure KH last week, but it looks like the water hardness is balancing out a bit, which is probably good).

The inhabitants are currently 3 zebra danios, although I'm considering adding 2 ottos for the cleanup crew.

The plant inhabitants are anacharis, tropical hornwort, and jungle val.
The problem I'm having is there seems to be some diatom algae, and green hair algae is growing better than the plants

I currently dose with nada at all, but I'm the proud owner of a bottle of Florish and Flourish Potassium. I also bought a Hagen Natural CO2 System as an alternative to DIY CO2. None of these things have been added yet.

I'm not really too sure what I should be adding for the plants. They're growing, but the algae seems to be growing quicker. I decided to look up our water quality information and out of the tap, the levels are as follows...
Copper: .453 ppm
Flouride: 1.45 ppm
Nitrate: 1.02 ppm
Organic Carbon: 1.06 (reduction value).

I have the tap water, whatever the eco-complete provides, and the 3 danios.
I'm not too sure if the Natural CO2 system would help or not, as I've heard that the biowheel lets off most of the CO2 due to water agitation. Is this true, and if so is there an easy way to decrease the surface agitation with a Penguin?
What should I be adding to the tank to help the plants compete with the algae? I'm not really too sure what I need to do to get rid of the algae and help the plants grow. I took some pictures last night of the tank, so here they are.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	Picture21-094.jpg
Views:	68
Size:	18.6 KB
ID:	1843  Click image for larger version

Name:	Picture21-095.jpg
Views:	52
Size:	19.2 KB
ID:	1839  Click image for larger version

Name:	Picture21-096.jpg
Views:	27
Size:	19.8 KB
ID:	1840  Click image for larger version

Name:	Picture21-097.jpg
Views:	46
Size:	26.4 KB
ID:	1841  Click image for larger version

Name:	Picture21-098.jpg
Views:	25
Size:	25.5 KB
ID:	1842  

Pyro is offline  
Digg this Post!Add Post to del.icio.usBookmark Post in TechnoratiFurl this Post!
Reply With Quote

Advertisement [Remove Advertisement]

 


Aquatic Plant Central > Welcome Forums! > New to Planted Aquariums > Need help setting up/maintaining planted aquarium

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Aquatic Plant Forum Replies Last Post
An interview with Jeff Senske, April 2004 tsunami Library 0 11-12-2005 05:58 PM
Kasselmann's book, AQUARIUM PLANTS needs updating - HOW? pineapple General Aquarium Plants Discussions 10 03-20-2005 05:09 PM
My first aquarium, 1.5 gal planted hex. comments welcome. Osteomata Aquascaping 2 01-20-2005 04:16 PM
The cost of a nice planted aquarium pineapple Equipment 2 12-17-2004 04:19 AM
Weekly topic: An interview with Jeff Senske tsunami Aquascaping 6 04-23-2004 01:40 PM

All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:46 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

LinkBacks Enabled by vBSEO 3.1.0

Copyright © 2006 - 2009 Aquatic Plant Central | About Aquatic Plant Central | Advertising Opportunities | Legal | A member of the Crowdgather Forum Community
Created by Blue Moose Designs