New to Plants

1045 Views 4 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Bert H, Nov 24, 2008

androgyny23

Discussion Starter · Nov 21, 2008

Hello everyone

Ive been in the hobby for about 10 years, I primarily kept and bred discus in the past had some dabblings in marine tanks, and now my hobby has downsized quite a bit to keeping some nice SA/CA cichlids. With that said...Ive grown an intrest in keeping a successful fully planted 55G tank.

My fish will be a group of female bettas, a couple of yoyo loaches, pair of bristlenoses and a group of tiger barbs. For plants Ive decided to keep a couple species of Anubias, Crypt. wendtii and walkeri, Apon. crispus, Onion Plants, Red Tiger Lotus, Java Moss, Java Fern and maybe a sword plant or something.

For lighting I have a triple bulb strip light that has 3*32watt T8bulbs, I have 2*5500K bulbs and 1*8000K bulb. Filtration is a Rena XP3, and a Whisper 40i placed on the opposite end just for extra circulation.

I have 3bags of Flourite, I had planned to mix it with gravel but with my readings I have decided not to mix it with plain gravel. My question is how many bags of Flourite would I need? Ive also read alot about Eco-Complete...how would mixing Eco-Complete and Flourite work out? I would like to have a bowl shape to my substrate with higer points in my back corners having a mild slope to the front glass and a more drastic slope to the middle of the tank. I have some great driftwood which should compliment this hardscape.

Im not going to be injecting co2 as this is going to be a nice low-light low tech plant. I am going to fertalize Flourish tabs, and do some light dosing of liquid Flourish and Excel. My plan is also to have my light on a timer and have it be on for 4-5hours and have an off period of 2-3hours and another on period of 4hours or so.

How does my idea sound to all you plant nuts? See anything Ive missed or any kind of important tidbit please let me know

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Veloth

· #2 · Nov 21, 2008

Here's a link to a substrate Calculator
You may need to dose with ferts, some of the plants may not respond well to the tabs. I believe the tabs are for the heavy root feeders like the swords. I'm sure someone with more plant experience will let you know if that's correct. I use Flourite in a couple of my tanks with great results but I've nerver used Eco.
Welcome to APC.

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Bert H

· #3 · Nov 21, 2008

There's no problem with mixing Eco with Flourite - both of my 50's have that. Getting the slope you envision, imo, will be a challenge, especially since a 55 has a very narrow footprint.

I would agree with Veloth - I would suggest doing some light water column dosing with N, P, K.

Also all the plants you're talking about are fairly slow growers. You might want to throw in some hornwort perhaps - low light, fast growing plant.

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androgyny23

Discussion Starter · #4 · Nov 21, 2008

Thank you

I did a calculation and it said I would need 60lbs of Flourite to achieve a 3" deep bed, I did it for Eco-Complete and it came up with 90lbs. Why would I need so much less Flourite than Eco?

I was planning on dosing some light dosing of liquid Flourish as well

Is there a floating plant that has roots that hang down into the water column thats compatible with my low lighting? Ive never had much luck with hornwort in the past and am a bit aprehensive about trying it again.

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Bert H

· #5 · Nov 24, 2008

Thank you I did a calculation and it said I would need 60lbs of Flourite to achieve a 3" deep bed, I did it for Eco-Complete and it came up with 90lbs. Why would I need so much less Flourite than Eco?

Only guessing here, but, Flourite is heavier than Eco, and maybe this has to do with it.

Flourish is only a trace mineral supplement and does not provide any of the macros (Nitrogen, Phosphorous or Potassium - N, P, K).

Check out the plantfinder to get some ideas/info.

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