Moved the nana plant today - was that just a looks word of advice, or for the health of the plants? What kind of root tabs would you recommend?
20 long planted tank - first try at planted
- Thread starter BellycrawlerJaws
- Start date
Moved the nana plant today - was that just a looks word of advice, or for the health of the plants? What kind of root tabs would you recommend?
First of all, the plants look very healthy. Good job on that.
I would agree that the use of root tabs will be very useful since the sand provides no nutrients. I make my own root tabs very cheaply. Buy natural molding clay from a local crafts or art store. Flatten out a small pea sized amount and add a pinch of potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. Roll them back I to balls and let dry over night. Then push thetabs an inch or so under the base of your plants. You should only use one per 3 inches every few months. The clay is high in iron and other minor nutrients.
As for the scape. I would try not to make a wall of background plants. The background plants should vary in height or have some open space t break up the green wall look. It isn't a wall yet but looks to be growing into one. Keep like plants together, by scattering everything it makes it very chaotic and un natural. In nature plants are found grouped together by species. I would also have your sand slope up towards the back of the tank. This creates depth and makes the tank look bigger than it is.
Looking good but needs some refinement to really catch the eye. Keep us updated.
I would agree that the use of root tabs will be very useful since the sand provides no nutrients. I make my own root tabs very cheaply. Buy natural molding clay from a local crafts or art store. Flatten out a small pea sized amount and add a pinch of potassium nitrate and potassium phosphate. Roll them back I to balls and let dry over night. Then push thetabs an inch or so under the base of your plants. You should only use one per 3 inches every few months. The clay is high in iron and other minor nutrients.
As for the scape. I would try not to make a wall of background plants. The background plants should vary in height or have some open space t break up the green wall look. It isn't a wall yet but looks to be growing into one. Keep like plants together, by scattering everything it makes it very chaotic and un natural. In nature plants are found grouped together by species. I would also have your sand slope up towards the back of the tank. This creates depth and makes the tank look bigger than it is.
Looking good but needs some refinement to really catch the eye. Keep us updated.
As far as the movement of the banana plant - Its because when it starts producing lilies you dont want those at the front of the tank (where MOST of the flow occurs) you want the pads in kind of a still area (the back)
So since I'm not much of a chemist, I bought the API root tabs today, and added 8 of them to my 20 long (it says a 10 gallon requires 6, but I dont want to overdo it), how soon should I start seeing results from this?
Your plants should start utilizing them within a day, depending on their placement in relationship to the root system
So the water has a little hint of brown in the water today, not overly, and the fish seem fine, but any idea as to what it is?
Okay so I think the root tabs caused my tank to cloud up, because I got up this morning to a really brownish tint and cloudiness, and a foam of air bubbles at the top of the tank. Did a 50% water change and sucked out what was left of some of the root tabs (they were muck today and formed a grey cloud), things look a little better.
Don't overdo to many root tabs. Each plant does not need its own tab. Place inbetween like 3-4 plants. Over doing it can lead to a big algae bloom later.
Excess Nitrogen and Phosphorus in the water column will cause an algal bloom. There are root tabs out there that have very low amounts of Nitrogen and Phosphorus and are nice. Especially with a tank that isn't heavily planted such as yours.
