3 simple planted tank questions

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breakspirit

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 23, 2009
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Hey guys, I've got a 125 gallon tank that's been up for about a year. It has sand substrate and is full of NA cichlids(they don't mess with the plants). The lighting is coralife T5HO freshwater fixtures.

I've been putting plants in it since I set it up, but they never really prosper and always end up disintegrating and dying. So, instead of continuing to live in ignorance, I feel I should ask the masters. My questions are as follows:

1. How necessary is CO2 really? I've heard conflicting thoughts and the price of admission is incredibly high in my opinion. The DIY cheapo methods do not seem conducive to a large tank.

2. I've been told that dry fertilizers are the more convenient and cheap route for fertilizing. I've got liquids now but they're enough hassle that I seldom use them. I bought a drip doser jug(the Kent one) and I want to know if I can mix all the myriad fertilizers I need into the jug in the proper proportions, mix them into a liquid with water, and drip-dispense in this way? If not, what's the next easiest way to do this?

3. Is the fact that I'm using sand going to negatively impact my ability to raise healthy, strong plants? Is gravel better for any reason? My 40 gallon tank uses gravel and its plants also look like crap, but I believe that's because the tank is not being fertilized and is using standard cheapo lights.

Thanks a lot for any help, guys!:headbang2

edit: bonus extra question:
How necessary is the fancy plant substrate they sell? Like I said, I'm just using sand. Thanks again!
 
1. How necessary is CO2 really? I've heard conflicting thoughts and the price of admission is incredibly high in my opinion. The DIY cheapo methods do not seem conducive to a large tank.

It's not necessary. Actually the last thing you do after lights and ferts.

2. I've been told that dry fertilizers are the more convenient and cheap route for fertilizing. I've got liquids now but they're enough hassle that I seldom use them. I bought a drip doser jug(the Kent one) and I want to know if I can mix all the myriad fertilizers I need into the jug in the proper proportions, mix them into a liquid with water, and drip-dispense in this way? If not, what's the next easiest way to do this?

Dry is cheapest, none of them are really that hard. Wats the diff between adding some ferts and adding some fish food? If measuring is the issue use a syringe with 6" of airline tubing on the end of it. Super easy.

3. Is the fact that I'm using sand going to negatively impact my ability to raise healthy, strong plants? Is gravel better for any reason? My 40 gallon tank uses gravel and its plants also look like crap, but I believe that's because the tank is not being fertilized and is using standard cheapo lights.

Negatively? not likely. Enriched substrate will help but you can use plant root tabs as well. You might want to try these. Wat plants do you have? My guess is you're still missing on the right ferts. Many plants need to feed directly through the roots. post pix ;)

edit: bonus extra question:
How necessary is the fancy plant substrate they sell? Like I said, I'm just using sand. Thanks again!

Addressed above, where's meh prize?
 
Excellent response, thank you. I would say that the measuring of the ferts is the hassle for me. Any thoughts on whether I can mix all the dry ferts together for use in my drip doser? I'll go take some pics and post them in a few minutes.
 
I'm gonna punt on that one
Flourish comes with a power pack of different stuffs
but they sell Macros and Micros seperately for a reason
We'll see wat opinions we can get
 
ettfettbranamn;4739147; said:
not to jack your thread but, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd5LYP_Lgpg

no CO

sand

no fertz at all!
Click to expand...

I don't understand why your plants are doing so much better than mine. Even my easy-to-grow plants are sickly or dead, like anubias. I had carbon filtration in there until yesterday, I'm hoping that was maybe taking some minerals out of my water and my plants may do a bit better just from that.
 
Your bioload is way less so even though he's not using ferts
you can imagine the increased Nitrogen in that other tank
next question, wat color are your lights?
 
Apparently I lied when I said my lights were coralife. They're actually Aquaticlife T5HO fixtures with a 6000K lamp and a 39W 650 nm(pink) lamp in each fixture.
 
Try easier plants tied to rocks or driftwood. I saw needleleaf java fern and I think sunset hygro in the vid, both of which are easy to grow. You can put the plant roots in sand if you want but root feeding won't work well unless you have nutrients in the substrate, and I don't think it's worth paying for specialized soil for such a large tank, especially considering the fact that planted tanks generally require deeper substrate. Plus, if you tie plants to objects, you can get them closer to the light fixture at the top of the tank. CO2 isn't necessary unless you have a high tech tank and want pearling :)
 
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