Ground cover, fast and hardy

[wonword]

Hello,
Im a noob to the aquatic plant world, and ive seen the plant profiles above and was wondering if any of you through personal experince have a very fast growing grass or teardrop ground cover. It will be growing in sand, and i would like it to be fore the begginner. Thanks~John

 

[WyldFya]

What is your setup like? In general, if you don't have very good high lighting, and co2 injection, you won't have a fast growing carpet. The kind of setup generally used for growing nice carpets isn't a beginner setup.

 

[wonword]

What is your setup like? In general, if you don't have very good high lighting, and co2 injection, you won't have a fast growing carpet. The kind of setup generally used for growing nice carpets isn't a beginner setup.

i dont know quite what your looking for, as the tank is still cycling but ill just give a breakdown of what i know. its a 29g glass tank, pool filter sand as substrate, penguin 125 filter. the light right now said "good for plants" but i sadly got owned, because its only 15W, so im gonna buy a new one for hopefully 2-2.5watts per gallon. im also going to be doing the DIY co2 with yeast. i think i need some schooling on substrate, is there any capsules or anything that i can put in the sand for nutrients, or is a multilayer substrate really needed for nutrients? thanks

 

[Spiritwind]

There are better substrates for growing plants than sand, such as fluorite, eco complete, ada aquasoil, those are some popular ones as they provide roots with nutrients. Dont get me wrong it can work with sand, just these seem to provide an edge. You can also put plant fertilizer tabs in the sand under/near the plants. For a majority of the plants putting fertilizers in the water column is the way to go. There are DIY types of each of these or you can look at Flourish and Flourish tablets and the like.

http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm a pair of 55w bulbs and these reflectors will do you very nicely. Alternatively you can look into t5 bulbs. The most important difference between the cheap lights you see and the quality ones will be the reflectors. Generally speaking choosing bulbs for plants or 5500k-10000kk rating will work for fresh water. As for salt I really dont know.

with these lights, CO2 and fertilization, you will grow plants well.

 

[wonword]

There are better substrates for growing plants than sand, such as fluorite, eco complete, ada aquasoil, those are some popular ones as they provide roots with nutrients. Dont get me wrong it can work with sand, just these seem to provide an edge. You can also put plant fertilizer tabs in the sand under/near the plants. For a majority of the plants putting fertilizers in the water column is the way to go. There are DIY types of each of these or you can look at Flourish and Flourish tablets and the like.

http://www.ahsupply.com/36-55w.htm a pair of 55w bulbs and these reflectors will do you very nicely. Alternatively you can look into t5 bulbs. The most important difference between the cheap lights you see and the quality ones will be the reflectors. Generally speaking choosing bulbs for plants or 5500k-10000kk rating will work for fresh water. As for salt I really dont know.

with these lights, CO2 and fertilization, you will grow plants well.

thanks for all that info, that was very helpful. as for the light, you mention 5500k-10000k range, so i have a question about my current 15watt bulb im using. is the k-rating or wpg more important? i guess i dont fully understand what the k-rating is telling me, but here is what the box says about my current light:
Brand: Spectra MAX Energy Savers
Reflector: 180 degree external reflector
Watts: 15
Diameter: 1"(T8)
Length: 18"
Type: Flourescent
K-Rating: 6500k Full Spectrum "Super Daylight Lamp" with rare earth trichomatic phosphors

I dont know what that last one means, but it seems my k-rating is right by my WPG's are weak? Thanks

 

[WyldFya]

All the watts in the world will do nothing without the proper spectrum and color temp. Read the stickies, I wrote them, and imported them for this purpose.

 

[Spiritwind]

Well, I just gave the Kelvin rating as the simple way. If you are going to buy bulbs of these ratings they should work with plants. Kelvin also, again roughly, is the color temperature, the way it looks. Lower ratings appear reddish and the ones I listed for you 5500k to 10000k go from white to very white. Even higher is blue for saltwater.

But there is far more to it than that. There is lumens, the actually amount of light power put out. Or lux, the power that you will find from a light bulb per area on the bottom of the aquarium. Ultimately you will need the right kelvin to hit the plants at the bottom of the tank with enough lux. See now isnt that a lot harder lol. And thats as far as I want to get into lighting, there are a few more factors too you can deal with. Angle of light entry, reflection of various surfaces (inside hood, the substrate or particles in water), which might lead to loss of light through depth. There is a lot I think we cant practically control, so I just stuck with more of the basics...Reflectors, Kelvin and Wattage.

Yes 15 watts is way too low especially for fast growing ground cover. One of those 55 watt power compact bulbs would be nice, but it wont grow quite as fast as if you had 2 of em.

 

[wonword]

thank you guys, that makes alot more sense!

 

[WyldFya]

Well, I just gave the Kelvin rating as the simple way. If you are going to buy bulbs of these ratings they should work with plants. Kelvin also, again roughly, is the color temperature, the way it looks. Lower ratings appear reddish and the ones I listed for you 5500k to 10000k go from white to very white. Even higher is blue for saltwater.

But there is far more to it than that. There is lumens, the actually amount of light power put out. Or lux, the power that you will find from a light bulb per area on the bottom of the aquarium. Ultimately you will need the right kelvin to hit the plants at the bottom of the tank with enough lux. See now isnt that a lot harder lol. And thats as far as I want to get into lighting, there are a few more factors too you can deal with. Angle of light entry, reflection of various surfaces (inside hood, the substrate or particles in water), which might lead to loss of light through depth. There is a lot I think we cant practically control, so I just stuck with more of the basics...Reflectors, Kelvin and Wattage.

Yes 15 watts is way too low especially for fast growing ground cover. One of those 55 watt power compact bulbs would be nice, but it wont grow quite as fast as if you had 2 of em.

Kelvin does not control the color as much as the color peaks. Go to your LFS and look at the Hagen glo lights (T8/T12) they come in two types that are 18,000K (PowerGlo and AquaGlo). These two bulbs are not the same color at all, the power glo has a pinkish tint to it, and the aquaglo has a white color.

 

[schaadrak]

You have to think of a lamps Kelvin rating as an average of sorts. For example, the average of 3, 3, and 3 and the average of 6, 2 and 1 are the same (the answer is 3).

Kelvin ratings are actually more complicated than that, but this is the easiest way to visualize it. If you want a great technical explanation that you have to read eight or nine times to sort of understand and then forget by the end of the day, go to Wikipedia's explanation of color temperature.