Ok im starting to get pretty angry at my tank.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Hi,

Plants do not NEED additional c02 but they will grow faster and larger with it. Many folks have planted tanks w/o using c02, myself included.

jKess,

Can you please provide some detail on your setup on the following:

1) Type of lighting fixture, bulbs, duration.
2) Type of substrate
3) Any fertilizer dosing? Seachem, etc?
4) Any Excel dosing? It is a carbon supplement.
5) Filtration - type and model

How long has the tank been setup?

My gut tells me 2-3 things:

1) Too much light. By this I mean too intense for the amount of c02 and other ferts available. The more light provided, the more nutrients and c02 are required by the plants...Lowering your light intensity by raising the fixture or removing a bulb w/o any other changes may be worth a shot. Give the lower light 2-3 weeks and see.

2) Impatience - growing aquatic plants is just like terrestial gardening in that the requirements of the plants must be met, and that patience is also required.

What are your GOALS for the tank? Do you want an easy to care for scape, or do you want to trim weekly or every 10 days? Will you want a lot of fish? What TYPES of plants will you want.

Please note that c02 is the most important plant nutrient. By not injecting c02 you are limiting the plants (most likely) in the amount of c02 available to them.

Please link to your other thread if this detail exists there.

Thanks

Gerry
 
SkidMark;5078415; said:
why don't you use co2? isn't it necessary for plants?
Click to expand...

Yes and no - you can get away with not using it for some plants.

When I had my planted tank setup I did use flourite substrate - this helped a TON in addition to excel. Also I found a very cheap DIY-ish CO2 setup that seemed to help a bit called Turbo CO2 Bio-System.

Good luck - I got tired of the upkeep with the planted tank as I had a few plants tank off and grow like weeds.

 
Hi,

Many plants will lose healthy leaves upon transfer...As long as the rhizome (the root part) of the anubias is healthy, the leaves will regrow with time and decent conditions. They are pretty hardy for the most part. Same goes for java fern.

You may also want to add MORE plants. Get some wisteria, ludwigia, hygro, rotala, etc that are fast growing....See how these do and go from there.

Many attractive and hardy plants will do well with no c02 injection.

IMO/IME, many of the more 'difficult' plants are due to C02 demand rather than light demand...assuming min light requirements for the species are met...
 
weird as this sounds.. I would drop the anubis down to the base and "hide" the main stem under your driftwood. allowing the leaves to peek out. Just like corals some plants going from low light to sudden intense lighting can and will shock them to the point of killing them or severely damageing them.

as also suggested. You may be running to much lighting. If your not running CO2 with lots of light and lots of ferts you may want to look into obtaining some stem plants such as rotalia. these plants do a very good job at sucking up excess nutrients in the tank w/out starveing your other plants. they also help control algae growth that often occurs in low Co2 mid/hi light set-ups.

Planted tanks are a balanceing act but are well worth it and the feeling of accomplishment is indeed nice.
 
gerryd;5078520; said:
Hi,

Plants do not NEED additional c02 but they will grow faster and larger with it. Many folks have planted tanks w/o using c02, myself included.

jKess,

Can you please provide some detail on your setup on the following:

1) Type of lighting fixture, bulbs, duration.
2) Type of substrate
3) Any fertilizer dosing? Seachem, etc?
4) Any Excel dosing? It is a carbon supplement.
5) Filtration - type and model

How long has the tank been setup?

My gut tells me 2-3 things:

1) Too much light. By this I mean too intense for the amount of c02 and other ferts available. The more light provided, the more nutrients and c02 are required by the plants...Lowering your light intensity by raising the fixture or removing a bulb w/o any other changes may be worth a shot. Give the lower light 2-3 weeks and see.

2) Impatience - growing aquatic plants is just like terrestial gardening in that the requirements of the plants must be met, and that patience is also required.

What are your GOALS for the tank? Do you want an easy to care for scape, or do you want to trim weekly or every 10 days? Will you want a lot of fish? What TYPES of plants will you want.

Please note that c02 is the most important plant nutrient. By not injecting c02 you are limiting the plants (most likely) in the amount of c02 available to them.

Please link to your other thread if this detail exists there.

Thanks

Gerry
Click to expand...

I have Glo 48" t5 Ho light with two power glo bulbs, right now i have the light about 6-8 inches above the tank and i have it on for about 5 hours a day for now because i was getting a lot of algae. The algae is starting to get under control so i may start having it on longer. For substrate i have filter sand, and i just recently added a couple flourish tabs throughout the tank and i use flourish excel once a day or once every other day. I have an AC-70 and a Jaebo canister filter that is rated for 100 gph. I just picked up some supplies today for a diy c02 which im gonna start running in the next couple days. Tomorrow i will get the water parameters and let you guys know.
 
gerryd;5078600; said:
Hi,

Many plants will lose healthy leaves upon transfer...As long as the rhizome (the root part) of the anubias is healthy, the leaves will regrow with time and decent conditions. They are pretty hardy for the most part. Same goes for java fern.

You may also want to add MORE plants. Get some wisteria, ludwigia, hygro, rotala, etc that are fast growing....See how these do and go from there.

Many attractive and hardy plants will do well with no c02 injection.

IMO/IME, many of the more 'difficult' plants are due to C02 demand rather than light demand...assuming min light requirements for the species are met...
Click to expand...

Thats the things, the rhizome is starting to turn dark brown and rot. It was PERFECTLY healthy when i got it and within a matter of days it was rotting. I honestly do not know too many plant species. Any suggestions for species would be appreciate it. Tomorrow i will gather as much info as i can, tank is at my moms house, and post it.
 
Havent had much luck with plants. But like my fish I took it slow. Start small work up. Find a cheap inexpensive plant and make it live. Add more and when you feel every thing is working take some out and replace with more expensive plants. Pretend they are feeder plants you are using to start your tank.

Just my $.02
 
ok, lets see if I can help. I started a plant only tank about 4 months ago. Bought all the rt stuff, had CO2, lighting, etc.. And well they all over time died. Of course like you, I was pissed, upset and gave up. Then I kept reading.
Yes plants need CO2, but one thing they really need is waist. Yep, fish waist help more than you know.
So by this time, my co2 bottle was empty, so I added a few fish. Fish also put off co2 and waist.. So the best of both worlds.
Later, I decided to make the tank a ghost shrimp tank. I had been breeding ghost shrimp in a 40 gallon breeder and thought, well now I have a couple of 20 gallon long tanks, (one was the plant tank I tried to do) and just made them into ghost shrimp tanks. Had given up on the plants by this time.
So I put in fake plants, to give the shrimp places to hide and breed. About a month ago, what do you know, all the live plants I had in the tank (besides the furns) started growin back. I had left the roots under the substrate and they came back. Now I have a beautiful planted tank. Running a sponge filter, lighting and NO co2 running at all.
So dont give up. Go buy about 30 ghost shrimp. Feed them shrimp pellets from fluval. They work the best. Next think you know, in a few months, your old plants will start comming back in. Then a few weeks later, you will have a nice planted tank. At this time, add furns and stuff and they will live..
Planted tanks are hard to get started. It has to be a very est tank and conditions rt for them to grow and get the food they need. (plants I mean)

Good luck
 
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