How to grow a jungle?

FireDancer7905

FireDancer7905

I'm in love!
Jul 15, 2006
409
0
16
SJ Bay Area
www.opheliabreathes82.blogspot.com
Real Name
Brandy

Hello All!

Thanks to all the reading and learning I've done on AC I now have 2 well planted tanks. My fish are thriving, but the plants are not showing the growth and health I would like. I've been reading all the stickies and trying to figure things out. I think I may be ready to go a bit more high-tech with the ferts etc, but I'm at a loss at where to start. I could really use some help from successful plant keepers.

My tank:
20g long
2 AC 30's
1 heater
Temp 78 F
Hagen CO2 ladder
15 w small strip light (front)
2 20W strip lights

The very happy fishies:
7 harlequin rasboras
5 brilliant rasboras
4 metae cories
1 SAE (he will go to the 40 when he is big enough)
2 apistos borelli (I think they're trying to breed!)

Plants:
handful of Cabomba (sp?)
handful of luwigia
unknown sword (sold as Umbrella plant)
2 anubias nana
1 anubias coffefilia (very small, struggling to regrow)
handful of bacopa
1 melon sword
2 dwarf sags

Tests:
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 20
pH: 7.6
kH: 60? (6 drops to yellow)
gH: 240? (12 drops to blue)

Maintenance:
30-40% pwc, gravel vac and trimming once a week (Prime used)
*Flourish addded (recommended dosage) evry 2-3 days.

I really, really want my plants to thrive. The stickies at the top of this forum have great info, but I'm at a loss of where to start. Can you help point me in the right direction for dosing ferts? What might I need to add to make my tank a jungle?

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Thank you so much!

~brandy

 
Last edited:
look into ei dosing.
 
Ok, figured out that ei means estimated index, and it is used with dosing dry ferts to your tank. lol, silly me looked for 20 minutes on Rex's site trying to find "ei"..... still re-reading there....
 
Jungle Aquarium Recipe:

Ingredients:

3wpg (individual tastes vary, cater to your needs)
30 ppm pressurized co2(diy grows plants, pressurized grows a jungle)
EI dosing
Good substrate

Mix well. Put in some fast growing plants. Maintain EI dosing, come back 2 months later: Jungle

Serves 6.

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/EI.htm
 
Ok, for a 20g long, should I invest in the bulk combo pack from Rex Grigg, or try with the full line from Flourish? I know the the bulk dry ferts are cheaper (and may be a better idea if we try to dose the 40g as well, but we're starting small with the 20), but the bottles are easier to figure out. Also, based on the poor cell phone pics provided, would you say I'm 50% planted? more? less? This is important if I decide to go with the EI method of dry ferts.
~thanks!
 
I like what you've done with the tank! It looks very nice!
 
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