New to plants

[katuuuz]

hello everyone, i just purchased 2 species of plant (not sure what they are called) but according to my lfs guy he says my stock setup will be good for tehm. my question is now that there are live plants in there (i'm at about week 4 of fishy cycling) is there some kind of schedule i should follow as far as how many hours per day the light is on?

46 g bowfront
ac 70 filter
elite 200w heater
hood light came with the tank from craigslist, pretty sure it's your average 46g hood light.

here are the 2 species of plant:

[OldMan47]

A good place to start with tank lights is 8 to 10 hours per day on a timer. Based on the plant growth and how fast you have algae problems you can adjust longer or shorter. If the LFS guy is right, you should be able to settle into that duration somewhere. Most of my tanks have some sort of plant in them but the type varies a lot with what the light levels are. There is no way to turn low light into high light by leaving the lights on longer, that is the fastest way I know to get lots of algae. I am still refusing to go all the way to high light but run some pressurized CO2 in some tanks and run others as low light or El Natural tanks. Balancing the plant with the light level seems to be the key to success.

[katuuuz]

well i was planning on leaving the light on while i slept (about 6 hours) and shutting it off before work. according to my lfs guy they are hearty whatever they are, as long as they stay living i dont care much about growth. also i dont want algae so i guess it will have to be trial and error.

say i do have an algae outbreak... whats the best way to rid of it?

[Blown 346]

Ill try to id, Im still learning as well, so dont take it to heart. The first pic looks like a sword, the second lookslike Anacharis. Both are hardy plants. They do need some light over stock.

If you get algae you will need to reduce lighting times, and even add C02. You can make a c02 unit yourself. You will want the plants to absrob the nutrients that will feed the algae before it has a chance to grow.

[icemanx23]

your lighting seems really low. Do u have enough wpg for low light (at least 1.5wpg). 8 hours a day is more appropriate. When u have a outbreak u can dump the plants or try washing with bleach.