Got some new live plants...couple questions

[Tay690]

Hi there,

I got some new live plants on saturday and I just had a couple of questions

The plants I got are:

Java Fern
Java Moss
Taiwan Moss
and some Rotala
(All hearty, low light and no addition of co2 plants as far as I've been told)

How long should I keep the lights on in the tank to encourage the plants to grow properly and healthy (currently I only keep them on for about 8 hours a day)

I also have 2x 1 month old pieces of Malaysian Driftwood that are still dropping tannins into the tank...will this harm the plants or discourage their growth?

How many plants are considered too many plants? At what point will the plants take over the nitrates job of removing ammonia etc?

And last question...is there such a thing as having too heavily a planted tank? will it ever come to a point that if I don't remove excess plant growth...it could possibly harm the fish by removing too much oxygen from the water when the lights are out?

Thanks in advance as always,
Taylor

[fishorama]

8-10 hours is fine, tannins won't hurt anything. Too many plants? When the fish don't have any room to swim or some plants block too much light from others. Some catch a lot of detritus too.

Plants can use any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate for food but slow growing plants only do it slowly. It's the bacteria not nitrate that break ammonia into nitriate then nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is removed by water changes & plants growth.

It is possible to cause a "mini-cycle" if you remove a lot of plants at once. The bacteria will have adjusted to the nutient uptake of the plants & may be overwhelmed without as many. You're also apt to have stirred up a bunch of gunk that can cause problems too. Just don't get really carried away, it really shouldn't be a problem.

As long as there is movement on the surface of the water from filters, airstone etc & you're not adding CO2 the gas exchange will be fine & so will the fish.

[Tay690]

Thank you sir

so 12 hours of lights is not necessary for these types of plants?

So eventually when the tank has enough plants in it...the bacteria that normally breaks down Ammonia and nitrite won't have to work as hard (if at all depending how heavily planted it is) and at that point too much plant removal can cause a mini cycle in the tank? (sorry for repetition...I just want to understand for myself)

Thanks again

[fishorama]

The plants will use ammonia, nitrite & nitrate so there will be less to feed the bacteria colonies. The can only be as much bacteria as "food" available to it. If you remove say half the plant load but still feed the fish as much the bacteria colonies will need to grow to match the food & waste byproducts. That's why it's called a "mini-cycle", the bacteria are there but not in sufficient amounts to break down all the ammonia & nitrite.

(BTW I'm a ma'am if you need to be so formal ;))

[Tay690]

Ohhhh sorry about that ma'am :drool:

Thank you for clarifying that for me...so I'm assuming trimming too much at once can cause problems...small trimmings once a week should be fine

I know the plants I have are low light / low requirements

Would it be beneficial for me to add some ferts from time to time? just to encourage it to grow faster?

Or in this situation should I just let nature take its course?

[fishorama]

With those plants I wouldn't bother with ferts. Except for the rotala they grow quite slow.

[Tay690]

Thank you again for answering every question I had

You were more than helpful

And sorry about the "Sir" ma'am lol