Tearing Down

[sumoschro]

I'm very frustrated with my tank right now....and I'm getting to the point where I want to start the whole thing over, as in everything out, rinse the tank with oxyclean, then rebuiding it from the bottom up. Reason being:

1) These stupid protozoan things that I had a thread on in the past are not going away even after a complete cleaning AND feeding my fish very small amounts of food

2) The plants I put in my aquarium arent doing very well, and I'm wondering, do I NEED to put in DIY CO2? Is that the problem or is it the protozoans mentioned above stealing all the nutrients in the water?

3) I dont like the way it looks in general....I want to use sand, and maybe do a whole different theme, like cichlids or something, and use all live plants (assuming I can get them to grow):argh

Anyway down to the point of this thread, i need some good websites that have good information on overall plant care and/or aquarium setup... I want to be sure I do everything right this time, because I know i made some mistakes last time. thanks:)

[sumoschro]

btw here is the thread for the protozoans

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20803&highlight=protozoan

[travelinman1969]

What size tank, how deep and what kind of lighting do you have? This sounds more for the plant forum, if your hellbent on a planted tank. Sounds like a nutrition issue.

[sumoschro]

well as i said its not just the plants its those stupid protozoans or whatever....

Its a 29 gallon, 12" deep by about 36" long, 18" high.
I have flourescent lighting, one of the large tube kind, it came with the aquarium so i am not exactly sure, but it is a bluish light.
i think it is the protozoans that are causing the problems, and I assumne they are like algae in that they take nutrients from the water.

[travelinman1969]

Sounds like this belongs in the plant forum. Also sounds like a lack of light, but I'm still learning the plant thing myself.

[Captain Hook]

Here's a good plant site I have found.

Plant Info (http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/AquariumGardenSubWebIndex.html)

[emoore]

What kind of plants do you have in the tank? For most plants you are going to need more lighting. I would aim for 2 wpg (watts per gallon). The light that came with your tank is probably 20W, giving you less than 1 wpg. Usually the wattage is listed on the bulb. Adding CO2 with that amount of lighting that you have will not do any good. I would suggest reading some of the messages in the plant forum. You can also try www.plantedtank.net for some info.

[tomm10]

I feel your pain. My tank is virtually overrun with pond snails now. I am in the process of try to starve them by pratically hand feeding the fish. Not easy.

I know what you mean about wanting to do it again the right way. I'll be upgrading to a 29g from a 10g in the next week or so and I'll be doing it with sand and a lot more light.

If you have a 29g and the stock 20w bulb that came with it, that is likely the reason you can't grow plans. With that light I think you would be limited to Java Fern and Java Moss.

Just a theory but I would think that if your light is low enough that the plants are struggling, they probably wouldn't be much competition for the protazoans. I would think it would take a while of underfeeding and tank cleaning to clear out the excess food the protazoans are feeding off of.

As far as websites go, http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/ has a lot of good information. http://www.plantgeeks.net also is a decent place with a pretty good forum for plant stuff. Also, Chuck's Planted Aquarium site has some good information http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/index.htm

Good luck.

[sumoschro]

Thanks a bunch you guys...I had no idea my light was that low in wattage....maybe ill go get a much higer wattage bulb, say fifty, that would give me 2 wpg and then meybe i can save my plants before they are totally wasted away...:(

[sumoschro]

I checked the light, it's a 20 watt, or 1.5 wpg.

[Captain Hook]

It's actually closer to 0.7 watts per gallon. Your best bet would be to upgrade the lighting I can't argue with that. However, I have a 35 gallon with the same 20 watt fluorescent (powerglo bulb). I don't get fast growth but the plants are still doing well. Right now there are vallisneria, dwarf sag (sagittaria subdulata), anubias, anacharis (egeria densa), ludwigia repens and a couple others that I just added and not sure if they will do well. To this list you could also add most crypts and anubias, as well as java fern and java moss like was mentioned.

With all these options available you don't necessarily have to upgrade your lighting. Check out www.tropica.com to learn more about the plants I have listed.

Edit: My tank is the same size as yours. It's bigger than a 29 gallon as far as I know. It's somewhere in the 33-38 range.