First Planted Tank Q's

D

Darkside

AC Members
Oct 17, 2004
19
0
0
Hey everyone, new here to the forums...and just setup my first plant tank. Will be adding small community fish later.

20gl (30" x 12" x 12") with Aquaclear 50, 150w heater, temp. 77F, pH: 7.2ish, Ammonia + Nitrite rising due to start of cycling process. I'm doing a fishless cycle with liquid ammonia and am planting as i go. I have an anachris and a cobamba atm, and plan to get some more over the next week. My lighting will be upgraded to a 55w GE 9325k CP and my default strip will be replaced with a 20w gro-lux standard. My substrate is just some fine gravel from my LFS, and it measure somewhere around 5mm on average.
I want to add some rooting plants soon, and wanted to know if my current substrate is alright, and which substrate fert i should use, heard eco-complete was very good.
Also, read many different things on CO2 injection and was wondering if you guys would recommend a DIY CO2 system for this tank (20gl w/ 75w), i've heard both sides, but i want to decide if it will be beneficial for the plants.
Hope to get some good answers from all you experts! Thanks guys!
 
Also, i don't want to plants to grow too quickely. I want them to be managable and not rocket to the top immediately...any suggestions at this wattage?
 
With that amount of light you will definitely have fast growth. You might not want to use that 20 watt bulb at all.

Eco-complete is a substrate, not a substrate fertilizer. What do you have in there now?
 
Just some small gravel...no fert

Well i mean fast growth is alright, i just don't want my entire tank to be swarmed with plants...are there any slower growing swords or long leaf plants? The others i could prune if they got too big...

You think the 75w would be too much?
 
Last edited:
Most swords will take your whole tank over. Some of the larger hygro species are slow growing, like coymbosa and compact I think. Smaller swords like echindorous parviflorus "tropica" would work. Check out the 750t's thread in the plants section for a pic of one.

With that amount of light and CO2 addition it's going to be hard to find any slow growing plants. Anubias and cryptocoryne species are slower growing.

When you first start the tank though, get a lot of fast growers. Limnophila sessiflora, egeria najas and densa, and many other stems are good.
 
75w is overkill in a 20 gallon tank unless you plan to dose fertilizer regularly and add CO2. If you don't fertilize or add CO2 at that wattage, your plants will still grow quickly but will display signs of nutrient deficiency like yellowing leaves.

If you want a low maintenance tank, reduce the light to 2w per gallon or lower and look at the plants that the Capt suggested, anubias and crypts. Both types, and there are alot of them, do well in lighting below 2w.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom