Simple Planted Tank Question

[fishycat]

Which plants have gotten transparent/stringy? How long have you had the plants in the tank? Some plants go into shock when they are first put into a tank or get moved around.

The fertilizer stick will help your sword plant, but it will need light to photosynthesize & utilitize the ferts.

I saw "frill" identified on another thread - I believe that's egeria densa aka anacharis aka waterweed http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egeria_densa. That will grow in very basic lighting and is good for taking up nitrates.

 

[PAL]

Go to aquatraders.com for the lights, great prices there. Uhm, petco only carries a few plants, wisteria, java fern, java moss, bannana plant, amazon sword, red crypt, green crypt, micro sword, ludwigia broad leaf, and anubias nana, oh and elodea.

 

[geekpryde]

bamboo needs to keep the leafs out of the water. the amazon sword might do better with a root tab. do you have a pic of the other plant? what kind of lighting do you have?

I keep amazon sword in my kids 29 gallon since day 1, (year half ago). No root tabs, no co2, only 1/2 watt-per-gallon. (yes, only half of one watt). I dose API leaf zone once per week. My amazon swords grow great, not too fast, not too slow. I pull a sword out of the tank probably once every two months, because it it too big and the runners create little baby swords that then grow up. I probably am on my fourth or fifth generation from the original two. Of course, my results dont mean everyone can have success with amazon swords in a super low tech setup, but this plant is probably better than most.

 

[SidtheMonkey]

You're in WA st? We have soft water here and loads of stuff grows well, except maybe vallisnerias.

I've had regular 55 gal tanks, with 2 tubes over it, no CO2, and grown tons of stuff, easily. Many things have done well. Have you tried any aponageton bulbs? Hygrophilia? Water sprite? I dont even remember how many different ones, but many plants did well. And I'm not even talking about the low light plants like crypts and anubias.

Do you use charcoal in your filtration? Cut that out, at least for awhile. I'd say you do need at minimum, 2 watts per gal. Unless you stick with java fern and java moss and maybe a few crypts and anubias. All of which are nice.

You dont need CO2. I've never used it and had really nice, heavily planted tanks.

How about a cheap shoplight fixture with 2 four foot specialty grow bulbs? That would be pretty cheap.

btw...altho we have very soft water here, I do use some calcium in my filter medium for stability. Plants (& fish) dont like big swings in pH.

 

[pjrichar]

make you light new with the cfl install... i did that in my tanks an WOW i have light now...
grow most anything,, no ferts of any kind and no co2