Just got plants & driftwood...a few questions.

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nursie

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Jan 15, 2005
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michelle
I have a tank set up and ready for plants. I have a 55 gal tank with 30 lbs fluorite and about 40 lb sand for substrate. I have 1 light strip with 2 40 watt bulbs. I am not co2 injecting.
Went to a fish sale today...and just bought plants:
java fern
java moss
anubias barteri
anacharis
amazon swordplant
hornwort
red wendti crypt
and dwarf val.

I looked on plantgeek before I went and tried to keep within the low light plants..but I forgot my list and got the amazon sword...it was cheap anyway.

I also got 2 pieces of driftwood. they aren't attached to anything to keep them down...any sugggestions? They are rather small. I have 2 other small pieces with slate bases, is there some way I can attach them together? I was planning to put the java moss on some of the driftwood.
Can you anchor the hornwort to anything, or does it just float?

All the plants were rated low light except the sword and the dwarf val, and they are medium. Not sure what constitutes medium light.

I plan to use FLorish excel in the tank..will that be enough or is there more or something else I should use?

I need to get a test kit, my old one died. From when I had fish before I know the water here is hard with no nitrates.
Also...what about water temp? I plan to get fish eventually, should I put the thermometer in for the plants? What temp?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. :) :)

And when I looked in one of the bags, I can see baby snails...so I plan to get some kind of loach. Will clowns do ok in a tank like this? Or should I look at a different kind of loach?

Ok..I guess it was rather a lot of questions :eek:
 

Blinky

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I think I can answer some of your questions :)

Driftwood can be boiled or soaked to help water log it. You can also silicone or screw it to a piece of slate or a piece of tank-safe plastic. I once used a piece of old UGF grate, you could try a lid from a food container. Some people use thick pieces of glass.

Hornwort is most often used floating, AFAIK. It can be placed in the gravel and will grow something root-like to help keep itself anchored, but doesn't produce roots like other stem plants.

What constitutes low, medium and high light is a bit of a grey area - it depends on WPG, tank size, type of light... at 1.5WPG I'd classify your tank as low light. As long as you provide enough nutrients, your sword and vals will likely do fine, they'll just grow slowly.

Flourish Excel is a source of carbon for plants (used in non-CO2 tanks). You'll also want to provide trace (micro) nutrients, and macro nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium). Take a look at the fert sticky at the top of the planted section, there's lots of info. IMO, test kits are essential with planted tanks. Aim for a 10:1 NO3:pO4 ratio.

Yes, I'd put the heater in the tank, set it somewhere between 75-80F or so - the same temperature you'll have it when you get fish.

I consider snails beneficial and keep them in all my tanks - some will eat plants, but common pond snails, Malaysian trumpet snails and red ramshorns are great for keeping the tank clean and won't munch on healthy growth.

HTH :)
 

nursie

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Jan 15, 2005
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Thanks Blinky and Psycha for your help.
I've been rethinking the clown loaches, I hadn't thought of yoyo's. Someone had said kuhli's. WHich would be better in my substrate?

I have a heater deliming as we speak, so will get that going. I was aiming for low light plants, so sounds like the sword and val will do ok, if slow.

Thanks for the clarification of what flourish Excel is, I had seen in posts it was good for low light tanks. I will read the article

I may try draping the hornwort under a piece of driftwood and let it trail upwords. Will be interesting to see if it works.

I plan to get a test kit. I expected there to be some at the auction I went to today, but there weren't any there, so will have to either go to the LFS or order from Big Als. Any particular reccomendations for test kits, and what all should you test?
 

Blinky

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You'll definitely want pH, KH, NO3 and PO4 - all must-haves for a planted tank IMO. I use Nutrafin kits and absolutely love them. They're liquid reagents, the colours are easy to read and they're not too expensive. I have used kits that involve crushing tablets and shaking tubes for several minutes, they drove me crazy. I test four tanks fairly frequently, and find putting a few drops of liquid into a vial much more user friendly!
As for the substrate, if you're using sand, AFAIK any loach will be happy :)
 
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