My 20 gallon tall has 15 watts now, but I am building the DIY thing, so I will have about 2wpg. I have 1 amazon sword, and about 8 stems of anacharis. Will they be fine with no co2 since there is so little of them? The anacharis are growing like crazy. I use tetraplants' "FloraPride".
Is co2 necessary for only a few plants?
- Thread starter $eaba$$
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I think that they will be fine with out co2. I have a pretty heavily planted 12 gallon tank with no co2. I just use Flourish, and Flourish excel and they grow awesome. But then I have 4 wpg.
You really won't know if you'll have algae problems at 2 wpg until you get the lights set-up and have it running a few weeks. You just have to set it up and see. Every tank varies, you need to experiment - we can only give you a general idea of what might work.
First step is getting the lighting in...then give it time and you'll know if you need CO2 and other fertilizers.
Personally, I have a 10 gallon and 5 gallon both at 2 wpg and I did/do have algae issues. I now dose Flourish Excel daily, Flourish every other day and Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium every other day. It took me a couple of months to get my fertilizers balanced and now I am beating the algae. This is what worked for me, what works for your tank will be different.
A good step in getting serious about planted tanks, is to get a copy of your tap water report so you can see just what is going into your tank every time you fill it.
First step is getting the lighting in...then give it time and you'll know if you need CO2 and other fertilizers.
Personally, I have a 10 gallon and 5 gallon both at 2 wpg and I did/do have algae issues. I now dose Flourish Excel daily, Flourish every other day and Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium every other day. It took me a couple of months to get my fertilizers balanced and now I am beating the algae. This is what worked for me, what works for your tank will be different.
A good step in getting serious about planted tanks, is to get a copy of your tap water report so you can see just what is going into your tank every time you fill it.
Yea Flourish and Flourish excel is a little expensive. Like around 8 bucks each for the smaller container. I do have algae in my tank but its the good algae, the green, I think it looks really cool and natural. I do the flourish about twice a week and excel About every other day to every other 2 days. I don't want to dose to much. I dose like the very bottom of the cap. I not sure if you can get this stuff at petsmart or petco. You can look. But I would recommend Flourish and Excel.$eaba$$ said:
cichlidkeeper91
. What special things does the flourish and flourish excel have? My anacharis are growing like crazy, how do I trim them. I already posted a thread, but no one has answered. Please answer there if you know 
With so few plants, not alot of nutrients are going to be consumed, so algae may grow better without much competition. But you never know, you may have no problems at all. Excel is good for dosing carbon, but is pretty spendy especially compared to DIY CO2 dosing. Flourish and other seachem ferts run about 10-15 bucks a bottle. You will have to dose every day or every other day, depending on the algae, ect. DIY CO2 costs next to nothig to set up and you only have to reload it every week or 2.
Trimming anacharis is simple, it does not matter where you cut it because it will grow no matter where. Just cut it whereever you want and plants the cuttings in the gravel and you have new plants!
Anacharis like I said is simple, no special angle, you can just rip it off with your fingers if you want. Won't hurt anything. Throw away the brown stuff and keep the green stuff, replant it if you want. For the sword just cut off dead or brown leaves at the bottom and throw them out.
