Question about plant maintainance in a new tank

gvildawg

gvildawg

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Mar 6, 2007
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Greenville, SC
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I just got my first planted tank going. I made the mistake of ordering my plants before I my aquarium stand arrived and they suffered a bit from being placed in several buckets with airstones for a few days before they went into their permanent home. Some are a bit ragged around the edges. Some have a few dead leaves, rotten stems etc. How aggressive should I be in pruning and/or removing dead bits? For leaves and other parts that have detached from the plants--how thorough do I need to be in trying to remove them from my tank?
Thanks in advance for the advice!
 
As painful as it may be for you, be very aggressive in pruning and remove all damaged leaves as long as the plant seems to have enough left to collect some light and get re-established. If it looks sick to a human eye, chances are that leaf is mostly dead tissue and will just be wasting the plant's resources. Remove as much of the dead material as you can from your tank, but it's not going to be detrimental if you don't get every speck out.
 
thanks

That's what I was thinking, but having some confirmation before I went ahead is great. I guess I'll be busy this afternoon!
 
I pruned some of my plants and just plain pulled out a couple that seemed beyond salvaging.
I also just came to the realization that my lighting is woefully inadequate. I ordered a new fixture--should arrive early next week. That and the Flourish I picked up this afternoon should get my plants going gangbusters.
 
I decided to spend a chunk of my income tax refund and just get the fully auto Foster & Smith CO2 system. I have now ended up spending more on the lighting and the CO2 system than I spent on EVERYTHING else including the stand, tank, filter, plants, etc.! Yikes! My plants had better be the most beautiful ones in existence for that kind of money!
 
gvildawg said:
How do you monitor the CO2 levels? Do you have a recommended method? Are their any buffers that you recommend?
Click to expand...

No buffers. pH drops as a function of added CO2, this is normal and it is nothing to get alarmed over.

If you search here, at APC or at AA for "Drop checkers", you will find out all about the wonders of 4dKH bicarbonate solution, bromothymol blue dye and funny looking in-tank containers (or go back to your vendor of choice and drop $7-8 on a RedSea CO2 indicator).

Just remember 2 things:

Dropping your pH and increasing your KH will not add CO2 to the water, only adding CO2 adds CO2 (sounds self evident, but people look at the charts and go nutz sometimes).

Go slow when upping your CO2 feed rate (if you use pressurized) - plants lacking CO2 is fixable and cheap, dead fish are neither.
 
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