125g new anubias plants

[Daveunkefer]

Just attached 12 anubias nana gold plants to my driftwood in my 125 gallon.

What can I do to make these babies grow nice? I'm new to planted aquariums.

My light set up is;

2 48inch actinic 54 watt
2 48inch 10,000k 54 watt

Would it be necessary to switch out a bulb for a plant bulb? I know they are low light plants. But idk if it matters if there is 12 of them.

I really enjoy the actinic bulbs but they don't do anything for the plants do they? I was thinking about just switching out a 10,000 for a plant bulb. But would that really change anything?

One last thing. Any fish friendly ferts necessary?


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[Friendlyfins]

That looks so cool.

 

[Daveunkefer]

Thanks! Just finally finished cycling a week ago. Took soooo long.

Spent the last 5 weeks getting this baby together. Fish are doing well.

Now its all about the plants.. =]

 

[Khemul]

You should be fine with that lighting. Plants can use actinic bulbs, it just encourages a different growth pattern. Which you shouldn't really see much of the effect of anyways, since the 10,000k bulbs are perfectly fine.

 

[discuspaul]

I've been fish-keeping for many years and done a lot of experimenting, particularly with plants.
I love Anubias and have had them many times in various sized tanks, including my discus tanks.

About 4 weeks ago I added 4 nice-sized Anubia plants (2"-3" high, with 4 or 5 leaves each) to a piece of driftwood I had in a 10 gal tank that had been up & running for a year with nothing more in it than a Blixa Japonica, a couple of dwarf swords, along with a few Neons, Rasboras, and Ember Tetras.


I'm sure you all know that Anubias are very slow-growing plants that might develop only one new leaf on each plant every 3 or 4 weeks or so, under good conditions.

Well I decided to run a Fluval 88 mini pressurized C02 kit on a daily basis on that tank, and a small weekly dose of Plant Gro NPK macros, and some trace micros.


After that 4 weeks, all 4 plants had almost tripled in size - the smallest one now having 10 leaves, one 11 leaves, and the 2 others 13 leaves each. Never saw anything like it before in all the time I'd been growing Anubias - they're producing a new leaf every couple of days ! I'm simply amazed.


Are you planning to run pressurized CO2 in that beauty 125 tank ?
Hopefully you could get similar results with those nice Anubias you have.

Best of luck with that tank - it looks great !

 

[Daveunkefer]

I know absolutely nothing about co2 stuff. So I wasn't planning on it. Does it affect fish in any way? It expensive?


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[discuspaul]

A pressurized CO2 kit is not cheap - it's a high-tech item to grow plants well, quickly.
For a tank the size of yours, you should be able to get a good complete kit for around $300. Google and do some research if you're interested, and your wallet permits.
Operated properly, it doesn't affect fish in any negative way. Many aquarists and plant lovers have them.
If you want to grow plants real well, you need a good carbon source like pressurized CO2, along with ferts and good lighting.

 

[Brian Anderson]

You go girl. I'm so proud.


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[ROYWS3]

You should be fine with that lighting. Plants can use actinic bulbs, it just encourages a different growth pattern. Which you shouldn't really see much of the effect of anyways, since the 10,000k bulbs are perfectly fine.

Agreed. I've grown plants with this combo for years and they all do very well. You said you like the color of the actinic and your plants will grow under this combo so why change it?