help with 47 gal vertical aquarium

G

greycrane

AC Members
Dec 19, 2005
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I have a 47 gal vertical tank that I am trying to grow plants in. This tank is about a month old.

Some of the plants are dying. I have some kind of sword that seems to have taken root, but the larger leaves keep turning brown. The hair grass seems OK - moss seems OK - and 2 other small round leafed plants have died.

My light is an Eclipse Natural Daylight bulb that came with the aquarium. The fixture is rated to 15 W.

Plants are a new project. Do I need more light? Should I add CO2?

All suggestions and help appreciated!
 
Lighting that is often included with most tank setups are usually ineffecient for plants. You want to have at least 1-2 watts per gallon for low light plants, but with the height of your tank you may need to have more, like 3 watts per gallon. The reason is because weaker light sources only penetrate limited depths of water, and for your plants to get the light they need, the light source will have to be more powerful to reach them.

You sound like you have low maintenance plants, so don't worry too much about ferts just yet.
Other tips, you want to have the lights on 10-12 hours a day, and you can get better prices at home improvment stores for lighting equipment than petstores. If I missed anything about lighting or ferts, some others on the forum should be able to fill in the gaps.
 
Hold off on the CO2, it's not necessary at this point. You really need a lot more light in there. Even a regular rectangle 47g tank will not have enough light at 15 watts to grow plants. You only have .34 watts per gallon, and that's for a "standard" sized tank.

What are the tank dimensions?

Roan
 
Tank = 20 wide x 18 deep x 30.5 tall

Is there a good place to order lights online? What do y'all recommend for this tank?
 
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