Newly planted tank - advice?

[root81]

Yesterday, I received a shipment of 6 JAVA Ferns and a blob of JAVA Moss. As per the sellers instructions, I soaked the plants in a bowl of tank water for about 2 hours before attaching the plants down to small rocks and placing in the tank. (had one baby fern that didn't seem big enough to easily tie, so I just left it float, and it settled down quickly in a corner...)


Anyways My tank is a 10 gal with 3 cherry barbs
Ammonia=0ppm
Nitrite=0.8ppm
Nitrate=15ppm

Temp= 79 F
Lighting=2WPG

Are fertilizers and CO2 anything I should be looking into immediatly, or is this tank going to be OK to support these plants?I would like to have some growth, but I don't care about the growth speed too much.

Also, is this enough plant cover to help keep my nitrate low or do I need more plants to notice any difference?

 

[fresh_newby]

2 watts per gallon should garner at the very least DIY CO2 and trace dosing. If not DIY CO2, then FLouish excel. Your plants will appreciate it and algae will not be as much of an issue as it will with your present situation.

You will need more plants and something faster growing in your new tank.

 

[phanmc]

CO2 and ferts will help any tank but if you actually have 20w of normal output fluorescent over the 10g tank then it's not abolutely critical to have them, 20w just isn't alot of light even for a 10g tank.

Java fern & moss aren't fast growers so they aren't amazing nutrient sponges. It's a good idea to have a few fast growers in there like hornwort, anacharis, water wisteria, or water sprite.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

your are fine. no need for ferts or co2. see how that goes and look into other low light plants.