Planted tank redo (15 gallon)

jpappy789

jpappy789

Plants need meat too
Feb 18, 2007
26,364
5
89
35
Gainesville, FL
Real Name
Josh
Well, first off my tank survived the 3 week break, even with the vacation feeder showing up too late. Everyone was skinny and hungry but still alive. Most of the plants look pretty crappy though...

which brings me to my plan of redoing the tank. My schedule is just too much to be trying to maintain a "medium" tech and tightly stocked tank. I will hopefully be donating my loaches and plec to the school and will likely be switching to a shrimp tank. It sucks, but I pretty much have to.

I'll be removing the cabomba and probably the rotala too. What's left will be dwarf sag, java fern, and anubias nana. I'm not sure what I'll be doing with the wisteria. I've mainly kept it around as a floater to suck up nutrients.

Anyways, I'm mainly concerned about what to do about lighting. Currently I have 48w of T5HO lighting and thats the only option I have. I'm wondering if running even 8 hours a day would be overdoing it with the limited plants I will be keeping. I'll be continuing with excel and possibly experimenting with some minimal fert doses if I need to. But would 6-8 hours of light be a good idea for my plan?
 
What do you mean when you say a tightly stocked tank? Shrimp only doesn't sound tightly stocked to me.

As far as the lighting, it sounds a bit intense for the java fern and the anubias. I'd think I'd want something to shade them, maybe water lettuce or frogbit or something to that nature. I'm convinced my PC lighting on my 29g (65w) melted off my java fern as the shaded ones were fine but the exposed ones melted reminiscent of a crypt. 6-8 hours should be fine, just titrate your Excel and nutrients as needed for algae control.
 
Ok, I see what you mean, I need to read for comprehension :duh:. That lighting should be fine if your plants are used to the exposure, I'd aim for the 6-8 hours per day; I don't think shortening the photoperiod will get you to low maintenance. I do think you will need to dose ferts since it sounds like you'll have minimal bioload with shrimp only. That many wpg you need both CO2 (or excel) and ferts, especially with no bioload from fish.
 
Yeah I figure I would have to do some more tweaking but I mainly need to get rid of the faster growing stem plants and the need to be dosing so much ferts that a 50% change is essential...especially with the current stocking.
 
Getting rid of all that stock will certainly drop the maintenance. I feel your pain over high bioload maintenance, my 75g is about to have to go to 2x week 50%+ wcs.
 
:hypnotized: Jpappy....Look into my eyes......:hypnotized:....deeeeep into my eyes....:hypnotized: That's it....now repeat after me....."You must donate your loaches to Noods. You must donate your loaches to Noods"....:hypnotized:.....very good. :grinyes:
 
LOL I seriously would consider it if it was summer and I was confident in my shipping abilities (all I've sent so far has been a package of cryptocorynes lol). I'd be much more comfortable with your fishkeeping abilities than my peers but at least I would be able to keep an eye on them.
 
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