What am I doing wrong?

Home Depot also sells 23W CF bulbs with reflectors, they look similar to halogen floodlights. A 4 pack costs $16, and 4 clamp fixtures (they're just an aluminum dome with a clamp to attach it to anything) cost $3 each. Clamp all 4 on your tank, forego your current top and lighting entirely, and you're up to ~90w of light. The restrike is reduced greatly in the reflectored bulbs. All said and done, $28 spent, no need to be handy with anything. Just screw in the bulbs, clamp the fixtures to the top of your tank, aim the lights, and turn em on.
 
I went out today and bought a coralife 65W hood. Possible problem is that it's a 30" where I really needed 24". All of the bulb is over the tank however the ends hang off a little. I went ahead and bought a co2 injector and diffuser kit. I know that with that I need to keep a watch on my pH and kH before I turn off the lights and when I turn them on. However, I've been told by some that I need to test the iron and others say that with the flourish, just add it 2X a week and I should be fine. What do you guys think? I'm trying to make this as simple as possible but still be able to have healthy plants. I also bought a cabomba, a water wisteria (sp?) and something that started with a B. I was told it blooms small purple flowers...
Anyways, with the hood hanging off 6" (though lights are over the aquarium) do I still have enough light for these high light plant? Is there anything else I should be doing? Is the play sand going to be OK for all the plants?
Oh, I also got some trumpet snails today to help with keeping the sand from building toxic gases. I just have 6 now but I've been warned they breed a lot!

Thanks again for all your help!
 
You know, I think you did the right thing by buying the ready made hood. If you're not somewhat handy with tools and can afford it, it's the way to go for you.

Now you've gone and done it...............you went over 3 wpg. This is definitely going to grow plants, but it's also going to grow algae if you don't begin to push the CO2 and add some more plants to balance all the light.
You will need some floating plants to shade the tank a bit until the plants you put in the substrate begin to establish themselves.
You need a kH of at least 3.0°kH. It is what buffers your water and keeps the CO2 from forcing the pH down dramatically and possibly suffocating the fish. Test to see what you're kH is if you haven't already done so.
You do not need extra Fe at this time. You do need N (nitrates), P (phosphates), and K (potassium) which are your macro elements to go along with the micros that the flourish is supplying. The maker of flourish, Seachem, also has a line of products
called Flourish Nitrogen, Flourish Phosphate, and Flourish Potassium. They are liquids and are easy to dose, if a bit expensive. The alternative to that is dry nutrients which are much less expensive. You will have to decide which direction to go in in this area.
You see, this is the problem. Lots of light can be good, but when you have too much for the amount of happy, fast growing plants in the tank it can cause algae problems.
When you have light it forces growth. In order for the plants to grow, they need a balanced diet. Hence the macros/micros/carbon (CO2). This becomes more critical based on the amount of light supplied. You don't have a TON of light, but do have a nice amount which will require finding the balance.
Until you find that balance, I'm sorry to say that it's not going to be a 'simple' process.
You will be fiddling with nutrient doses and working to find the most efficient way to get CO2 into your water table to push the plants to grow.
I'm not trying to scare you. Just to let you know what's ahead if you want to maintain a nice tank that is free of algae. The good news is that once you find the balance for your particular tank, it becomes a lot easier and more 'simple' to maintain.

Len
 
Don't use any chemicals!!!!!
Pick up some crushed coral at the LFS and a nylon filter bag. Put up to 1 cup or what ever will fit in the bag and into the filter. It will take about a week to start to raise your kH, but you won't have to mess with it for a while.
As to the pH issue. Did you add anything to the tank that may have raised it? Were you running CO2 and turned it off for the night? That will cause a fluctuation in pH and is normal for those of us who turn the gas off at night and on in the morning. Raising the kH should help a bit with that as well.

Len
 
OK, Ill add some crushed coral to that tank. The pH is now at 7.0. Though after the test sat a while (about an hour) it turned to dark blue... Has never done this before.

As for adding anything. I did add the play sand just two nights ago since my gravel was cursing the roots on my plants. Other than that, nothing else has been added that would effect pH (only other things has been calcium which I add daily for my snails and have been doing so for quite a while and food)
 
I'm new to Apple snails and am asking everyone about the content of the calcium that they maintain to aid the snail shells. So, how much Ca do you dose and do you know how many ppm of Ca you maintain?
I'm trying to establish a benchmark for my own dosing regimen of this element. I'm using coral to counteract the CO2 and it's related low pH which erode snail shell, but don't know if that's going to be enough.
Sorry to hijack your thread with this question, but just thought I might ask.:)

To answer one of your questions.......always use the color that is immediately available after adding the reagent(s) when testing water parameters. Test tubes that sit become less reliable with time as you can see by the darkening of the color.

Len
 
I got my last calcium batch from rainbowsnails.com however I've found out that using kents calcium for marine aquariums at half dose is all you need. I am adding 2 drops per 5G per day with no ill effect and am seeing a great improvement in the snails that came to me with bad shelling. The babies I have all have perfect shells. I also give high calcium foods for them to eat and keep a cuttle bone in the tank for them to graze on.
As for your pH you want it at bare minimum 7.0 though higher is better. Crushed coral should be enough to maintain your pH at 7.5-7.8 however, it will take time to get it there. The coral slowly dissolves while buffering and raising your pH. It took me about 2 months give or take a little to bring my 55g up from 6.8 to 7.5.

As for my pH. Upon turning on the lights, the pH is at 6.0. I clearly need something to do to prevent such a large crash such as this.
 
i also have a 20g planted tank, i have an a few anacharis, amazon sword, and some grass. they all do fine with an aqua glo 40watt flouresant plant stilmulating light. it says on the box it encourges plant growth, and my plants grow quite fast, and have to put them in a bigger tank, i also use Root Tabs +iron to help fertalize it better, and it keeps the plants in a green state of mind, they look practically a perfect green shade, these also help for optimal plant growth.
 
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