little plant tank

[DocOc]

So I have this little Eclipse 3gal I planned on using as a hospital tank/nursery. It's not working out for that at the moment, so I thought I could put some of my clippings there to start a plant nursery and experiment in DIY CO2 generation. The CO2 setup is just sugar, water, and baker's yeast in a 1.5L water bottle. It's bubbling away off to the left side of the tank. I have a few snails in there to keep the nitrogen cycle moving.
I just read about needing to dose nitrates for the plants. I'm thinking about just giving it water from my overstocked fish tank. Good idea?

[GlitcH]

I need to set up a QT/plant clipping tank too......what kinda light ya got on there?

Don't know about sharing the water from the other tank......I guess it couldn't hurt for now.
If everything is fine in the large tank........I would try it....see how it goes.

[WarEagleNR88]

If you want to grow plants, you might want to get a better substrate. The colored enamel gravel doesn't have too many nutrients that plants like--it may not have any if there is no mulm or detritus in it. I'd pull out that colored gravel and put a healthy scoop of Eco-Complete or any of the Seachem gravels in there and off you should go. Two or three pounds of it should be fine if you have any available. I'm not sure what you should do if you have none available.

Depending on how you want your plants and what kind of plants you want, there are some things you'll need. These recommendations are for a higher light, higher growth mini planted tank. You can also do a low light, low tech planted tank using slow growing plants, very little lighting and perhaps not even any CO2.

For the high light/tech tank, you'll have to find a way to get the pH and the KH measured and dose a tiny bit of nitrates if your other tank water doesn't have enough in it. Aim for 10-20 ppm unless you're trying to bring out reds--and this can be considered fairly advanced aquatic plant keeping without grow lots of algae at the same time. Keep your CO2 at least around 20-30 ppm and your phosphates very low. With the DIY CO2, on a small tank--and I've kept one before--I'd try to get on a cycle with 2 separate DIY CO2 containers so you can swap out about ever 3 weeks or so in order to have the peak of the CO2 production going non-stop. There, you're mileage may vary depending on amount of sugar used, water temp, yeast productivity, etc. Also you will most likely need to increase your lighting to at least 10wpg of pc lighting to grow more light demanding plants. I'd try one 13W first and go from there for lights. That may do it, but again it may not. I was eventually using 30W of 6500K PC over a 2.5 gallon with one CO2 bottle feeding into the intake of a Penguin Mini filter--with Biowheel removed of course. As far as plants go, you'll have to get small plants because anything else will rapidly outgrow the tank as they begin growing.

I'll watch this thread and give any more tips if I can.

[DocOc]

You can't see it from here, but I do have some laterite in there with those clippings. Because it was going to be a temporary tank, I didn't plan well for a plant substrate. I'll see how it goes for now and tinker as I go.

I just had a minor rcatastrophe as I shook my 1.5 liter bottle of "beer" that is creating my CO2. Yeah, FYI: don't do that. Really dumb. I had to change out most of the water because fermenting brew shot up through the air line and into my tank. Not cool. I don't think plants like alcohol in their water as much as I do.

[Purrbox]

Yep. Never shake a CO2 mixture after it gets going.

Also, just incase you didn't know laterite should go under the gravel. I wasn't sure from your post if you had put in under, mixed it in, or on top of the gravel. If it comes in contact with the main water column it will cloud your water.

[DocOc]

Yeah, another thread of mine includes whining about my cloudiness. In my main tank, I have mixed it in. Hmmm...this could be the source of my clogging problems too. I knew it was supposed to go down under the main substrate, but I stuck with a fully stocked tank when I learned about using it properly. The alternative listed on the package was to mix it in with the existing substrate. Bummer.

Any suggestions?

[Purrbox]

I'd suggest using root tabs instead. They work great in tanks that don't have nutrient rich substrates. The special bonus, is that you can target feed extra heavy root feeders like Swords and Crypts.

[czcz]

You could remove all but an inch of the laterite/gravel mix, then cap it with gravel or a plant substrate. I think your idea of adding nutrient rich water from your overstocked tank is a fine one, but be aware it will be difficult to calculate exactly what you're adding to the Eclipse/growout/experiment tank. Worth a try though.

[DocOc]

I like both ideas. It's a small tank, so it should be pretty easy.
My main tank is another story entirely. A deep hex that is no fun to stick my arm in for hours at a time.
Thanks for the suggestions!

[Zezmo]

What kind of plants do you have in there? They look like stem plants (baby's tears?). Those might not care a lick about nutrients in the subrate and are just looking to get what they need out of the water.

I'm thinking about just giving it water from my overstocked fish tank. Good idea?

You said the tank just has clippings and snails. The water from your other tank will give some nitrates. It may also toss the nutrients out of balance and lead to algae or other issues. As a not fish "experiment" tank you can try all kinds of things, and just see what happens.
For your DIY CO2 you may want to make a bubble counter/gas separator from a small soda bottle. Instructions on making one are here: http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html#5
(that is from the CO2 sticky)