Met a plant guy who is doing it all wrong?

[locorosa]

I found this interesting and thought I'd put this up here to see what you all, the plant experts thought.
I bought some plants from a guy (cheap so if I kill them I am not out much dough) who had four planted tanks in his house. Since I am in the "jumping in without really knowing what I am doing" point, I asked a bunch of questions when I was there.
His biggest planted was a 54 gallon corner bow in a very dark bedroom. He had standard 2 lighting ballasts with the coralife lamps on the tank. What are those 20watts each, max? He uses Seachem potassium and iron. He's running a DIY CO2 setup with two 2 ltr bottles and just started that about 6 weeks ago.
He has mostly easy to grow stuff:
dwarf sag
bacopa
wisteria
water sprite
tropical sunset
glosso
java moss
a couple of other unknowns but I know they were not low lights because one was red.
He has been selling his plants on Craigslist for quite a while and while they lacked asthetic appeal, the tanks looked great and were pretty overrun with these guys.
I have been killing myself to try and learn this stuff and have hit a couple of big bumps...lol. How fair is that?
I bought the wrong type of light ballast (actinic) and was a tad worried about killing them off before I get proper lighting and he was tellling me to just keep some sort of light on them until I can get one ordered and shipped to me from an online store.
I don't know why I found this intersting but I felt a little silly gettting all worked up and he is seeming to go against the rules...so to speak.
Has anyone else had success this way? Just curious.

 

[leoslizards]

I'm no expert but I believe you should have at least 2wpg for a low light setup and the bulbs must be between 5000k and 10000k and the plants should be fine. I would still keep the actinic bulb if you plan to keep fish in this tank. The actinic lamp will make the fish look nicer.

 

[maxwell1295]

Those plants are basically low light species, so he can definitely get away with less light there. More demanding plants would need a lot more light.

 

[BrianNY]

Alot has to do with what is being achieved. This guy is selling plants, not growing them. It's easier for him to keep his glosso potted. It's also easier if he doesn't have to do much of the maintenance (such as pruning), on plants with slow growth. Like animals, plants can live for quite some time without the "ideal" conditions.

 

[Peyton]

I am currently growing java fern, windelov java fern, red crypts, hornwort, and java moss in .5 wpg in a 30gal hex. Most everything I have read says that little will grow below 1wpg but these plants are doing well, although at a slow growth rate. Bi weekly water changes, K2So4, and Fe is all that is added. I also have a 20gal holding tank that currently has asian ambulia, sunset hygro, micro chain sword, and wisteria with 1wpg. The point is the wpg rule is not set in stone.

 

[rkilling1]

His biggest planted was a 54 gallon corner bow in a very dark bedroom. He had standard 2 lighting ballasts with the coralife lamps on the tank. What are those 20watts each, max?

What is 'standard' ballast/bulb to you? Was it a T-12, a T-8, a T-5, a HO T-5, CF, or VHO bulb?

Were the bulbs overdriven?

Did you ask him how much light he had in watts?

Many fixtures may look weak, but you never know what it is putting out unless you ask. I have a 'standard' double T-8 fixture that puts out 110 watts or a T-12 equivalent of 154 watts of light. My fixture over a 55 gallon tank could grow quite a few species of plants.

the tanks looked great and were pretty overrun with these guys

And you say he is doing it all wrong? Have you every seen a tank full of algae and dead plants? That is doing it all wrong. Sounds like he is doing very well.

 

[Purrbox]

As long as the tanks are low to medium light, then it sounds like he's got a fairly standard setup there. We'd need to know more specifics on his lighting to be sure. Lower light tanks don't require near as much dosing and maintenance. It's the high light tanks that require the CO2 injection and heavy fert routine.

 

[Hara]

I would like to say that there is no "doing it all wrong". There are many many ways to achieve the same thing. Beautifully planted tanks can be achieved at low light, high light and whatever combination in between using a variety of methods. CO2 is not a definite requirement for success. It can be done without that. Certain k ratings of bulbs are not required for success (I run HO T5 bulbs at a 1200k rating and my plants are healthy and grow like crazy).

You can be as high tech or low tech as you want to be and can have a beautiful tank. I get pretty disturbed with people that insist there is only one way to do it. These are the folks that are usually afraid to try anything new and are terrified to deviate from what they consider to be the "only right and correct way".