new kid need advice

[Sjbdvm]

Hi I'm new to the forum so thanks in advance for any advice. I have been on/off keeping freshwater tanks for ~ 10 years but my last one was a super fail because of my laziness so I gave it away and the new owner saved all the fish and plants and has it looking awesome. Prior to that I had several small tanks running at one time and they did fairly well but were all low light, low tech and never too heavily planted (because I was a broke college student).

Anyway, I have a little more funds and a little more time and decided to try again and hopefully have better success and stay committed. The long term plan is a big (for me) 55-70 gal tank (not purchased yet so not sure of size but somewhere in that range) heavily planted south american community tank in our soon to be new family room. I'm still planning and thinking about that one and also the room isn't finished so I can't get it going yet. In the meantime I decided to practice and try some stuff out on a small tank in our living room.

My question is whether or not I need to fertilize. I have been reading a lot and don't seem to have a clear understanding of whether this is necessary given my other parameters, obviously I want to avoid algae but would like to have fairly speedy plant growth (if possible without adding too much equipment) so I can use a lot of these plants/trimmings to supplement what I buy for my future big tank.

My tank is only 10 gal, standard rimmed tank you get at petco. I have a HOB fluval/aquaclear filter rated up to 20 gal, finnex fugeray planted + 20" light (4 hours on -5 hours off- 4 hours on), miracle grow organic potting soil under gravel. I have a small piece of driftwood with 3 anubias wired to it, 2 crypts, 2 small swords (one has reddish leaves don't remember exact name) and 2 bunches of cabomba. I will post pics later from my phone but this pretty heavily covers the substrate.

The tank has been running about 3 weeks. I only have the crappy API kit you buy at petco. My pH is 7.2, I don't know my gh/kh. I am in the midst of a small nitrite spike and did a 50% water change today, previously was changing about 20% daily or EOD to try to get some of the yellow out of the water (also currently running the carbon in my filter). I have always had zero nitrates but it may just be too early in the cycle. I have 5 neons and 1 beta which i realize were a little premature to add but I have been testing water frequently and staying on top of water changes; i have a 2 year old son very interested in the tank so adding fish was kind of important to keep my husband from wondering what was the point of this project

Anyway, I have been reading about fertilizers and liquid carbon, wondering if I should buy more testing stuff and think about adding these to jump start the plants but not sure if I have enough light to support this. Also not sure if even needed given that the potting soil is brand new.

The cabomba is doing well almost ready for some stems to be trimmed and replanted. The anubias look exactly the same but they don't look sick which I choose to take as a positive. Some leaves on the crypts look to be dying, I stuffed the swords in the back and can barely see them through the cabomba but they seem to be fine.

sorry for such a long post. and if it matters, i do not have a green thumb. I kill house plants regularly and my garden this last year was terrible except I had some wonderful spring peas. I am hoping to have better luck growing plants underwater but if if you are kind enough to give me advice, don't have the expectation that I have any natural instincts or knowledge about how to care for plants because i don't have a good track record but I do keep trying.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

It sounds like you have a good handle on this 10g starter tank. All the plants aside from the cabomba are easy low light tolerant plants. The Fugeray Planted+ is more than adequate for all your species of plants. The anubias is the slowest grower among your plants so don't expect to see much growth in short time. All the plants would benefit from the liquid carbon and liquid ferts... I'd just dose twice a week as directed on the bottle.

How do you like the Fugeray Planted+?

 

[Sjbdvm]

So like seachem excel and flourish? Do you think I should be worried about the crypts with some leaves dying?


I like the finnex, I had been reading about it before it came out and it seemed a safe choice for a beginner but would still be a solid fixture to keep around if your skills/aspirations became more advanced. The moonlight is barely visible I wish it was a tiny bit brighter because you can't really tell it's on but that is a very minor complaint IMO.

 

[Pezzep]

Crypts tend to melt back when added to a new tank and they should bounce back in time. They are also heavy root feeders so most people tend to add root tabs, I'm unsure if this is still needed when using dirt though. You seem to be doing fine so far, adding some seachem excel would be beneficial, you could get dry ferts and mix up your own ferts if you wanted rather than buying all the seachem stuff, it would be less expensive this way and you can dose the ferts to what you want your parameters to be.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

So like seachem excel and flourish? Do you think I should be worried about the crypts with some leaves dying?

I like the finnex, I had been reading about it before it came out and it seemed a safe choice for a beginner but would still be a solid fixture to keep around if your skills/aspirations became more advanced. The moonlight is barely visible I wish it was a tiny bit brighter because you can't really tell it's on but that is a very minor complaint IMO.

Yes... I think seachem flourish and excel is a great combo. I'd start with that for now to get the hang of an easy fertilization method. But down the road when you upgrade to the larger tank, definitely start reading up and learning dry ferts. There's two popular dosing methods, EI and PPS-Pro. I buy my dry ferts from green leaf aquariums. Also, if you want to continue using liquid carbon in the larger tank, you can get Glut (generic excel), usually sold as Metricide 14. It's about 2x stronger than excel, so you can either dilute it or dose 1/2 as much. It's much cheaper than excel when you buy it by the gallon. Just don't use the activator bottle.

As mentioned, crypts don't like being moved and tend to melt a bit before getting acclimated to a new environment.
Post pictures of your setup whenever you have a chance

 

[Sjbdvm]

Not sure if I have picture posting figured out. This is day 1 when still super cloudy and I was still using a light I had around the house

 

[Sjbdvm]

And this morning

Water still kind of yellow from the soil and driftwood

 

[smithpants94]

Your tank looks good! Just make sure you're doing those water changes to keep those nutrients down!

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Looks good... aside from partial water changes, activated carbon helps in clearing up the water.

 

[Sjbdvm]

Did another 50% WC today. Starting to see what may be a haze of algae on the glass so ill scrape that when I change water tomorrow. Ordering flourish/excel from amazon tonight. Still measuring low lvls of nitrites and zero NO3.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

When your tank cycles you can add otocinclus and nerites... they love munching on that green haze (green dust algae, most likely).

 

[flitabout]

Tank looks great! So far so good!

 

[Sjbdvm]

Update time: BRING IT algae, I'm not afraid.


Not true I am actually very afraid. This has been the cause for failure in every previous planted tank. I have some hairlike algae growing off the crypt leaves, a brownish green haze on the glass and although I have great new growth on my cabomba the lower parts of the stems are not bright green and I think it's because of algae.

Just finished the nitrite phase of the cycle which had me doing daily 50% wc's to keep the fish ok. I started adding excel yesterday and supplemented seachem nitrate today because my nitrates still read zero.i added 2 otos and they are working on the algae on the glass. Should I supplement phosphorous and potassium too? I haven't because I don't have a way to test the levels but I got the npk liquid fert pack from seachem so I have them.

 

[Sjbdvm]

Here's some pics

 

[Sjbdvm]

Ok the algae is getting out of control, any advice is welcome. There is brown hair-like algae completely covering the cabomba except the top 2 inches or so and some new growth at the bottoms of the stems. I got 2 otocinclus who did a great job on all the flat leaves of anubias, crypts and swords but the cabomba is bushy so I don't know if its a different type of algae or if its harder to get to. I have the same 4-5-4 photoperiod, I am now dosing 2 ml excel daily and about 1 ml nitrate every other day or so but have yet to have any nitrate show up on my test. All plants seem to be growing well but now there is also algae that looks like green spots on the glass. The cabomba just looks so ugly I'm close to pulling it but seems a shame because there is new growth

 

[Coursair]

Ok the algae is getting out of control, any advice is welcome. There is brown hair-like algae completely covering the cabomba except the top 2 inches or so and some new growth at the bottoms of the stems. I got 2 otocinclus who did a great job on all the flat leaves of anubias, crypts and swords but the cabomba is bushy so I don't know if its a different type of algae or if its harder to get to. I have the same 4-5-4 photoperiod, I am now dosing 2 ml excel daily and about 1 ml nitrate every other day or so but have yet to have any nitrate show up on my test. All plants seem to be growing well but now there is also algae that looks like green spots on the glass. The cabomba just looks so ugly I'm close to pulling it but seems a shame because there is new growth

I would reduce lighting to 6 hours total a day.
Be careful w the Nitrate test. Shake it thoroughly if that's part of the instructions.

You can trim and replant the Cabomba easily.

Watch how much you feed.

 

[Reaper216]

If I can just throw my 2 cents in, I dont use root tabs or dry ferts. I have had live plants in my tank for a little over a month now and at first they were in the tank and living. All of my plants (swords and some more, the names escape me) were all roughly 4 inches in height werent growing, and were starting to die.

I started using Big Als plant food and they are growing like crazy. The swords have all doubled in size, and there are plants with green/red leaves that have gone from 4 inches to almost 18 in about 3 weeks.

I now also have a tremendous amount of algae growing on the glass, and that black hair stuff growing everywhere.

Will leaving the lights off help remove that hair stuff?? I dont have a timer yet and work doing deliveries so my days vary from 8 - 16 hours. This means my lights are on for all of those 16 hours.

Until I get a timer will a day with no lights every once in a while help at all?

 

[flitabout]

Your swords and crypts will eventually need root tabs. Cutting the light down will help with the algae and so will the excel. Now that you are using it you can slowly add more as it acts as an algaecide. Just make sure to dose it everyday as directed on the bottle. You can also spot treat the bba (black beard algae) with peroxide. At a rate of 3mls per gallon. I use an oral syringe. Here's how you do it. Turn off your filter(s) Draw up the h2o2 and slowly squirt the bba. Leave the filters off for 20-30 minutes and then turn everything back on. If you have a lot you may need to treat different areas on separate days. You will notice that it will turn red as it starts to die (IMO it's actually kinda pretty as it dies! It's really red!) then it turns grey then white. Once it goes to white there is no need to remove it. It will break down on it's own.

 

[Sjbdvm]

Ok I will go up on my excel and drop to 6 hrs light. I don't think it's bba based on pictures it's really long threads and is light brown. Some I pull off and it is at least 4-5 inches of super fine thread. I have been rubbing some off with my fingers and I think that is helping too. The cabomba is so pretty when it looks healthy and it is growing maybe I should pull out and dip in h202 then replant ... ? I guess it may just come right back though

 

[flitabout]

Oh don't do that!!! I did that and kill/almost killed a bunch of plants! I was so glad I didn't do all of my wisteria because what did was dead almost over night. My anubia lived but all of the leaves it had died and I got lucky as a few new leaves have come back. If you do pull the plants to treat do a dip with 3part water/1 part peroxide. I did 100% strength and well that just wasn't good.