new to plants

[aquabeast]

its the aqueon brand light that came with the hood... ill go check. back its a 17 watt full spectrum daylight 8,000 k bulb

 

[EndlersEatGuppies]

its the aqueon brand light that came with the hood... ill go check. back its a 17 watt full spectrum daylight 8,000 k bulb

could be better but should be fine

 

[fort384]

ok, imo that will do better than the 18000K 20W bulb. It is still pretty inadequate though honestly. You aren't going to see much growth with it (if at all), and I think pulling the sword out is a good idea if you aren't going to upgrade.

 

[aquabeast]

ill just pull the swoard out and research on plants that can survive that light.. ill feed the swoard to my silver dollars. these bulbs were a big waste of money.. ill probably return themm.. should i use liquid fetilizers though? or is it not really helpful? what about the floating plant hornwart? was gonna get it, but didnt have enough....

 

[fort384]

With that light, I would be surprised if any fertilizer supplementation is necessary. Hornwort might do ok if you leave it floating, as it will be right under the light.

I am not a fan of it though. If it melts/dies it makes a mess.

 

[mfdrookie516]

duckweed does pretty good in low light doesn't it?

 

[aquabeast]

well, they sell the kind that floats.. what about the banana plant?

 

[aquabeast]

im just tryin to find low light plants.. they sell verieties of plants..

 

[fort384]

Sure, duckweed would do ok. Problem there is if it multiplies at all, it will block light that is already extremely low. Really the same with the hornwort I guess, if there is java fern underneath it.

 

[fort384]

banana plant, I would say no with your current light.

 

[aquabeast]

i know they sell anuibas.. those?

 

[fort384]

depends what kind of anubias it is. Most of it will probably live. I doubt it would grow much. It would however grow plenty of algae on the leaves

 

[aquabeast]

id like to try carpet algae.. i think the look it will have on my crushed coral will be amazing.

 

[fort384]

carpet algae? What would that be?

 

[mfdrookie516]

Algae would be the easiest thing in the world to grow... but not sure how you'd like it after a while

 

[aquabeast]

its like algae that grows like a rug on the floor of the tank.. with the way my tank looks, itl look cool.. hopefully this works out.. idk if my amazon sword will be ok in the 55 considering i have a penguin 660 powerhead in there.. the currents pretty strong.

 

[fort384]

I think you are confused. You are going to have a really tough time growing a carpet of algae. That really won't work out. Carpet plants that grow like you are thinking about require a lot of light, a lot of co2, a lot of ferts, and a lot of TLC.

 

[aquabeast]

ive never read, only heard about them..

 

[fort384]

yeah, you heard wrong... There is not any algae that will grow in your setup that will be attractive.

 

[aquabeast]

oh, while im here.. the water sprite i have is in a basket... could i take it out of the back it and into the substrate? the basket is really unsightly...( i switched my bulb back to the 8,000 k one.