Plant Noob Questions

[lyquidphyre]

Since I have the lighting and the CO2 and the Eco Complete substrate... do I just buy and plant plants?

The guy I bought my tank from had some plant chemicals and plant food... what is recommended to use and not to use.

How much CO2 should I release (bubbles per sec wise) when growing/adding plants

These were the plants I really liked-
Anacharis, Narrow leaf Chain Sword, Corkscrew and Contortian, Vallisneria, Rotala Magenta and Marcranda, Water Sprite (my fav), Green Fox tail, Lave Java Fern, Jave Fern and Wisteria

Granted, im not going to get all of those plants (I don't think heh) but are all of those able to grow under a 250watt light? And which ones should a Noob like myself steer clear from.


Sorry for all the questions.

 

[AlexPerez]

Go to this site and do some reading. find out all you can about the special needs of a planted tank to save you lots of headache in the future.
http://www.aquariaplants.com/

 

[BrianNY]

Alex gave you an excellent link Katy. To simplify things you need to understand a bit more about CO2 and water chemistry before you turn those lights on. When injecting CO2 the first thing you need to know is the kH of your water. CO2 in an unbuffered aquarium will cause the pH to crash. That much lighting without CO2 will grow terrific algae. All of that must be balanced with the proper nutrients. It isn't really as complicated as it sounds.

You should be able to grow any plant you fancy.

 

[lyquidphyre]

That link is wonderful. I read up about the CO2 and it makes sense

Does it matter that I have a huge pleco, or would the algae be apart of the water? (green water)

Right now the CO2 is off and the lights are on (er, not at the moment they are on a timer) but there are no plants yet- will that be a problem for my lone fish?

 

[AlexPerez]

if you have the plants yet then you don't need the lights on as it could cause algae outbreaks. have you done any testing to see what you water params are. some of the test kits you should have for a planted tank would be
KH, GH, Nitrate, PH and phospahte. don't bother with iron test kits.
Once you get an idea of what your water is like. we can then give you more specific advice on how to proceed.
I was looking at your plant list and you should have no problem growing them.
Depeneding on your water some plants like Rotala Magenta might not grow very well. It likes soft water.

 

[lyquidphyre]

My PH was 7.2 if I remember correctly but I didn't do the tests for the KH and GH because I was just testing to make sure the water was okay for my Pleco

I will do that here shortly and report back =o)

 

[Guest]

Does it matter that I have a huge pleco,

Yes, it can matter. Exactly how big is this fish? Just swimming around, big Plecs can tear your plants up from the substrate, before the plants are established and well rooted.

 

[lyquidphyre]

he is about 7in long.. he pretty much stays in one place and when he does swim its not on the bottom.. its on the top er something

what if you have a lot of substrate to plant your plants in? would that help him not pull em up before they are well rooted?

 

[lyquidphyre]

I did testing and im confused.

I didn't have any tests to test for Nitrate or Phosphate but I had tests to test for nitrite

when I did the GH and KH test it took 10 drops to turn the GH blue which equals "medium hard" but the KH took 6 drops.

Am i supposed to subtract the two? if so then I have "soft water" which I don't think is the case.. im pretty sure the water isn't soft

anyways.. now what?
heh

 

[AlexPerez]

Now you know your KH is at 6 and your GH is at 10 which is not bad water for plants. according to your post your PH is at 7.2 which gives you 11.4 ppm of CO2.
this is a bit high for someone not using CO2 injection so I would recheck those figures.
by the way here is another link to help you along with your planted endeavor.
http://rexgrigg.com/main.htm

 

[lyquidphyre]

I was using the C02 for a while, but turned it off since I wasn't growing plants- would that have any effect?

The chart on that site says if my water parameters are that way then my water is okay


Okay, i just redid the ph tests
its at 6.8-7.0