So many questions..

[SparKy697]

Hello,

I'm finding myself wanting/needing more information about the planted tank. I suppose it's a natural progression.

I have read most of the articles and stickies on the science behind it all and I find I'm a bit overwhelmed to say the least.

My first question is about lighting and calculating what you have. I have what is sold as a 29 gallon tank which I added a 55 watt cf fixture to. I understand that cf's put out more light than no lamps do, but I'm not understanding how to calculate the conversion. I see a 29 gallon tank with a 55 watt lamp = ~1.8 watts/gallon. Is it that simple?

I have a few plants now:

6 stalks of cabomba
6 stalks of anacharis (spelling?)
one sward that I have been told is a brazilian.
and four clumps of a "grassy" plant. I can provide photos if needed.

When I figured out that I needed to change out the stock lamp with the cf I also started dosing Excel. following the label instructions. The problem with doing both of these at one time, I don't know if one or both is helping but the plants seem to be doing quite well.

I guess my question here is do I need to be doing more with ferts? How about testing for phosphate?

This a relatively new tank that is cycled (fishless) and has a nitrate of <20 at last test.

Sorry about the length of this post. I'm afraid I'm going to need a little hand holding here.

Thanks for any info / advice.

 

[rkilling1]

CF puts out 1.35 times the light as a NO bulb. (Here is the article most of us use: http://woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/Lighting.htm )

so, 55 watts x 1.35 / 29 gallons = 2.56 WPG. This is just a rough estimate.

It you are dosing Excel, you may need to dose additional ferts, because the plants will grow faster and therefore consume more ferts. (you never said what you are dosing, fert wise)

Be careful with that much light, you should plant the tank with more species or you run the chance of growing algae.

EDIT: a Brazilian sword is non-aquatic, but a Radican sword, which is sometimes called a Brazilian sword, is an aquatic species. You may want to investigate which one you have.

I would like to see a photo of this grassy plant.

 

[SparKy697]

As of yet I am not dosing anything other than the Excel.

I have only a few plants by most standards and plan on filling in a bit more quite soon. From what I have read it seems that there is not a way to really test for nutrient content in the water other than phosphate, so I have a test kit on order.

Can I get away with a simple fert. without getting too crazy with the whole thing? Or have I gone past that with the lamp I'm using?

I'll post some more detailed photos of the plants I have when I get home this evening.

Thanks for the help.

 

[MarkP]

First thing I'd recommend is to make absolutely sure you buy the right ferts the first time. I'm still kicking myself for not buying monopotassium phosphate from Greg Watson when I bought everything else.

Second, I'll recommend Greg Watson ferts for that tank. Potassium Nitrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, CSM+B at the least, depending on your local water supply you might want magnesium sulfate and/or calcium carbonate and/or GH Booster. I'd order at least the GH Builder to be on the safe side (My local water varies widely throughout the year), it's like 4 bucks to get all a pound of all 3 and S&H from Greg is like 10 bucks- Better to order something you might not need then have to reorder, in my view. YMMV.

 

[Purrbox]

With the amount of light that you're dealing with, some carbon supplementation (Excel), and no ferts there's a fairly good chance that you'll start having algae problems soon as nutrients start bottoming out.

Ordering from Greg Watson is probably the most cost effective way to go.
CSM+B - Traces
KNO3 - Nitrates (and some Potassium)
KH2PO4 - Phosphates
K2SO4 - Potassium

You can also order the Magnesium Sulfate and Calcium Caronate, or GH Booster as MarkP mentioned. If you GH is over 70-80ppm or 4dGH then these probably aren't necessary unless your GH is entirely composed of Magnesium or Calcium.

You'll probably want to look at switching to/adding DIY CO2 or Pressurized CO2. Flourish Excel is going to get rather expensive in the long. DIY CO2 is relatively inexpensive to get running but a pain to maintain in the long run. Pressurized CO2 is fairly expensive upfront but inexpensive and easy to maintain.

Basically there are three core requirements for plants: light, carbon, and nutrients (ferts). You've taken care of light buy upgrading your fixture, and at least partially taken care of carbon by dosing Excel. You just need to ensure that you've addressed carbon adequately and address the nutrients and you should be set.

It would probably be a good idea to add some more stem plants as well, as it sounds like your tank is fairly lightly planted so far.

 

[SparKy697]

Ok you guys are psychic. I get home this evening and what do I see on the back of my tank? You guessed it. Pretty green algae!

So if I had to guess, which is exactly what I'm doing here, I will stop with the Excel until my ferts get ordered? I'll do a quick series of tests and post what results I get. I can test for kh, Gh, and calcium at the moment. My Phosphate kit has not arrived yet.

So when this stuff shows up, how do I feed it? Is there a simple formula for feeding or is it a trial and error effort?

It was a late day, so I have not had time yet to read other posts to see if that info is out there. I'm sure it is but any advice would, as usual, be appreciated.

 

[Purrbox]

It would also be a good idea to cut back on lighting, otherwise the algae will get even worse.

If you look in the sticky at the top of the forum, one of the links is on fertilizers. You should be able to find links to download Chuck's Calculator and information on EI dosing in there.

 

[SparKy697]

Ok here we go.

Here is a photo of the few plants I have at the moment:

Things are looking kind of rough all of the sudden. Brown is showing up where brown never was. It looks like algae I think.

My test results are as follows:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10 ppm
kh - 71.6
gh - 179
calcium - 60 ppm
EDIT: pH - 7.4

EDIT 12-29-2006: Phosphate - 2.0


I threw the calcium in there just because I have the test so I thought, what the heck.

Is there anything I can do until my ferts get here?

 

[Purrbox]

The grass like plant looks to be Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis aka Microsword. I would recommend separating it out a bit instead of keeping it in clumps so that it has room to grow and doesn't choke itself out.

If the brown stuff brushes off easily it's just Diatoms and will go away on its own in a few weeks.

 

[rkilling1]

That does look like a Brazilian sword, http://www.plantgeek.net/plantguide_viewer.php?id=235 .

That could explain why it is reacting the way it is. ie a non-aquatic, but a lot of swords look similar to each other.

And I agree with Joy, that is Lilaeopsis brasiliensis.

 

[SparKy697]

Thanks for the ID's

Ok my ferts are on their way. The microsword came in one big clump and I broke it in to two parts. It had a huge root ball which I fanned out and already am seeing new growth out of the substrate.

The brown spots do rub off and I'm thinking my oto's will have a feast when I put them in the tank tomorrow.

I'm going to shorten the amount of time the lights are on until I get my ferts. Should I continue feeding Excel or stop until the ferts get going?

 

[danch]

I just came down a similar path, oddly enough. Got a 29, put in a few plants and upgraded to the 55W light. Only thing, I didn't start to dose Excel. I got black beard algea. When I cut my light schedule and started dosing DIY CO2, that gave way to green fuzz/green hair algae. So I guess my advice (for what it's worth) would be to continue with the Excel. Stopping it may just change the sort of algae you're getting.

 

[SparKy697]

I'm still feeding the Excel and will continue until I get the fert thing going. I did cut down the amount of time the lights are on as well as adding my SAE and Catfish oto's, who are having a gorging fest at the moment.

I noticed something after todays's pwc. The cobamba had been slowly leaning over all week. I figured it was a nutrient issue as we have discussed. After the water change, to my surprise, they were all standing up straight as an arrow.

Is this because of the addition of water with more minerals than the water that was in the tank before the pwc?

 

[Purrbox]

Your tap water may even have Nitrates, Phosphates, and/or other nutrients that you plants need. Test it and you may get some interesting results.