Adding plants

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Squall

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Oct 12, 2011
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I have a 60 gallon unplanted tank and I want to add some plants to help in keeping my nitrate levels down, which is at 20-30 ppm right now. I do weekly PWCs of about 50-60% to keep up with the parameters not rising.

I am thinking of adding hornwort and make them float, as I know they are able to float. My question is how do I add the plants? Do I acclimate it like when I add fish? How much plants should I start with since I know hornworts grow pretty fast, correct me if I am mistaken. What special requirements do these plants require? My lighting right now is T8 15w 50/50.
 
You might need a bit more light than that... Are you sure it's a 15w? They're only like 18" long, and wouldn't be lighting the tank very well..... That sounds to me like your major limitations.

That aside, you can just plop plants in. Somepeople, myself included, advocate dipping them in a 5% H2O2 bath to clean off anything that might be on them (snails, pathogens, algae, etc), but it's not required.


Also, one of the things about nitrates is that while they themselves are not very toxic, they will increase along with other things (dissolved organics, etc) that will still require regular water changes.
 
You might need a bit more light than that... Are you sure it's a 15w? They're only like 18" long, and wouldn't be lighting the tank very well..... That sounds to me like your major limitations.

That aside, you can just plop plants in. Somepeople, myself included, advocate dipping them in a 5% H2O2 bath to clean off anything that might be on them (snails, pathogens, algae, etc), but it's not required.


Also, one of the things about nitrates is that while they themselves are not very toxic, they will increase along with other things (dissolved organics, etc) that will still require regular water changes.

Yes they are only 15w and 18" long (2 of them). I am planning to have the hornworts float, do you think that would work? For what I am trying to achieve, which lighting do you suggest I use, since it will only be lightly planted?

And how do you use the H2O2 to clean the plants? Do I add it to a clean bucket of water and dip the plants there before putting in my tank? How long do I do it?
 
Yes they are only 15w and 18" long (2 of them). I am planning to have the hornworts float, do you think that would work? For what I am trying to achieve, which lighting do you suggest I use, since it will only be lightly planted?

And how do you use the H2O2 to clean the plants? Do I add it to a clean bucket of water and dip the plants there before putting in my tank? How long do I do it?

Ah, so you do have two. I thought from your comment that you only had the one.


I've never floated hornwort before, but I would imagine that it would be doable directly under the lights like that. You might want to loose the 50/50 bulbs in favor of something more plant friendly (10k, 6.7k, or 5.5k).

When I dipped some alternanthera reineckii a few months ago, I made the solution up in a little bowl and dipped it for a few minutes. I do not recall the specifics, but if you were to look it up, I'm sure you would see several different theories on the matter. I would say 2 mins?
 
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