Couple of plant questions

[Taelen]

Well, if anyone remembers my post about my anacharis biting the big one because I used Flourish Excel, this is the same tank. My 44g planted that I'm trying to cycle.

I bought some anubias barteri. I secured 4-5 of the plants towards the bottom of the tank but not in the substrate as instructed, those plants are green and growing well. I tied 2 of them higher up on my driftwood and these ones have browning leaves and I'm not sure why? Are they too close to the light perhaps? My 2 original java ferns seem to be still doing ok.

In relation to that question, how long to you guys run lights for, continuously or for a certain number of hours in the day? The lights are nothing special, just a couple of 18" tubes, I'd thought I'd try the stock lighting first before buying some more specialized lights.

 

[smn723]

I run my lights for 12 hours a day on a timer. 10-12 hours is typically recommended. Are you dosing any ferts anymore?

 

[Taelen]

I discontinued using the Excel for the simple reason that I'd like to add a couple more anacharis in the future, but that leaves iron and the Flourish. The sense I have from some of the posters here is I shouldn't really have to dose any ferts with these plants and this lighting? I did dose iron and flourish last week, but haven't done so yet this week.

 

[Jchillin]

You'll be fine with 10-12 hours with your current lighting and no, ferts are not needed, especially Excel since you should have enough natural CO2 levels.

 

[Purrbox]

If you just got the plants, they may be still showing deficiencies from their prior environment. It generally takes at least 2-3 weeks for a deficiency to show up or go away.

Anubias to tend to do better with less light, but unless you have a high light tank it's unlikely that they are getting too much light. In fact the problem is usually that they don't grow fast enough to fend off the algae unless they're shaded in higher light situations.

 

[Taelen]

Purrbox I think you've identified the problem, algae.

The anubias down below don't have any of this brown colour and I noticed that some of this was floating around the leaves rather than just the leaves themselves changing colour. I will drop those plants down to the bottom. Perhaps if there is an algae problem developing, I have been keeping the lights on too long. But the tank is at a sensitive stage and probably fairly vulnerable. I think I should be able to add fish this weekend if all goes well though.

 

[Purrbox]

If it was brown and brushed off easily, then it's just Diatoms. This is common in new tanks and should go away in a few weeks. It's not likely to do any harm to the Anubias as long as you clean them off during water changes so they still get enough light.

 

[Taelen]

Watching this tank develop has been interesting!

I now have snails, the first couple appeared yesterday and 2 more this morning on the glass. Luckily, I should be ready for fish by Sunday and the loaches are going in first. =)

 

[Jchillin]

Hold on to them there snails, they could very well be a benefit to your tank. Can you ID them?

 

[Taelen]

Sorry jchillin,

The snails are still very small and I don't have any experience with them. I can try and take a picture later and post them. I picked up my 4 yoyo loaches and a clown pleco on Saturday and haven't seen a snail since, lol.

I think these loaches are my favorite fish so far, they are so interesting to watch, goofy and playful. Had to do 3 pet/fish stores before I found them. Something else that seems to be happening that I didn't quite expect, looks like the loaches are eating the diatoms off my anubias...