First planted tank

[Liondtm]

Hello everyone, I just finished setting up my first planted tank. 36 gallon, there are 3 Amazon swords, 2 temple compactas, a Anubis nana as well as a water lily bulb, a water onion bulb and 2 aponogeton ulvaceus bulbs. I have Aqueon Plant Food that put in the tank. Anything else I can do to help these plants grow?

 

[IHaveAquariums]

Well it depends because you could run a co2 system but that's on the expensive side, you could replace substrate with one for plants or not if you already have one, you could get a nice strong plant growth light. These are all I can think of at the moment but just some things to consider

 

[Liondtm]

Well it depends because you could run a co2 system but that's on the expensive side, you could replace substrate with one for plants or not if you already have one, you could get a nice strong plant growth light. These are all I can think of at the moment but just some things to consider

Have you ever used or known someone to use that liquid co2 you just pour in the tank? They sell it at pet stores but wasn’t sure if I should get it or not

 

[IHaveAquariums]

I actually have a bottle of it by API right now almost empty, I used it along with API leaf zone in my 36 gallon and my green cabomba really flourished, they grew like crazy! The light I have is a beamswork so it's not very strong for a tank like this so I'm attributing it the ferts/co2

 

[Liondtm]

Do you think it would be safe to use the plant food plus leaf zone plus the co2 booster?

 

[IHaveAquariums]

I don't see why not, if anything it just adds more nutrients. I would definitely try to stagger the plant food and leaf zone throughout the week though and maybe dose the co2 every other day, too many nutrients and algae will start to be a problem if there aren't enough plants

 

[Liondtm]

Oh okay cool
This is the tank as of today

 

[IHaveAquariums]

Looks really nice! With not having that many plants yet I would maybe just dose the Plant food one along with the co2, I think you'll get algae problems with too many nutrients/not enough plants

 

[Liondtm]

I’ll definitely do that, thanks!

 

[IHaveAquariums]

No problem! Happy to help

 

[tunamanphd]

Your Swords and Aponogetons will benefit a lot if you use root tablet type ferts. there are a few companies who market them. You can also make them yourself using Osmocote fertilizer. I personally just buy(I dont have time or want to make time to do it myself) the DIY Osmocote tablets from a person off Ebay. They are really inexpensive ($5/100 tablets) or spend more and use these:Seachem - Flourish Tabs. Whatever you go with, your plants will love you.

 

[Liondtm]

How do the tablets work? Do they just release nutrients into the gravel?

 

[IHaveAquariums]

How do the tablets work? Do they just release nutrients into the gravel?

I believe so, I have the seachem tabs and they just get pushed into the gravel. When I was scaping my tank some of them got stirred up and when I touched it a lot of black color came off of it so yeah. Totally forgot about these

 

[Liondtm]

Oh okay cool, how many should I use for a 36 gallon bf tank?

 

[IHaveAquariums]

It actually depends on how far apart the plants are, I believe the tabs were supposed to go 1.5 inches away from the plant in the gravel but I don't recall how many, in my 36 bf (same tank ?) I used 4, it just depends on how far the apart the plants are so from your picture you might need 4-5, luckily they only get replaced once every 4 months or so

 

[Liondtm]

Oh okay so a $5 bag of 100 will lasts years

 

[IHaveAquariums]

Well that's for the other brand one from ebay, I don't know how frequently those need changed, I only have the seachem flourish tabs

 

[Liondtm]

Where do you get those from?

 

[IHaveAquariums]

I got mine from a LFS but I'm sure places like amazon carry them online

 

[Liondtm]

Yea I’ll have to check amazon, the only Lfs is PetSmart, makes me miss living in Virginia where there were a few locally owned shops