I bought too many plants for my aquarium!!

[jan4scuba]

Hi everyone,

Can someone suggest what to do with about $50.00 worth of excess live plants bough for my aquarium.

I seriously over estimated how many I can use. I would hate to see them die or throw them away.

Thanks for any advice.
Jan



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[Sk3lly]

Sell them in the classifieds section on the forum


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[olegdulin]

I made a similar mistake, but didn't know any better... Half my plants died for lack of nutrients until I bought Flourish and at least now things have stabilized.


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[jan4scuba]

Do I need to fertilize a new tank that has Eco complete as a substrate?


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[philipraposo198]

Get into a good routine early on you won't regret it.

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[jan4scuba]

Thanks for the advice. Can you suggest what method, liquid or root tabs, and how often. Soooo much info and advice out there.


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[Sk3lly]

Thanks for the advice. Can you suggest what method, liquid or root tabs, and how often. Soooo much info and advice out there.


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What plants do you have??

Heavy root feeders need root tabs

Majority of plants are ok with ferts dosed into the water.

Liquid ferts are expensive in the long run and are actually pretty weak

Dry ferts will last an entire year for the majority of setups and are therefore cheap. Also they are a lot stronger than the liquid ferts


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[jan4scuba]

Thanks that's a great start. I'm setting up my profile now and will list all the details when I can. Not a newbie to hobby just to aquascaping.


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[Sk3lly]

Thanks that's a great start. I'm setting up my profile now and will list all the details when I can. Not a newbie to hobby just to aquascaping.


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If your looking for inspiration then the tropica website has some good layouts to view. They are split into low, medium and high difficulty. Also tells you the tank size of the layout. Might be worth a look...

Www.tropica.com


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[Fresh2o]

Did the same thing myself. Underestimated the size of the plants and bought more "to save on shipping costs".
Planted all of them (8 different species) and watched some thrive and others die over time from inadequate lighting and overcrowding. In the span of 18 months I changed lights, added CO2, changed ferts. At this time I no longer am growing any of plants I originally ordered. The ones that did do well did not quite fit the look I was going for so they were transferred to another tank and to a small pond.
Good luck with this.

 

[mattcham]

Do I need to fertilize a new tank that has Eco complete as a substrate?

Yes you do, because the fertilizers in that Eco Complete will eventually run out and those "built in" fertilizers are inadequate if you have a lot of plants. The main advantage of that substrate is its high cation exchange ratio which allows it to convert fish waste into plant food. It is not a heavily fertilized substrate in and of itself compared to other substrates.

 

[jan4scuba]

Thanks for the assistance. If I start out using Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel will that be enough?


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[jan4scuba]

Also can anyone tell me how much die back can be expected and should I start trimming back the the dead leaves or wait? and how long for new growth to start appearing?

I guess I mean when do I start to pull out the dead or dying original plants.


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[mattcham]

Thanks for the assistance. If I start out using Seachem Flourish and Flourish Excel will that be enough?

Plants need both macro and micro fertilizer components. Flourish only contains micros and is lacking macros. Excel is a CO2 booster. Therefore you need both but even together they are still insufficient due to lack of macros. In order to save money, get your macros and micros from Greenleafaquariums.com and get metricide-14 from Amazon.com. Pick the EI-dosing package (contains both macros and micros) from green leaf aquariums and follow their instructions (this replaces flourish). Metricide-14 replaces excel.

The need for fertilizer depends on your light and co2. More light requires more co2 (to prevent algae) and more fertilizers (to grow plants). All 3 are essential.

High light with low co2 will cause deadly algae bloom. High co2 can kill fish. High fertilizers are OK as long as you change 50% of water every 7 days. Low fertilizer or low light will reduce plant growth or even kill some plants.

 

[jan4scuba]

Too many plants

Metrocide-14 is listed as a sterilizing solvent on Amazon. Am I missing something? Why do I need it if the Green Leaf product has micro's and macro's?

 

[Fishperson]

It is my understanding (I could be wrong) that metricide-14 and excel both contain a chemical called gluteraldahyde and an assortment of algaecides. The gluteraldahyde is basically liquid carbon, partially replacing co2 that plants use in photosynthesis, and algaecides, obviously, kill algae. Metricide-14 is basically just condensed Excel that you mix with water up receiving it, and is therefore far cheaper. The GLA package is just fertilizer, so you still need the metricide-14 because it supplies the co2 that GLA doesn't include.

 

[mattcham]

Metrocide-14 is listed as a sterilizing solvent on Amazon. Am I missing something? Why do I need it if the Green Leaf product has micro's and macro's?

Yes metricide is liquid carbon like excel. It is not a fertilizer and does not contain macros nor micros. Its meant to help you to boost CO2.