need help, 10g planted cichlid

[mumrah]

Ok, so i need some advice. I have a 10g planted tank with 2 rams in it.

Water params:
ph: 7.6
nitrAte: 10
amm: 0ppm

It has regular aquarium gravel with a thin bed of sand on top. It has 1 melon sword, 1 unidentified sword, 1 anubias, several java ferns, and some duckweed floating on top.

Lighting is currently 2 incandescent bulbs but soon to be a mini compact flourescent, 20W 50/50 acitinic blue. Also has two pieces of driftwood and two terra cotta pots.

My questions are:

I turned off my air pump to let the duckweed settle. Should i turn it back on, or will the plants sufficiently oxygenate the water?

I now have some scum on the surface of the water since i added the duckweed. Anything i can do to avoid this? Or is it normal.

Is 40 watts too much without co2 injection? I can get the same bulbs in the 10W variety.
Thanks,
David

 

[greenmaji]

your sand is going to settle to the bottom.. and 40 watts of lignt is almost not enough light for plants.. you would want 1-1.5watts per gallon for low light plants and you dont really need to get CO2 untill you have about 2.5 watts per gallon..

watts per gallon- NO light.. overdrivin NO and CF needs a little less watts to do the same job.. in the 5000-10000K color temperature levels aproximantly.. antic light like in 50/50 bulbs do on count tword the total light..
HTH..

 

[travis simonson]

By all means do continue to run your air pump. Plants alone will not provide the O2 needed for fish in an aquarium and without the pump your biological filter bacteria will die.

 

[mumrah]

yea, i turned the air pump back on a few days ago and the scum on the surface cleared up.