Plant care

[KTpoopenstein]

This is my first time having a planted tank and I sort if went about things a little willy nilly it seems from what I'm reading. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping what I have healthy and for what I could add in the future (plants or equipment).

I currently have:

Amazon swords - 2 bunches that have easily doubled in size since April
Java fern - the one bunch I have has grown some and put off tons of new leaves/roots on the original leaves...I tried to split these out and plant them elsewhere in the tank but they promptly died - the original bunch is still doing well and a few new leaves have sprouted since
Water wisteria - having some issues with these. They never really took root and the bottom half or so started dying so I trimmed the brown parts off and replanted them and they at least are holding steady, maybe a smidge bigger than they had been.
Some sort of water lily from a pack of bulbs from petsmart - it was thriving up until a couple of weeks ago. It took over and covered the entire surface of my tank with leaves, along with a ton of much shorter stems that filled a good 1/4 of my tank. It has died back significantly and has one full-sized leaf and a couple of tiny ones.
Scarlet temple - is this actually scarlet temple? I got it at petco and that's what it was labeled as, but it doesn't really look like pics I've seen.



My apologies for the crappy pic. My lights are on a timer and its already gone off and it's a ***** to get to the timer to turn them back on. I can try to get a better pic tomorrow. Anyway, this has maybe gotten a little fuller since I planted it ~2 weeks ago.

I also just purchased a cardinal plant today that I haven't planted. Should I keep it?

Lighting wise, I have the original hood/light setup that my tank came with ("Integrated fluorescent light hood with a full-spectrum T5 light affords great illumination") and a 12" TopCare LED bubble wand that I just have propped across the top of the tank as added lighting.

I've also been using API Leaf Zone once a week.

FWIW, I have 1 platy, 6 serpae tetra and 1 peppered cory.

 

[Coursair]

Spread out plants that are stems, like wisteria. Java ferns don't get "planted. Tie them to wood or rocks.
Use root tabs for your Swords. Water changes weekly. Gravel isn't the best, but it can work. You can try adding some sand. The gravel will end up on top, but the sand will help keep nutrients in the substrate.

Or later you can swap out for straight sand, which I use or Eco Complete or Dirt.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Spread out plants that are stems, like wisteria. Java ferns don't get "planted. Tie them to wood or rocks.
Use root tabs for your Swords. Water changes weekly. Gravel isn't the best, but it can work. You can try adding some sand. The gravel will end up on top, but the sand will help keep nutrients in the substrate.

Or later you can swap out for straight sand, which I use or Eco Complete or Dirt.

How would I go about adding sand? Do I need to uproot everything and replant once I've added the sand? And how does sand affect vacuuming? Or is the crud in the gravel good to leave for the plants?

 

[Coursair]

How would I go about adding sand? Do I need to uproot everything and replant once I've added the sand? And how does sand affect vacuuming? Or is the crud in the gravel good to leave for the plants?

I would try adding sand with plants in. You don't want to bury the crowns , but you could try GENTLY lifting the plants , without tearing roots to the right depth.

You typically don't vacuum planted tanks. Or not much.

You can use Pool Filter Sand, Black Diamond Blasting Sand or other types. Wash well. Water only.

 

[Bottomfeeder88]

+1 on the sand if this is a smaller tank. It shouldn't be too tough to redo the substrate. Sand and root tabs, root tabs and sand.
The stems do look healthy at first glance, in the flashlighting.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

+1 on the sand if this is a smaller tank. It shouldn't be too tough to redo the substrate. Sand and root tabs, root tabs and sand.
The stems do look healthy at first glance, in the flashlighting.

Whoops, forgot to post a better picture. Is this actually Scarlet Temple? The leaves on everything I've seen labeled as such are much longer and narrower. Is this one that changes leaf shape based on light and water conditions like water wisteria?




I've also done a little aquascaping since my original post. Planted the cardinal plant and moved the water wisteria and the java fern. I also added some moneywort that you can't see right now because its behind the castle and only about 3" high.





I have root tabs en route that should arrive tomorrow (yay amazon prime!) and I'll look into sand soonish. The tank is small, ~13”x13"

Any suggestions for how I could upgrade my lighting that doesn't require spending a fortune or electrical work? The only thing I've seen that is small enough for my tank is a marineland LED fixture and I'd have to manufacture a new lid for my tank to use that.

 

[Bottomfeeder88]

That bunch looks starved. You add any fertilizer to your water column? A comprehensive with some form of nitrogen couldn't hurt.

 

[Tobykourtney]

Whoops, forgot to post a better picture. Is this actually Scarlet Temple? The leaves on everything I've seen labeled as such are much longer and narrower. Is this one that changes leaf shape based on light and water conditions like water wisteria?

I've also done a little aquascaping since my original post. Planted the cardinal plant and moved the water wisteria and the java fern. I also added some moneywort that you can't see right now because its behind the castle and only about 3" high.

I have root tabs en route that should arrive tomorrow (yay amazon prime!) and I'll look into sand soonish. The tank is small, ~13”x13"

Any suggestions for how I could upgrade my lighting that doesn't require spending a fortune or electrical work? The only thing I've seen that is small enough for my tank is a marineland LED fixture and I'd have to manufacture a new lid for my tank to use that.

Yes to answer your first question it is a scarlet temple. The finnex fugeray is a good fixture for low to medium light at only 45 dollars but the scarlet temple requires at least medium light. For ferts you could invest in dry ferts they are much cheaper then liquid and last a long time you could also use excel for a carbon source. To see how much light you would have with any fixture we would need to know the depth of the tank also. I hope this helps.

 

[Mebbid]

When I first bought water wisteria it came growing in a tube planted in gel. This was the version of the plant that grew out of water which I didn't know at the time. It kept dying back and wilting for some reason which I couldn't figure out. Right before I was going to throw it away it started growing like a weed and took on a completely different leaf shape. Not sure if you got it from a similar source but that might be the issue.

 

[tiger terror]

The wisteria was in its submersed for as are most if not all plants sold in gel packed tubes,takes awhile for them to change to their emersed form,that's why you see the die back&explosion of new growth...

 

[Mebbid]

The wisteria was in its submersed for as are most if not all plants sold in gel packed tubes,takes awhile for them to change to their emersed form,that's why you see the die back&explosion of new growth...

Think you might have gotten that backwards

 

[Rivercats]

Unless your going to add a lot of stem plants I would not bother adding sand over the gravel. It will just work its way down under the gravel and plants will still be in the gravel. Sand like gravel is inert and does nothing for holding nutrients. If you are planning on getting into upgrading light and getting more stem plants then IMO you'd be best just changing out your gravel to a commercial plant substrate such as Eco Complete. Commercial substrates such as Eco have a high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which means they can absorb nutrients from detris and the water and hold them for use by the plants. Gravel and sand cannot do this.

Right now using root tabs for your sword and then at least using something like Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive 1-2x weekly will help the plants. As stated dry ferts are much more complete and much cheaper over time. You should also consider using at least a liquid carbon with aid plants with photosynthesis and growth.

 

[tiger terror]

Think you might have gotten that backwards

Good catch,that's what I get for posting early in the morning.. I needed a little more awake time before I posted...thx

 

[Tobykourtney]

Unless your going to add a lot of stem plants I would not bother adding sand over the gravel. It will just work its way down under the gravel and plants will still be in the gravel. Sand like gravel is inert and does nothing for holding nutrients. If you are planning on getting into upgrading light and getting more stem plants then IMO you'd be best just changing out your gravel to a commercial plant substrate such as Eco Complete. Commercial substrates such as Eco have a high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which means they can absorb nutrients from detris and the water and hold them for use by the plants. Gravel and sand cannot do this.

Right now using root tabs for your sword and then at least using something like Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive 1-2x weekly will help the plants. As stated dry ferts are much more complete and much cheaper over time. You should also consider using at least a liquid carbon with aid plants with photosynthesis and growth.

+1 for the eco complete it has worked well for me

 

[KTpoopenstein]

That bunch looks starved. You add any fertilizer to your water column? A comprehensive with some form of nitrogen couldn't hurt.

It's fairly new to my tank...that's pretty much what it looked like when I planted it. I have been using API Leaf Zone weekly since I planted my tank. I have root tabs arriving today.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Yes to answer your first question it is a scarlet temple. The finnex fugeray is a good fixture for low to medium light at only 45 dollars but the scarlet temple requires at least medium light. For ferts you could invest in dry ferts they are much cheaper then liquid and last a long time you could also use excel for a carbon source. To see how much light you would have with any fixture we would need to know the depth of the tank also. I hope this helps.

Cool. I wasn't sure because the pics I've seen online have much more elongated leaves and this has more heart shaped leaves.

As for lighting, the fixture it came with (8W t5) is ~18.5” from the substrate. I also have a TopCare 12” LED bubble wand light propped up across the top (maybe 1/2” lower than the main fixture) that I added because it was what I could afford at the time and what I could find that would fit...and it barely fits. I assume I could just add more light to what I already have to get up to more moderate light? Like adding the finnex in there somehow with the hood light would give me more med-high light? Could I also change out the bulb in the hood fixture to a HO bulb (assuming I could find a small enough one)?

 

[KTpoopenstein]

When I first bought water wisteria it came growing in a tube planted in gel. This was the version of the plant that grew out of water which I didn't know at the time. It kept dying back and wilting for some reason which I couldn't figure out. Right before I was going to throw it away it started growing like a weed and took on a completely different leaf shape. Not sure if you got it from a similar source but that might be the issue.

I had the same experience, with my first batch of wisteria except that rather than die off, it just added different shaped leaves on the new growth...sadly that didn't survive one of the several treatments I had to do because of various sick fish (I have finally found a LFS that doesn't suck). Fwiw, mine was from petsmart. What I read (on liveaquaria.com) is that water temp and light affect leaf shape.

 

[Tobykourtney]

Cool. I wasn't sure because the pics I've seen online have much more elongated leaves and this has more heart shaped leaves.

As for lighting, the fixture it came with (8W t5) is ~18.5” from the substrate. I also have a TopCare 12” LED bubble wand light propped up across the top (maybe 1/2” lower than the main fixture) that I added because it was what I could afford at the time and what I could find that would fit...and it barely fits. I assume I could just add more light to what I already have to get up to more moderate light? Like adding the finnex in there somehow with the hood light would give me more med-high light? Could I also change out the bulb in the hood fixture to a HO bulb (assuming I could find a small enough one)?

With the depth of your tank the fugeray would be very low light and the finnex ray 2 doesn't make a size that will fit. You could always hang the finnex ray 2 and you can't put a HO bulb in a normal output fixture it may work but will be under driven to the same wattage as the original bulb because of the ballast.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

Unless your going to add a lot of stem plants I would not bother adding sand over the gravel. It will just work its way down under the gravel and plants will still be in the gravel. Sand like gravel is inert and does nothing for holding nutrients. If you are planning on getting into upgrading light and getting more stem plants then IMO you'd be best just changing out your gravel to a commercial plant substrate such as Eco Complete. Commercial substrates such as Eco have a high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which means they can absorb nutrients from detris and the water and hold them for use by the plants. Gravel and sand cannot do this.

Right now using root tabs for your sword and then at least using something like Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive 1-2x weekly will help the plants. As stated dry ferts are much more complete and much cheaper over time. You should also consider using at least a liquid carbon with aid plants with photosynthesis and growth.

At this point I'm running out of room to add much more in the line of plants and from what I've found so far there aren't many resources locally to buy more than what I already have so no, I probably won't be adding much more in the line of stem plants. If/when I have the money to set my larger tank back up I'll definitely look into Eco Complete for that one.

As for ferts, where would I find them? Brand names? All I've ever noticed at petsmart/petco and my LFS are liquids, although I haven't really looked at the LFS.

 

[KTpoopenstein]

With the depth of your tank the fugeray would be very low light and the finnex ray 2 doesn't make a size that will fit. You could always hang the finnex ray 2 and you can't put a HO bulb in a normal output fixture it may work but will be under driven to the same wattage as the original bulb because of the ballast.

Gotcha. That's what I'm running into with pretty much everything. It's a weird size tank, but it was what I could afford and had room for at the time. I don't have anywhere I could hang a fixture from so that's pretty much out. Looks like I'm stuck with low light plants.