40g planted

[adamatic]

java fern help

I've noticed that my java ferns have been getting black spots on the leaves. I have a low-light tank with hagen co2 and flourish excel supplements. I'd like to get to the bottom of this before i purchase some more of these. Thanx for the help!

 

[rich311k]

Nice tank.

 

[FMJnaX]

Here's a better pic that was snapped unknowingly when I was taking photo's of my pleco.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/download.php?id=16310

 

[FMJnaX]

Very nice indeed. I vote Angels, but that's just me.

 

[Tiffi]

Looks great 8O !
Can you do anything against the airpockets on the aquariumbackground though? Just recognized that.

 

[gfink]

As a follow up, I wanted to post an e-mail I got from CaribSea in which I asked them a few questions.

*******************************************
Hi there. Thank you for your inquiries about our Eco-Complete. Yes, there may be some dust, that is normal. Your outside filter should clear that up pretty quickly. As lots vary, you may see some bags look a bit murky and some don't. It really does not have anything to do with anything critical like the bacteria. However, you do want to make sure that you are not seeing a lot of white rocks in the material. We had a batch go through with a calcium carbonate contaminant (causes increase in pH) a long time ago, but I'm not hearing much about it recently as most everything hass been recalled and replaced. Obviously if you suspect a problem we will replace it, but what you have so far sounds normal.

What is Eco-Complete? It is actually very cool stuff. If you look closely you will notice that most of the grains are round and porous. It is volcanic material, but not just the rock ground down, but the spray that comes out during the eruption. This is why is is mostly round, we don't grind or crush it down. It is therefore, very root and fish friendly becuase it does not have the sharp edges like gravel. We also mix in a bit of finer material to give it two distinct grades for optimium oxygenation to the roots. Eco Complete also contains live bacteria for not only a faster cycle time in the traditional sense, but it also converts fish waste to usuable plant nutrients faster, so the plants don't see the lag time you find with regular substrate set ups. Plsu, the material is geologically recent, so more trace elements like iron are available sooner and longer. There is a reason laterite is red, the iron is so locked up in the mineral that it harldy delivers iron at all. However, when you grind up the rock, it reads high in iron, but it simply can't get out. Eco-Complete is much more soluble for not only iron but other good stuff like potassium, calcium, and more

Anyway, to make a long story short, its good stuff. A well thought out "Complete" substrate that does a lot more than look pretty. I'm sure you'll like it.
*******************************************

 

[Lance M.]

I had the same thing happen to my lace java fern. All I did was cut off all of the "infected" leaves and put the piece of dirftwood that the fern was on back into the tank. It's already covered with new healthy leaves. I'm also low light. But I don't add fertilizer or CO2 cause I have so many fish in the tank that it's not needed.

 

[workfortheman]

I'm starting to think that pruning java fern is key to healthy growth. I neglected to prune a large peice, now the majority of it is black! Looks like that will take a while to grow back . . .

 

[malkore]

Make sure the black dots aren't just spores, which will form baby ferns.

 

[Zezmo]

I get that black color on my lace ferns too...I assumed it was an algae. The plands don't seem any worse for it..as they are growing all over. I myself would not mind hearing more about it.

 

[adamatic]

It's definitely not spores - it's kinda like a decay. Is it caused by a fert deficiency??

 

[Yao]

plant help

I'm planning on adding some plants to my tank. I only want low light plants, and I ordered the Coralife F/W T-5 Aqualight Double Strip with two 18watts. I hope that will be enough for my 20L?

I'm having a hard time picking out plants, I followed some advice from an earlier posting and found these possibilities I might want from aquariumplants.com:

Anubias Afzeli
Balansae (Cryptocoryne crispatula)
Coffeefolia (Anubias barteri)
Hydrophilla Polysperma
Java Fern

I don't really know what else I'm supposed to look for because I don't know any names of aquarium plants.

Right now I only have normal aquarium gravel on the bottom. I know for a lot of plants I need substrate. I don't think it's possible for me to add substrate at this point is it? Would those plants be okay with just gravel? I was thinking of picking up some driftwood, but I'm unsure which plants would attach to driftwood. Are there plants that do not need substrate?

As far as CO2, I have 3 angels, 3 dwarf gouramis and 3 corys. I think they will produce enough for my plants. And for fertilizer, I don't know what I'm supposed to do, if anything?

Does anyone have other suggestions for specific plants they've had?

Also, I'm wondering about duck weed. I've read that they get out of control quickly. Or that they're for outdoor ponds. I saw some plants that floated on the surface at the lfs. They were really tiny and in patches on the surface. Is that duckweed? (I did not pay attention because at the time I had not considered a planted tank.) Has anyone had them, and what do you think?

Sorry, I know that's a lot of stuff. But thanks in advance!

 

[dnaelting]

Qtoffer,

I like the stump, it might look good to get some java moss on it too.

Think I will try that in my tank, now i just have to find the stump...

 

[Purrbox]

Actually your gravel IS substrate, it's just not geared specifically towards plants. As long as you have at least two inches of gravel you'll be fine.

Based on your lighting, you have a low to medium light tank. This allows you some choice in your plants without all the extra maintainance of a high light setup. You won't need to inject CO2 and may not need to worry about ferts. If you decide on any plants that are heavy root feeders you'll want to use root tab fertilizers under those plants since you're using gravel.

You could attach the Anubias or Java fern to the driftwood. These are both excellant selections for your light levels. Duckweed is one of those plants that you either love or hate. I'd personally avoid it if you can as it will shadow your other plants reducing the amount of light that they get.

For additional info on plants check out the low and medium low links on this page.

 

[piranha]

Tiffi; awesome planted tank. I guess one can't have a tank like that without the help of CO2.What is the substrate comprised of? It almost looks like soil.

 

[Jchillin]

Purrbox is correct so let me suggest a very nice stem plant. It's called anacharis. It's a really nice plant that you can use for the background. You can find pics of it on the link Purrbox gave (or check my tanks clicky - it's the long ones).

Fourish makes excellent root tabs. I get mine from BigAls

Good luck!

 

[gheitman]

I have that same light fixture on a 20 gallon long tank and it provides plenty of light not only for low light plants but also for medium light plants like Amazon swords. I use Seachem's Onyx sand as a substrate but plain old gravel will do for many plants. I use Seachem's Flourish as a liquid fertilizer and put a couple of Flourish tabs under the gravel as well. As far as CO2 goes, you could use the Nutrafin CO2 system although I use Flourish Excel to add carbon. Some additional plants that would do well under this light include cryptocoryne wendtii and dwarf sags.

 

[rich311k]

I have had great luck with this under medium light. Cabomba caroliniana looks great and grows well. It is another plant for the back of the tank.

This some of it:

 

[Xzap]

Maybe I got lucky but I've got 130 lbs of it in 2 tanks and it never came close to clouding up when I put mine in.

Dave

 

[TankGirl]

It could be potassium deficiency, which can cause holes in leaves, but in a low light tank where the plants are not blasting through nutrients it is likely just old leaves. I have noticed that the oldest leaves get this, and I trim them away.

I also have purely anecdotal evidence in my own tanks that the java fern plants closest to the top of the tank, nearest the strongest light, tend to get this more, but this may or may not be related and I need to observe this further.