Going to try for a planted tank again!

[fishygurl]

Ok, the last time I tried to do a planted tank, i gave up becasue algae of an unknown source suffocated my plants. Now, im going to try agian.

24 gallon tank
Lighting. I have a T5 coralife thing with 2 14 w bulbs. Since its t5 and there is a highly polished reflector, i think this get up near 2 wpg....But im not sure.
Fertilizer: Since its under 2 WPG im pretty sure i dont co2, correct? Of course, thats what I thought last time, then my tank got overun by brown algae....So, i shouldnt have any co2 related algae problems, right?

Other fertilzer....Most likely flourish, and that line. I really dont want to get into dry fertz just yet.


Plants: THese are just off of plant geeks, so tell me if they need higher light, require c02, or are difficult to find or keep.

Foreground:
Anubias Nana
Compact sword/chain sword?
Cypticoryne Wendittii

Middle:
Coffee Anubias
Amazon sword? ( ive heard differing opinions on the light levels for these, so i dont know.)
Cyptocoryne Bekettii


Background:
Wisteria
Jungle Val
Corkscrew val
Mabye some reddish ludwiga?

Also, i only have plain gravel substrate. Will this be ok if i use some of the substrate fertilizer tablet things....I think i still have some....

Thanks a ton
Fishygurl

 

[WaterPond]

sounds like you have it figured out pretty well. The only thing i see is you estimated your WPG to be 2, but actually it is only 0.58. Even thought you have two bulds, you don't add them together, they are still only giving off 14watts of energy. Having two just spreadis it over a larger area.

 

[fishygurl]

um......ok........does everyone else agree with this? Because im pretty sure tahts not true, since, how else do people get like 400 watts over a tank..they dont ahve 1 400 watt bulb, thats for sure...

 

[JustOneMore20]

I have a T5 coralife thing with 2 14 w bulbs

Actually....with 28 watts over a 24g tank, you'd have ~1.17 wpg....not sure where you got 0.58 waterpond. And the reflector doesn't really raise the wpg.

So you have low light. Your plant choices look good....except for the vals and the ludwigia. I have tried to grow Corkscrew vals in low light and they didn't do well. The tank was bigger though (55g) and they seem to do better in shorter tanks IME...I guess because the light is closer. So they may do ok. I'd skip the Ludwigia. It needs atleast medium light. In low light it will not grow fast at all and will probably attract algae. And it won't be red.

I'd stick with the Crypt wendtii red for a reddish color.

For a grass like foreground plant, try Dwarf Sagittaria. It won't grow fast at all, so you'll need more to get the grassy effect, but it should do well in low light.

I would be sure to fertilize atleast once a week with some type of fertilizer....Flourish should work. And I'd put some root tabs under the crypts and swords.

Don't give up! As long as nutrients and light are balanced, meaning not too much of either....you shouldn't have alot of algae. Some algae is always growing in a planted tank IMO, whether it can be seen or not....but as long as you don't over fertilize, overfeed, or overlight, you should have a great planted tank!

 

[rich311k]

You have 28 watts, unless the bulbs were end to end, and I know yours are parallel to each other. Your plant choices look good except for maybe the chain sword. I grow my plants in regular gravel with plant tabs.

Good luck.

 

[fish_4_all]

Gravel will wrok fine. The t5's do add some wattage but I don't remeber the conversion as my other computer crashed. It still isn't going to be very much higher.

I also thought that vals required more light? I know mine do ok and I have 3+ w/g but they could grow faster. I might be wrong, wouldn't be the first time. The crypts will grow slowly and you anubias will love it because they shouldn't get any algae. As for the brown stuff that wiped out your tank before, you might want to get something that eats diatoms for your tank to keep it under control until your tank acclimates all the way.

Have patience and I hope it works better this time.

 

[Purrbox]

If they're regular T5's (not VHO) then they're roughly equivelant to CF's which would be slightly better than NO Fluorescents. As such you're probably looking at Medium Low Light.

To start you are probably looking at dosing Flourish Comprehensive and Flourish Potassium right after your water change and not much else. For a little extra help for the plants you could also use some Flourish Excel (be careful with this if you try the Vals as they are often sensitive to it). Keep an eye on your Nitrates and Phosphates. You probably won't need to dose them if you have enough fish, but if you start to see either the Nitrates or Phosphates bottoming out you'll need to start dosing them as well.