Help with: plants, flourish, iron and lighting.

[Jason7894561230]

Hey all,
This is something I have needed help with for a while so here goes.

1) I'm getting thin Val, corkscrew Val, 5 swords, some hair grass, banana lilies, 1 enchindorus Red flame and riccia. Now will all these plants be right with medium light with flourish excel dosage every week?
2) with the riccia and hair grass which one would be better for creating a carpet? I love riccia so that or the grass.
3) with flourish excel is this something I should dose every week, every day, every second week and so on.
4) Now I hear everyone saying iron is really important in a tank, how would o get this? But I thought trace elements were more important and if so how do I get these?
5) My lighting is medium would this be ok with no co2 injection?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to be sure. Also any information on how to create a beautiful piece involving riccia I would love to hear it

 

[bruinsbro1997]

Hey all,
This is something I have needed help with for a while so here goes.

1) I'm getting thin Val, corkscrew Val, 5 swords, some hair grass, banana lilies, 1 enchindorus Red flame and riccia. Now will all these plants be right with medium light with flourish excel dosage every week?
2) with the riccia and hair grass which one would be better for creating a carpet? I love riccia so that or the grass.
3) with flourish excel is this something I should dose every week, every day, every second week and so on.
4) Now I hear everyone saying iron is really important in a tank, how would o get this? But I thought trace elements were more important and if so how do I get these?
5) My lighting is medium would this be ok with no co2 injection?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to be sure. Also any information on how to create a beautiful piece involving riccia I would love to hear it

1. I don't think vals do good with Excel.
2. Personal preference. I like hairgrass better.
3. Every day is best. I do every day, one capful. Or at least try to.
4. You could dose it through Flourish Iron, root tabs, some other method.
5. Depends on what your lighting is, what type of light it is, how deep the tank is and how many bulbs your fixture is. If you're sure it's medium lighting, depending on your plants you may/may not need CO2.

 

[aqua_chem]

1. I don't think vals do good with Excel.
2. Personal preference. I like hairgrass better.
3. Every day is best. I do every day, one capful. Or at least try to.
4. You could dose it through Flourish Iron, root tabs, some other method.
5. Depends on what your lighting is, what type of light it is, how deep the tank is and how many bulbs your fixture is. If you're sure it's medium
lighting, depending on your plants you may/may not need CO2.

Agree on most counts, but I'll add a little bit more.

1) Both vals AND Riccia have been reported to be negatively affected by excel. Conversely, they have both been grown in Exceled tanks too. It's one of the great debates of planted tanks, along with what brings out reds in plants.

2) Hairgrass. Unless you really like riccia, I think hairgrass would be easier and less work. If you still want to do riccia, I have some ideas that might make it fly.

3) Every day as per instructions

4) If you're dosing a micro mix of some sort, your tank will be getting enough iron. I personally think that iron supplements are more useful in high-light, CO2 tanks, but it shouldn't hurt if you want to use Flourish Iron or (my favorite) Kent Marine Fe/Mn. The latter has a bunch of other micros in it too (Zn, Mo, etc)

5) If your medium lighting is in fact medium lighting, yea. Personally, I think that people tend to underestimate their light a lot of the time.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Thanks guys really clears a lot up.
What ideas do u have for the riccia I have a shrimp tank that I'll be setting up and might put it in that alone

 

[aqua_chem]

One of the most common ways to have riccia is tied to rocks using hairnets. My idea I had awhile back was to use a bunch of big, flat river rocks arranged such that they cover almost all of the area you want to have carpeted, and put riccia on each of those. Hopefully, when it grew in it would look like one surface.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Sounds like a good idea, also I might put some driftwood in the middle and maybe it'll grow up that too