1 Best Investment

Not really into the whole planted tanks and technology thing, tbh most of it goes right over my head. But I've just re-planted one of my tanks after it was un-planted for a yr or so some pics here. I want to up the level of planting slightly from what I have now, but not a lot, want a bit of a foresty effect on one side then down to just a little on the other side.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=142436

I'm not going to go all out and try for a really heavily planted one like a lot of you guys want to do, and I don't have loads of money to spend, but I'd really like to make a go of these plants and I've never had much success with plants before. So what would you recommend is the best purchase I could make to help. It's only got 1 lighting bar in there at the moment, would just getting another be enough to make a difference? Or if I just kept 1 light but then got a co2 thingmy but it'd have to be a cheap one, would that be better? Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Sorry I missed the original thread re your tank, which looks great BTW As for plants given that you've got quite low light I would say get an anubias, that'll add a nice bushy effect. I wouldn't upgrade your light unless you're willing to do EI. Adding CO2 would help whatever the light (obviously would help more with high light but CO2 addition will help most if not all tanks in some way, shape, or form)

If you're a bit tight for money, having seen Luke_e's journal, I've become a big fan of the plant collections from greenline, not had one myself but they look a bargin and by getting one of these you'll be able to see what grows and what doesn't without spending lots of money in the process.

One last thing, if you dont already adding some fertiliser once a week would also help, doesn't have to be anything fancy, but something like API leaf zone would do the job.

Sam

Thanks Sam

ok, you know i said i don't understand all this technology stuff..... what's EI when it's at home?

I've not been adding ferts, off fishy shopping at some point this weekend so I'll try and pick some up.

those collections do look good, i'll check them out properly soon, thanks

Hi

EI - Estimative Index. It is basically a relatively simple way of adding plant nutrients to a tank using either readily mixed supplements (such as Seachem's Flourish range) or using dry powder chemicals. Rather than worrying about masses of test kits, chemistry etc...you basically dose supplements to the tank on a daily basis and do a big water change at the end of the week to stop any excess build up (which could lead to algae problems etc). Your basically adding the same fertillisers as you would to terrestrial plants, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous (the macro elements - i.e. needed in relatively large quantities) and 'micros' e.g. iron (needed in relatively small quantities). There is a pinned article at the top of the plant forum to explain in more detail.

Nick

The plant in the fourth picture from the top. The one with white outlines doens't seem to be aquatic to me.

Besides that get a full tank shot so we can see the scape.

JArtiles305 said:

The plant in the fourth picture from the top. The one with white outlines doens't seem to be aquatic to me.

Besides that get a full tank shot so we can see the scape.

Click to expand...

yeah that ones not doing too well, Ian thinks it might be semi-aquatic so would only do well half in/out of the water bloody fish shops will sell you anything!

sorry I wasn't able to get any shots of the full tank that were even remotely decent. These two cover the whole tank though so hopefully you can get an idea of it!

...

bump

anyone else got any thoughts

You didn't mention what kind of lighting you have. If you'd like suggestions, the best thing you can do is leave details of exactly which plants you have, the size and depth of the tank, and how many watts and what type of lighting. This being because different types of plants have different lighting requirements, and lighting is probably one of the first things you'll need to sort out to keep your plants alive.

TammyLiz said:

You didn't mention what kind of lighting you have. If you'd like suggestions, the best thing you can do is leave details of exactly which plants you have, the size and depth of the tank, and how many watts and what type of lighting. This being because different types of plants have different lighting requirements, and lighting is probably one of the first things you'll need to sort out to keep your plants alive.

Click to expand...

Don't know the names of most of the plants.... I've got amazon swords, some java fern and valis..... the rest of them I don't know.... just what's in the pic above.

the tank is 120litres, 4 x 1 x 1 and a bit

I've just got lighting tube, it doesn't say on it what watts it is or anything like that, it'll be pretty bog standard.

My thoughts were that lighting would probably be the best thing for me to address..... I haven't got the sort of money to go buy massive expensive rigs or anything like that, but I thought just adding another normal tube would double the lighting and surley make a fair difference?