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Tank looks great! Have you tested for amonia since you added the fish?

I have salvinia, it started out small but grows very quickly. Mine too gets blown all over the tank, but after a while small groups form at the corners and where my submerged wood meets the surface. The roots also grow down into the water, so don't be put off by the small size at first!

With LEDs you use lumens per litre rather than watts per gallon. For low light plants you want 15-25 lumens/litre. My 8w LED gives out 900 lumens, so in my 58 litre tank it's 15.5. On the lower end of the scale, so I'm thinking of adding another LED strip. Do you know the lumens of your 16w...

I'm not an expert, but It may be that you have too much light. Algae is taking up that extra light and growing while your plants are limited by available nutrients and CO2. Is it a new tank or established?

I bought the second light stip apparently designed for 'plants' - the CLA60 PLANT strip. I tried it out, but I don't like the way it turns the tank red. See images below, one is just the normal LED strip, the other is both on at the same time. Now I don't know what to do. I might send it back...

Wow! Your tank looks amazing. You've had some incredible growth, the frogbit and limnophila have gone crazy. What is your setup and routine? Light lumens, fertilisers, etc.

Me too. I originally had it spread all over, but when doing the mini re-scape I put it all together in one corner. It's already grown about an inch in a few days. Will look great when it fills out.

I'll keep an eye on my swords. They and the crypts are melting at the moment. My salvinia has doubled in size though, it's only been 2 days! Limnophila also doing really well so far.

@AilyNC you mentioned you have this tank. Have you just got the single light strip that came with it? Have you manged to grow swords and other plants that need medium light levels with it? Thanks

Update: after 70% water change and a minor re-scape. The air bubbles after a water change, is that the plants using up the new carbon dioxide in the water to photosynthesize? I did a quick water test before changing the water and amonia was up to 0.5ppm. I guess the new plants rotting down dead...

This is interesting. There is one of these close to me. Could I add some of this water to my tank while doing a water change to lower GH and nitrate (both high in tap water)?

Update: the cloudy water seems to have cleared, although there is a yellowy tinge now. I'm guessing the bactierial bloom, possibly caused by dechlorifying the new tank water, has passed and now the tinge is tannin leach from the wood. I'm going to do a 70% water change this evening. I also...

I don't know if it's true, but I read that the boiling/scrubbing the root just makes it inert and hospitable to the fungus. So it will grow again every time after boiling. Better to leave it to take its course.

15/16 GH On the borderline for honey gourami I believe. Not sure about H Rasbora or M Kubotai

I've got the API kit, it's not easy to tell the difference I agree. Mine is more orange and looks just a little darker than the 20 colour. Yours looks fairly consistent at around 40ppm would you say? Just to check, do you do the rigourous shaking of the bottles as described in the instructions...

We have ~30ppm nitrates in the tap water here in Orpington. Do you have live plants? Apparently plants will use it as fertiliser. I don't think nitrates in the water are too much of a worry, unless they get up to near 100ppm.

The tank only came with one LED lighting strip, but room for two. To promote growth I've been thinking of adding another. Ciano sell a 'plants' lighting strip that has a different blue/red wavelength than the stock white light, but I can't seem to find how many lumens they have...

It looks quite white at the moment. Will see how it develops. I'm not adding any amonia so seems a bit strange to get a bacteria bloom. I had the azalea root soaking in a bucket for 24 hours before it went in the tank. The water in the bucket didn't seem to change colour much. I also washed the...

Hmm, this afternoon the water seems to be clouding up. Possibly tannin released from the wood?

what kind of water change schedule should I be doing during these first couple of plant only weeks? Also, 8 hours with lights ok?

Ok here it is! Really pleased with the azalea root, great shape and size for this tank. There was so much java fern in the pot I've attached it all over. The salvina is getting blown around all over the place, is that ok?

Must admit I've never seen M. Kubotai. I'll keep a look out for them at the LFS

Thanks. Is that because they produce less waste, or are hardy fish? All 8 in one go, or 4 at a time?

Just tested my tap water for the first time (rather than rely on the local water report). pH~7.3 Amonia between 0-0.25ppm NitrIte=0 NitrAte~30ppm (London/Kent water for you!) I used to think those nitrAtes were a bad thing for the fish tank, though now I guess my plants will use it as...

Thanks. I've just been notified that the plants will be delivered tomorrow. A bit sooner than I was expecting. I won't have time to set up the tank till the weekend. Should I just put the plants in a bucket of water till then?

Thanks, I added a Limnophila sessiliflora to the order to have another fast growing plant. Am I right that I plant them as follows: Stems (hygophila, limnophila): seperate into individual stems and plant in the substrate with root tabs. Swords (echinodorus, lagenandra): plant as it comes with...

Do you think 3 (1 male) and a group of harlequin rasboras would work?

So I could go for a pair. Then find suitable tankmates. It would nice to have a group of shoaling fish that they would meet in the wild/real world. Something from the south Asia region.

Hmm, I've been struggling a bit with stocking for this tank. Read some contradictory things about honey gourami stocking - best kept in a small group, minimum tank size 10g (though I guess that's for a pair?).

Ok 6/7 may be too many. But I'd hope to be ok with 2 male+3 females. Lots of plants, lots of hiding places. My main question at the moment is the amount of plants needed to start a silent cycle.

Hello! Having spent a while getting ready to fishless cycle a new tank I stumbled across this part of the forum and found that I probably don't need to do this seeing as I want it planted. I'd welcome some feedback on my proposed set up, mainly whether this plant stocking is going to be...

Thank you!

I was talking about the General, Faq, Topics And Guides sticking in the tropical discussion forum. None of the links work

it's highly dubious! I can't imagine it does anything either, but for £5 it's worth a shot for the chance it might speed up the wait for fish

Is it just me or are the links in the FAQ not working? When I click on one I get taken to a log in page, which then says I don't have access.