Advice Needed

[Kizz]

I've had my 4 footer now for over a year . I've pretty much never bothered with live plants in this tank due to the depth of it it's 36" deep ! I'm now contemplating planting it slightly to see what plants will do best in that depth . I have one Arcadie 36" Bulb (no idea of wattage and it doesn't say on bulb) I suspect this isn't enough and could add another plus reflectors if needed .

One of my main questions is . Do all plants need to be planted in substrate in order to grow ?

I understand java fern and another plant need to be attached to wood . But is there anything that states i couldn't do this to all plants to allow them to grow and reach a better height before being planted in the sand . The i have a large peice of redmoor in my tank that could raise the plants lowest to 6 " off the sand to around a 18" off the sand .

My second main question is . Is there any plants that can and will thrive at deeper depth's .

I don't wanna start playing about with co2 or ferts or anything just plants that are easy to care for and will do at those depths . Additional bulb & reflectors being a more possible adddition

Any answers will be greatly received
Thanks
Kizz

 

[Kizz]

Anyone help me out ?

Kizz

 

[Kizz]

No-one able to answer these questions?

Kizz

 

[brichamp]

With that much depth I would expect that you will need about 2 wpg lighting. So you might have to upgrade your lighting depending on what you have now. I would start with Jungle Val. My experience with that stuff is it will grow just about anywhere, and you'll get some height quickly which will look good in a tank that tall. You could also try anubias attached to wood or rock. It doesn't really need any special substrate and does ok in low light. You will still need some fertilizer, but probably no CO2, maybe seachem excel.

 

[Kizz]

Thankf for replying ! What is watt per gallon ? does that mean that with my 112G tank i'd need 224 Watts of light ? Due to it being a custom tank i only have room for 2 possible 3 bulbs . Can i get that kind of wattage of 3 bulbs? Also would they all have to be plant growth bulbs or could i do 2 plant bulbs 1 natural bulb

I've got a huge bit of redmoor wood in the tank so will try and source some anubis see how that goes in the tank (lfs has pretty poor choice when it comes to plants)

Sorry for all the questions

Thanks
Kizz

 

[brichamp]

Thankf for replying ! What is watt per gallon ? does that mean that with my 112G tank i'd need 224 Watts of light ? Due to it being a custom tank i only have room for 2 possible 3 bulbs . Can i get that kind of wattage of 3 bulbs? Also would they all have to be plant growth bulbs or could i do 2 plant bulbs 1 natural bulb

I've got a huge bit of redmoor wood in the tank so will try and source some anubis see how that goes in the tank (lfs has pretty poor choice when it comes to plants)

Sorry for all the questions

Thanks
Kizz

No problem. You're right about the 224 watts, but you may not need to go that high. Maybe you could shoot for 1.5 wpg and see how it goes. Jungle Val and anubias definitely don't require much light, my 2 wpg was just because of your depth. If the anubias is closer to the surface attached to the wood then 1 to 1.5 should be enough. But it does depend somewhat on the type of bulbs you have. I use T5 HO's in my tanks. They come in lots of sizes. I would try a combination of bulbs that gets you to around 150 watts and go from there. I don't know how much light you have now, but I've been surprised how much better lighting can improve the look of a tank since I started keeping plants. So even if you end up only having a few plants, it'll still be worth it to upgrade the lighting once you see what it does to your tank.

 

[Kizz]

Thanks again for reply , My main aim is to have the back wall invisible behind vallis with anubias and possibly some moss (weeping or flame) on some of the of wood . I doubt i would ever get anything small to grow at that depth . Amazon swords were never a plant that survived in my previous tanks ,Always melted . I would love to have some dwarf hairgrass on the bottom for the fry to hide in until i can save them . If i manange to hit the 1.5-2wpg rule could i keep plants at lower depths? rather than something that hits tank height ( This is all well in saying that my cichlid's don't rip them to shreds ! lol )

Is this the sort of bulb i'm looking for >> HERE<<

Does it make a diffrence if it's t5 or t8 ? I know my current bulb is a t8 but suppose if i went for t5 i could possible get 4 bulbs rather than 3

Cheers again
Kizz

 

[brichamp]

Thanks again for reply , My main aim is to have the back wall invisible behind vallis with anubias and possibly some moss (weeping or flame) on some of the of wood . I doubt i would ever get anything small to grow at that depth . Amazon swords were never a plant that survived in my previous tanks ,Always melted . I would love to have some dwarf hairgrass on the bottom for the fry to hide in until i can save them . If i manange to hit the 1.5-2wpg rule could i keep plants at lower depths? rather than something that hits tank height ( This is all well in saying that my cichlid's don't rip them to shreds ! lol )

Is this the sort of bulb i'm looking for >> HERE<<

Does it make a diffrence if it's t5 or t8 ? I know my current bulb is a t8 but suppose if i went for t5 i could possible get 4 bulbs rather than 3

Cheers again
Kizz

You don't have to go to T5 HO's. But if you have limited space you can get more wattage for the same length. For instance a 36" T5 HO will get you 39W but a 36" T8 is only 25W. And I don't think they make T8 HO, not sure. In the limited research I've done the T5 HO fixtures seem to get you the most wattage for your money. As far as your question about growing plants in the substrate, I don't know. That might be better answered by someone with more plant experience then me. You may just have to try it and see. That bulb you reference looks good too. I live in the U.S. and I don't think we can get those here. I think you guys are usually ahead of us over there...