Care Of New Plants

[bumbleweasle]

Hi everyone!

I used to post a loooong time ago in the tropical discussion, am now attempting to go all planty.
Sooo, I have the following setup...

HARDWARE
48"w 12"d 15"h tank (30-35g?)
40W t8 (soon to be replaced with 55w t5)
fluval 4+ internal with the outflow at the surface for agitation
heater, airstone
No CO2
substrate= mix inert sand & (most likely exhausted) eco-complete


FISH
10x Gold White Cloud Mountain Minnow
6x Neons
6x Otocinclus
1x black skirt tetra (has outlived his mates, not sure whether to get more)
1x scissortail rasbora (equally long-lived rescue fish)
a bunch of trumpet snails!

PLANTS

Taiwan Moss
Willow Moss
Cabomba
Amazon Swords
Elodea Densa
?Java Fern
?Some other unidentified ferny thing

Think that's everything..

So... I've had some of the plants (swords, ferns) in there for a year or more now.. TO my shame, aside from the eco-complete, they've only had the odd dose of liquid ferts whenever I remembered (not often!!). One of the plants (unidentified ferny thing) is doing spectacularly well attached to a bit of wood up the top near the light, but the swords & java ferns are merely surviving, & I'm just starting to get some hair algae on the driftwood so I thought it was about time I learned how to do things properly.

My friend sent me the mosses, elodea, cabomba last week, so they're just newly planted. Got the taiwan moss down on the substrate with mesh, and the willow moss (will this even survive in my tank?!) is strapped to another bit of wood up near the ferny thingummy.

I'd like to avoid CO2 etc until I get my head around how it all works, so ideally sticking with low-tech, low-light & looking for advice on ferts/dosing, & general balance between fish & plants. From reading here I should be dosing with TPN+ daily, but are there any others I need? Will I need to watch out for swings in the water chemistry when I start dosing properly? Cheers, any advice/pointers on glaring errors I've made would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and should I take the airstone out? I think I read something about it removing CO2 from the water?!

Thankeee!

 

[RadaR]

I would increase your flow and circulation by getting a powerhead to work in conjunction with your fluval 4plus. The fluval wont be enough on it's own. Have a look at the Koralia powerheards as they move bodies of water. The Koralia 900litre per hour should suffice. This should help deliver resources to the plants at a sufficient rate and rule out any dead spots where algae might build up.
Don't have the filter too close to the surface. You want a ripple on the surface but nothing that will agitate it so much that it breaks the surface.
Turn off the airstone as it is not needed.

From reading here I should be dosing with TPN+ daily,

No because you are going down the non-CO2 route. Non-CO2 tanks have less demand for nutrients. Your fish should provide enough. If you notice nutrient deficiencies then by all means add some. If/when you do water changes, these should be done after the lights go out for the day to avoid algae taking advantage of any CO2 swings (tapwater contains higher levels of dissolved CO2 than your tank water).

Will I need to watch out for swings in the water chemistry when I start dosing properly?

Nope. Even tanks with pressurized CO2 that experience pH drops of 1 do not need to worry.

One last thing. Why change the lighting? I would keep it at 40W T8 to allow you to get the hang of things. More light = more work

 

[bumbleweasle]

Thanks, RadaR!

Yeh, I want to get this right before considering high-tech, so just a powerhead for now, eh? Peachy!

The lighting unit is being replaced because it's bloomin' ancient & has started to trip out the timer.. I was mainly thinking a T5 because it's supposed to be more eco-friendly & have less fade, but I can just as easily get a new T8 unit...

 

[RadaR]

Fair enough. T5 is fine.
Few more points.
Plant up heavy. Atleast 75% coverage.
Lights on for no more than 7-8hours a day.
Also, if you start noticing any structural failures in the plants and also hair algae then this is telling you that the plants are needing CO2. A way to get round this (sort of) without adding carbon is to add some floating plants to cut out some light intensity.

 

[bumbleweasle]

Cheers!

Am planning on more moss & looking at the low tech plant threads at the moment to see what else I might like in there.. This is what the tank looks like atm:

it ain't a great pic, but will get more soon.. looking at it, I probably do need to lower the filter, which will mean sticking it in sideways/diagonally, but I can always hide it behind the plants. Need new suckers for that heater & all, it keeps falling off!!

 

[bumbleweasle]

...& I'm just starting to get some hair algae on the driftwood so I thought it was about time I learned how to do things properly.

Ahem. It seems my.. um.. "hair algae" is actually java moss. My bad! I bought some last year & thought it was all dead after my house move, but apparently it was just awaiting its grand re-entrance.

Have taken some pics just to be sure, will post 'em up for clarification just as soon as I find my card reader.

 

[bumbleweasle]

Right.. So, Java Moss, right?!

 

[RadaR]

In short, yes.

 

[bumbleweasle]

In short, yes.

lol, thanks mate.. can't believe I thought it was algae!