Converted Half of Tank to Real Plants

[jaywings19]

Last weekend, I converted half of my tank to real plants. Here are the specs and picture of my tank as it is today:

Tank: 72 US Gallons
Temperature: 83-84F
pH: 6.5-6.6
Filter: Eheim Pro II Model 2026
Lighting: 48" Freshwater Aqualight Dual Linear Strip Light (6700k and 4x65=260w)
Additional: 16" bubble wand... running all the time

Current inhabitants:
3 Discus
6 Rummynose Tetra
4 Cardinal Tetra
1 Bolivian Ram

Current real plants:
2 Java Fern
2 Amazon Sword
2 Melon Sword
2 Red Ludwigia
3 Hairgrass

I'm sure you can tell the "real" plants are on the left side. For the last week, I have been running my lights for 10 hours using a timer. The fish store told me to use Nutrafin Liquid Fertilizer (iron enriched) approximately 3 times per week for the first couple of months... to establish the necessary nurtients in the tank. Then, they said I should cut back to 2 dosages per week.

I have noticed that in the last week my tank is starting to develop some brown and green algae (you can see some of it on the smooth rocks in front)... which I assume is being encouraged by the additional light and fertilizer.

I am planning to convert the other half of my fake plants sometime this week or next. Will having the full tank of real plants control the algae problem in my tank? Am I on the right track with the plant situation?

Any helpful information would be greatly appreciated for this plant newbie.

 

[panboy]

i have had a planted tank for a while now, and brown algae will never stop growing. i actually dont mind if algae grows, i have a magfloat and clean it with that every other day. as for the gravel and rocks, it grows some algae, but my otos and SAE eats it.

you may want to grab a few otos, or a couple SAE's. since otos stay really small, 5-6 would be good, maybe more and it would eat the algae on that rock, (seems like it from the type of algae it looks like from the pic)

it took me a while to figure out how much fertilizer i needed. It is kind of a guess and check to see what works for the plants but doesnt cuase an algae bloom.

when u put more plants in, youll probably need more fertilizer, but who knows, depends what plants they are too. if they are difficult to keep or not. plants like crypts really dont need anything, but a good root tab helps.

i personally add flourish excel, flourish potassium and flourish iron, with root tabs.
it seems like a lot but my algae isnt bad at all and my plants are thriving.

hopefully this info is somewhat helpful, and accurate.



by the way, how are those discus doing in your tank?

i always thought it would be too much work to care for discus and plants at the same time. especially since now i spend more money caring for plants than for the fish.

 

[jaywings19]

The problem is that Otos and SAE's cannot tolerate the 83-84F temperature in my Discus tank. The only algae eater I could get is a Pleco... but they are potential hazards to my Discus... like to suck on their slime coat.

My Discus have been living in there since July and are doing great. I lost 2 of them early on... but that's because I made the mistake of buying 2 smaller ones with 3 larger ones. The smaller ones were picked on a eventually died. However, the remaining 3 are doing well even though they fight at feeding time.

I didn't want to chance the plants and Discus at the same time... but chose to do the plants now that I'm comfortable with my Discus care routine. I only hope that my plant introduction doesn't mess with the tank's stability.

Do you think it's safe to just convert the other half of the tank now? Or should I take a wait-and-see approach to monitor the half that's live now?

 

[tear-scar]

The best thing you can do is just plant more plants. The more fast growing-stem plants you have, the easier it will be to bring the amount of algae down.

Can farlowella cats stand higher temperatures? I don't know, but farlowella belong to locaridae like other plecs, but are much more waste-efficient, and eat more algae than most. Look up farlowella acus-- the twig catfish.

Also, I think it is important to get an army of scuffling fish, either cats or loaches. These will keep fish waste from getting stuck in plants with their constant foraging. Kuhli loaches, horse-face loaches, botia sp. and cories are all traditional favorites.

 

[konrad05]

First off, i would recommend removing your air bar on the right. If you're going to keep live plants, you have to know a little bit about what plants need, and one of which is CO2. If you're keeping discus, I don't know their pH tolerability, but your pH is going to swing once you start adding co2. You can try going without CO2, but it's going to be difficult with the plants you've purchased, especially the grassy ones. Substrate too, it looks like you only have generic black gravel, you can help out the plants by getting some root tabs. HTH.

 

[jams.alaskan]

The bubble wand will make you lose most of the co2 present in the tank so I would remove it. You can try to add co2 with a DIY set up and see if that helps the plants that you have. The plants that you have look very healthy and it would be great if you can keep it that way. Your substrate looks like eco complete, is it? There are some great resources on the web for higher temp plants and fish so that is where I would look for tank mates... I hope that this goes well for you. It looks wonderful.

ALASKA

 

[jaywings19]

Thanks so much for the advice so far. Yes, I realized that the bubble bar was going to counteract the CO2 during the daytime hours. So I've stopped using the bubble bar during the daytime... and only run it overnight to keep the O2 levels going. I don't plan on introducing a CO2 mechanism unless absolutely necessary.

I have been using the Nutrafin Liquid Fertilizer (iron enriched) since last week. The substrate is just plain black gravel... nothing fancy. I will go and get some root tabs for the plants as well.

I just went out and bought a bunch of plants to convert the right side today. It turns out that I didn't buy enough since there is still open space. So I will go back and get some more plants during the week to fill in the right side.

Please let me know if you have any other suggestions or help.

 

[barbus]

Aahh.. finally a convert you won't regret it, trust me. If you make the plants healthy, any fish will be thankfull to you