First Time Planter

taxicab823

New Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
11
Reaction score
0
i've never used real plants before and after reading this forum and all the other advice i think i am ready to give it a shot however my only question is my lighting. i have a 29 gallong tank that is 30L, 12W, and 18H. my light right now is only 20 watts and from my understanding i might not have enough light to keep my plants going. i intend to start with hornwort or a java fern? is my lighting alright or should i upgrade to another lighting fixture that holds 2 20 watt bulbs?

thanks for the help!
 
Your lighting (I presume is a T8 tube?) will be perfectly adequate for low light plants such as Java fern, Java moss, Anubiasspp., Cryptocoryne spp. and even the fast growing Hygrophila polysperma (though growth may look a bit straggly with the hygro, it will be healthy).

Hornwort would do OK if you keep it floating near the surface (as it will be brighter there).

Fast growers like the Hygrophila polysperma and hornwort will probably do much better with some decent fertiliser though (unless you have a heavily stocked tank and are relaxed with water changes), I'd recommend Tropica plant Nutrition +.

If you don't use any liquid fertiliser and stick with slow growing plants, the Cryptocoryne spp. will benefit from a decent root tab placed in the substrate under them. But if you use fertiliser the root tab will be pretty much redundant.

I wouldn't bother with upgrading the lighting unless you want to grow more demanding plants.

Before you upgrade the light, the best ting to do would be to fit a decent reflector on the tube, and add a power head for extra water movement (a good flow on plants leaves helps discourage algae) as most tanks don't have the best turnover rate with the recommended filter.
 
no idea if it's a t8 bulb but i think it is, my tank came as a kit and i've had it a few years so i have no idea what kind of bulb it is. heavily stocked as in fish ? i am very understocked in fish, i only have 10 fish in my tank and i intend to have a few live plants within the next couple weeks. i will probably float the hornwort. there isn't much of a selection of live plants where i live, however there are still 2 places i rarely go to but i will check them out this weekend to see if they got other live plants. i think i will start off with the hornwort so the liquid fertilizer would be best since i am floating it right?
 
Since you don't have many fish, I would recommend that fertiliser if you want it to grow fast (which will help it clean the water too and ward off any algae), yes :good:.

But make sue you don't get another brand as then the hornwort will likely be limited by nitrogen and possibly even phosphate.

If you cant get that brand, I would recommend preferably Seachem Flourish or any other cheap brand in addition to Seachem Nitrogen.

The reason behind this is a lot of fertilisers (such as the API, Kent, Tetra and Nutrafin brands) are designed without some of the nutrients that plants require, because old heavily stocked fish fish tanks that don't get many water changes already have these nutrients, and when people add more it sometimes causes (or is at least blamed for) algae.

So in your tank, which is lightly stocked and probably gets the right amount of water changes, the plants will be lacking in these main nutrients (usually nitrogen and phosphate) so using a fertiliser without them would basically be a waste of money.

Tropica Plant Nutrition + is one of the few good ones that contain everything for the plant, but it's not often seen in LFS's so you may want to get it from the internet.

If your interested enough, you can make your own fertiliser that's just as good, but more flexible and cheaper from buying powders and mixing them up yourself, but it requires a bit of reading (look up EI dosing if interested).

Seachem produce good fertilisers, but their broad-ranged Flourish fertiliser doesn't contain enough of all the nutrients, so you will have to supplement it with Seachem Nitrogen and maybe also Seachem Phosphorus /Potassium if you get deficiencies, so this is an expensive way of doing it.

If you want it to grow slowly,your better not adding anything at all than a bad fertiliser :).
 
alright, i will check out the fertilizers tommorow and see what ones they have. i know i've seen the seachem flourish before but i will have to see what the others ones are.

is there a certain amount of nitrogen i should look for in the fertilizers?
 
Not that I can work out, they all have different dosage instructions :).

You can also save money by buying a cheap fertiliser at the lfs, and making your own nitrogen fertiliser from powder.

Then if you see any deficiencies after a month or two, just by the powder for whatever the deficiency is and dose that as well.

That's basically a simplified EI regime, where the normal fertiliser is used once a week to provide plants with all the trace nutrients, then you also dose the other fertiliser at the same time and maybe another once or twice a week as needed.
 
i know i can get the seachem fertilizers and i've been very fortunate at the casino a couple weeks ago so i will be able to get everything i need and still have $ left over. but i'm still gonna see what the LFS carries.

if they have poor selections the seachem flourish/nitrogen/ pohostate potaassium will do efficiently?
 
Yep, those 4 would be fantastic together, they would give everything you plants need and last for ages (as you are buying 4 bottles of each required fert, it's the equivalent of one huge bottle of Tropica Plant Nutrition +).

Congrats on the win :).
 
i'm good to go, now i just gotta go buy a plant! :hyper:
thanks for the help, i will let you know how my progress turns out within a few weeks or earlier if something goes wrong.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top