Have I Got What It Takes For A Carpeted/planted Tank?

[kjb66]

Hi my plants grow well but i was wanting to try creating a carpet effect using glosso or dwarf hairgrass so can i do it?

I have a 48"x12"x12" tank,the lights are 14" above the substate,all fitted with light reflectors,the lights are
2x48" arcadia freshwater tubes 36w (rear and centre)

1x42" interpet triplus tube 38w (front)have i worked it out correctly is this 3.6w per gallon?

i have JBL AquaBasis plus under 1.5"-2" of Aqua Tank Natural Black Gravel

i dose 1ml of trace elements mix daily(stock solution of 1 tablespoon of trace mix to 500ml of water).

pressurised co2

kh10
ph6.8-7 with the co2
gh 17
fish stock 25 small community fish and shrimps

any advice ?
thanks karl

 

[fozziebear]

sounds fine for carpetting plants to me, anything over 2.5 wpg will grow those plants, might take a bit longer to get established if they are only touching the black gravel, but if they are planted deep enough to get to the jbl aquabasis they will establish quicker, the only advice id give is to split the plants up as much as possible, like into single plantlets would be good, the more effort you put in the better carpet you will get, plant the single plantlets a couple of cm's from eachother.

 

[kjb66]

Thanks for the help i have some glosso and hair grass coming tomorrow just hope it grows,do you think if i put some root tabs under it it wiil give it a kick start?
thanks karl

 

[fozziebear]

nah dont bother its too fiddly with small plants like that, to give them the best start as i said split them up as much as you can, plant them 1 or 2 cm apart, and make sure you have sufficient co2 because they will need a good 25-30ppm of co2 to get going and not get algae ridden, they should take 1 or 2 weeks to develope their root system, also i would really consider dosing KNO3 and KH2PO4 as you will need it with a high light setup, look at the sticky about the EI dosing method, otherwise your plants are going to suffer.

 

[kjb66]

ok thanks
karl