plant help and planting tip

[kenneth_kpe]

hey guys i just bought this plant and I would just like to know what it is and how i could possibly place it in my aquarium ? do i seperate the little jumbled up plants use a few maybe 3 or 4 and plant them seperately and pray it spreads ? so it kinda covers the floor ?? thanks


heres a pic of the plants

 

[George Farmer]

Looks like Echinodorus tenullus (Dwarf chain sword). They're a popular carpeting plant, I've just got some. I seperated the individual plants and planted them in the foreground using tweezers, it's time consuming but in time, with sufficient light etc. you should have a nice carpet. Good luck.

 

[Bangin]

It may also be Lilaeopsis brasiliensis. I have some that looks similar to your picture, but it wasn't that big of a patch when I bought it! It prefers high light and a nutrient rich substrate.

Lilaeopsis brasiliensis/Microsword

 

[kenneth_kpe]

im running my tank now with around 2 WPG via 2 15 watts 7000K lamps, i think this is still low for the plant right ? by the way with regards to the nutrition of the substrate, im kinda new to the planting thingie but i didn't actually add nutrition to the substrate before hand, and my gravel is kinda big (around the size of the smileys here a tad smaller ) what can i do ? i use a regular liquid based fertilizer every other week to supplement the plants. How can i add nutrition to the substrate ? i already have fish swimming around and i dont wanna change my gravel anymore... because it might detroy the balance of my aquarium ? i dont wanna kill my fishes ! i dont have an extra tank.. only a pail thanks

 

[Bangin]

I wouldn't worry about the substrate as much as I would the lighting. There's over 6 wpg on my 10 gallon which currently holds the microsword. I have laterite at the very bottom and gravel on top of it. It grows well but slow.

Whatever plant it is-it will probably grow with 2wpg, but it would do better with higher light. You can add nutrients to the substrate by putting root tabs in the gravel. They're available at most LFS.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

ic ic thanks il try it out and see what happens i think il only be using so little of the bunched up plants i got ( the lady wont sell me a portion she said i should buy the whole lot for 50 pesos .. around a dollar) il look for some root tabs though thanks il see what happens. Btw i just read around and i dont have substrate only gravel i got them mixed up hehehe hope the plants live

 

[endparenthesis]

If you want plants that like a lot of light in an aquarium under 20 gallons, you have to start with about 40-50 watts minimum. The WPG "rule" starts to fall apart in tanks that small.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

40-50 Watts ?!?!?! omigawd !! how would i fit that number of lights above my hood ? metal halide lamps ? ohhh thats gonna be expensive... im just wondering ? how do you actually know if the lighting for the plants is ok ? u just mentioned that with smaller aquariums the WPG rule breaks up ? and with regards to light i only understand the watts and kelvin (5000K - 10,000K is nice for plants) but does it hold the same for any kind of light ? or should i watch the spectrum ? im looking at the osram catalog right now and was wondering if it would work the same

 

[chkltcow]

You say you have 2WPG with 30 watts... that means a 15g that's about 18" long, I'm assuming. 24" long bulbs are 20 watts each, so a dual tube 24" flourescent rig will get you 40 watts. The smallest Power Compact strip you're gonna find is 24" as well, and it puts out 55-65 watts.. depending on the brand. For the cost of materials, if you know what you're doing, you can build a custom hood with few cheap ballasts and get 40-60 watts easily. The point being, it's not gonna be very expensive.... no way you'd need to get into Metal Halide bulbs... they're 175 watts each.

As for the bulbs and spectrum, Osram is Sylvania to us in America.... and I haven't found a Sylvania bulb that's the correct spectrum, but then again I haven't looked very hard either. I'm sure they make something in the "daylight" spectrum. I picked up GE 24" 20w 6500K flourescent bulbs at Lowe's the other day for about $4 each.... so it is most definitely possible to use standard bulbs instead of the expensive Coralife/Hagen stuff.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

hmmm is it okay if the tubes are longer than the tank. I have a aquarium thats only 20'' long and its hard to put a lamp that way. and i made my overhead lamps diy so ur right they dont cost too much. hmm il try to think of a way are there smaller lighting methods for plants?aside from flourescent tubes?

 

[chkltcow]

Power compacts are smaller and put out more light, but I don't really know that they're in the "DIY" realm. If anything, they're gonna be special order parts, not something you're likely to find at the local hardware store. I think CurrentUSA makes a 20" long Compact Flourescent fixture... if you're willing to spend that much money on it.

If you know how to build stuff yourself though, I'd go with 2 or 3 18" or 24" bulbs in a cheap utility light rig... 3 18" lights will be 45 watts and should do well on your tank... or 2 24" bulbs will be 40 watts, which is what I'm using on my 20g long.

On the other hand, you're in the Philippines... I have no idea what type of stuff is available over there You may be able to find some killer deals on stuff... *shrug*

 

[kenneth_kpe]

il try and see what i can do. Im having trouble fitting all the fixtures on top of my aquarium because im using an overhead filter thats using like half of the space above my aquarium and i prefer the overhead filter over the sumberged ones because if power breaks out the dirt doesn't go back into the water. Il go see what i can do about it, maybe remodel the housing of the lamps to be able to fit 2 lamps instead of one to bring my Watts to 45 to make it 3 wpg. Maybe it's be enough. Also what if i covered the housing of the lamps with something shiny ? like aluminum foil ? or i use one of those shop reflectors ? will it help ? or is it still better to add another bulb ? or do em both!

and yup things are cheaper here but sometimes things you really need are sooo hard to find so i have to order em over the internet