[dinthbrgh]

GWT et al,
I will take any good advice I can get, and yours is solid. I have a friend here who really gave me a shove to push into planted aquaria. He had a beautiful 60g for years, but recently decided to give up the hobby to pursue other interests, and sold his tank to the Pgh Aquarium and Planted Aquarium Society. They now have his tank on display somewhere. He told me to get my tank right and the fish will be healthy as a result. He also insisted I use co2. We only cross paths occasionally, though, and his tank was all about the plants. He only had a few standard fish. Nothing extraordinary.

I have just under 2wpg not counting the actinic bulb (which is only for my viewing pleasure); most of the wattage is 6700k, and then I have a Colormax bulb that doesn't indicate wattage or Kelvin but has lots of strength in the red and blue spectrums. right now I am leaving them on 11hours a day.

I'm sorry, but I am not familiar with the scientific names of plants or fish, but I did recognise some of the plants on your list.
It will probably be easier to just post a couple pics of my current setup and you'll be able to tell what I've got.
D

[dinthbrgh]

hope this worked. I am technologically challenged. [/img]

[Green Wet Thumb]

Hi Deb,

First off, try and avoid CO2 until you know what you are doing. It is beneficial, but until you get into the super-sensative plants, it will only cause you grief. Yes, your plants will grow faster with CO2, but you should also have higher intensity lights before you do it.

Also, if you mess up CO2 it can kill your 'bows. They can work together, but you really, really need to know what you are doing.

As to the plant names, I would highly suggest you do some reading or acquire a good book or two. There are several plants offered for sale at LFS that are in no way suitable for submerged propagation. Also, there are several plants that are grown emersed that when emerged will appear to die, but will rebound if you are patient. This is especially true with crypts which will often melt (hence the name 'crypt rot'), but after a period will aclimatize to your set-up and re-bound.

I still haven't figured out how to post pictures here, but I have pictures of my 75 gallon over on the rainbowfish.info site under members aquariums.

Derek
_________________
Melanotaenia bosemani ~ Melanotaenia kamaka ~ Melanotaenia misoolensis "Ifaupan River" ~ Melanotaenia monticola
Melanotaenia oktediensis ~ Melanotaenia parva ~ Chilatherina fasciata "Kali Biru" ~ Chilatherina sentaniensis

Grand Master Aquatic Horticulturist
(Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs)
(Durham Region Aquarium Society)

[Colin_T]

[dinthbrgh]

Derek,
I hunted down your pics of your tank. I am officially a rainbowfish forum creeper! Nice tank and nice fish. Then spent an hour looking at everyone else's tanks. WOW! Gave me some good ideas. Now it's just paying for all the plants and such.

I think I need to go with more anubias (which means more driftwood) and more crypts. Is my lighting too high for them to grow well? I have 2 anubias in the gravel (rhizomes are showing, but still) now that are just barely hanging in there. Pulled one out and attached it to a small piece of driftwood I had, along with a bolbitis that was quickly dying in my tank. I'll pull the other one out and attach it to the other driftwood during wc this week.

This tank has only been replanted for about a month but the water wisteria in the back corner still has not started growing submerged leaves, and the giant hygrophila is not getting very "giant".

Suggestions anyone?

[Green Wet Thumb]

[dinthbrgh]

I moved the anubias to driftwood and am already getting new leaves! Seem to be doing better. As far the bolbitis...trimmed all the dead off so now it's just the root stems, so i'm waiting to see what happens there.

I finally got tired of waiting for everything else to grow so I just threw caution to the wind, went wild and crazy, and stuck some API root tabs in the substrate and *snap* everything is getting new leaves and bright color! Who knew? No one told me to fertilise the substrate...duh

[Colin_T]

[dinthbrgh]

Hi folks,
Can anyone tell me why my plants just don't seem to grow? I'm fertilizing weekly with Flourish Macro nutrients, daily with micro nutrients, and I've fertilized the substrate with root tabs. I have co2 running but I'm not getting any pearling either. I have good lighting, in the low-medium range. this tank has been replanted for over 2 months and, other than some new leaves, I'm not getting any height on my water wisteria or my giant hygro; both of which are, basically, water weeds, as I understand it. Also, the amazon frogbit is alive and getting slightly larger, but not multiplying the way I expected.
I have been trying to grow a carpet of glossostigma for about 6 months now, and all I've got is a few tiny green leaves here and there. Argghh!

[Green Wet Thumb]

So you went with the CO2, eh? DIY or did you go with the pressurized route? If you are DIY'ing, then not too suprising to be honest. Also, with CO2 you need *high* lights, like 4 - 5 watts per gallon.

How high above your tanks are the lights? Is your tank covered or uncovered? I keep frogbit in both open top and covered tanks and it does much better in an open top environment.

Carpet plants are *not* a started project, so I'm not overly suprised you aren't having much success. High light and high CO2 are needed.

I would again suggest crypts, swords and aponogetons. I think you might be more impresses with large leaved plants to gauge growth...

Pictures of your set-up would be helpful!

Keep your chin up!

Derek
_________________
Melanotaenia bosemani ~ Melanotaenia kamaka ~ Melanotaenia misoolensis "Ifaupan River" ~ Melanotaenia monticola
Melanotaenia oktediensis ~ Melanotaenia parva ~ Chilatherina fasciata "Kali Biru" ~ Chilatherina sentaniensis

Grand Master Aquatic Horticulturist
(Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs)
(Durham Region Aquarium Society)

[dinthbrgh]

Hi again, Derek,
I've had diy co2 going for about 8 months now. I was assured that it would help my plants grow regardless of the lighting. Pics are at the beginning of this post. It looks pretty much the same, except I added a couple new anubias onto driftwood, and moved a couple old ones onto dritwood also. And I added another crypt up front with the other two.

I'm growing hygro and wisteria for the height against the back of the tank. This wisteria was grown emersed and it still hasn't started growing water leaves yet.

Lights rest on the glass cover about 1 1/2 inches above the water. And I don't understand what you mean by "carpet plants are *not* a started project".

The scarlet temple and red ludwigia are both doing well and growing slowly, so I think the light is bright enough for carpet plants, although the blyxa japonica lost most of the leaves and the clumps are much smaller now, but new bright baby leaves are growing.
It's not all bad...I gues it's kinda like the proverbial watched pot that doesn't boil...a watched tank doesn't grow!

Oh...I do have several swords, also growing slowly.

[Colin_T]

[Green Wet Thumb]

Regarding the carpet plants... (these are my opinions only based on my experiences) the problem with carpet plants is that most of them propagate via runners. To get runners, you need your plants to be growing. A lot of people see examples of carpeted tanks and drool, but don't realize what goes into getting them. You need higher levels of light (as mentioned 4 - 5 watts per gallon, or at least double what you have - the other option would be a high output [HO] double bulb T-5) and CO2.

Also, regarding DIY CO2, I know you know someone who has told you it will work, but the problem is the fluctuating CO2 levels. It is extremely difficult to get consistent levels produced using DIY CO2. Let me ask you this, how do you know when to change the yeast mixture? How are you disseminating the CO2 in your tank? Now, if you go to a pressurized system (and it is expensive) you get the consistenet level, but to get the plants to use the CO2, you need them to be actively growing, and for most plants that means higher levels of light.

So I say carpet plants are not a beginner project because they won't grow quickly or as luxuriously without CO2 and high light. Most beginners don't know how to manage CO2 and what true high light really is. So they get frustrated and give up. TRUST ME, THIS IS MY STORY. It took me a while to get back into plants, and I had to learn to be patient. I don't have pressurized CO2, do use Flourish Excel, and do have moderate lights (double HO T-5's).

It sounds like you are having some success in growing plants, albeit it very slowly. That is good. No, make that excellent. As I said, ignore the CO2 because I really don't think it is making much of a difference. Use Flourish Excel instead. Save up and get some more powerful lights. Then get into pressurized CO2.

I think one of the problems with most beginners in aquatic plants is that they get frustrated and give up. You must be patient.

I would like to make a suggestion for a project for you. Keep the plants you have in your tank now, with the same set-up you have. Take a picture every Sunday for six months taking that picture from the exact same spot. At the end of that period, make a slide show starting with week one and going through week twenty-six. At that time, when you stop and look back, you will see what has grown. This really reinforces that aquatic plants *do* grow. I guarantee that at the end of the six months, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment, satisfaction and pride... and then you'll want to do more.

As I said, keep you head up, do some reading and research. (Side project for you... find three crypts that are easy to grow, but where one will stay short, one will grow between 4" and 8" and one which grows larger... trust me, seeking that info will really explore the crypt world. Once done, try the same project for swords, and then anubias...)

Good luck and keep at it.

Derek
_________________
Melanotaenia bosemani ~ Melanotaenia kamaka ~ Melanotaenia misoolensis "Ifaupan River" ~ Melanotaenia monticola
Melanotaenia oktediensis ~ Melanotaenia parva ~ Chilatherina fasciata "Kali Biru" ~ Chilatherina sentaniensis

Grand Master Aquatic Horticulturist
(Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs)
(Durham Region Aquarium Society)

[dinthbrgh]

[dinthbrgh]

That's me...I saw glorious green carpets and drooled...(well maybe that was just my usual drooling...the older I get, ya know)