Brand New with planted tanks. HELP!!!

[kornphlake]

You any good at DIY? You can modify a shoplight fixture to give you a twin tube strip. I made one for about $20 including the cost of 2 bulbs. If you're interested I'll dig up the link with instructions.

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[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by Ocho Cinco

What if I can get the fixture for like $15? There's no way I'd be able to get that coralife light at a lfs for $40. At least I don't think so. If I can get that other light for 15 should I go for for it?

If you can afford an additional $25 for the new bulbs to go in that fixture why wouldn't you buy the new fixture I linked with bulbs that will better support plant growth than those standard fluorescents?

Or you can DIY like Korn is suggesting- but IME that will likely end up just as expensive in the long run...

[Ocho Cinco]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

If you can afford an additional $25 for the new bulbs to go in that fixture why wouldn't you buy the new fixture I linked with bulbs that will better support plant growth than those standard fluorescents?

Or you can DIY like Korn is suggesting- but IME that will likely end up just as expensive in the long run...

I wen with what you said and I am getting the light you linked me to. I should get it on Friday for like $45. That has 2 18 watt bulbs plus I'm still going to use the 18 watt bulb I currently have. Will that be enough to do most plants? It's oly like 1.9 wpg. The tank does get some sunlight too. What kind of light do you have on your tank?

[Ocho Cinco]

Here are some pictures of the plants I have now. If someone can tell me a little about them, that would be great!

[lauraleellbp]

You ordered the freshwater fixture, right?

1.5 - 2 wpg is perfect for low light tanks. I wouldn't use the new fixture with the old- those T5 bulbs will be fine on their own. Too much light without supplementing CO2 will lead to more algae growth than plants. I'd also get the tank out of sunlight- that's also asking for algae.

The plants on the driftwood are Anubias.

The next plant with the arrow-shaped leaves in the substrate is a Cryptocorne- I think a wendti 'green'?

The top is Anarchis.

All of those plants are great low-light plants.

[Ocho Cinco]

Both plants on the drift wood are anubius's? The light I currently have running is a brand new bulb and is 18 watts. So having the FW fixture and the 18 watt bulb is too much? That's like 1.9 wpg.

[lauraleellbp]

Pretty sure? The first one looks like emersed growth.

You can certainly try both fixtures if you want to, but I strongly suspect you'll get algae. T5 bulbs put out significantly more light into the tank than standard or compact fluorescent.

That 2 watts per gallon is really just a general guideline- everyone's setup is different.

[Torpedobarb]

sorry.. didn't read the whole thread..

[Torpedobarb]

Originally Posted by Ocho Cinco

I wen with what you said and I am getting the light you linked me to. I should get it on Friday for like $45. That has 2 18 watt bulbs plus I'm still going to use the 18 watt bulb I currently have. Will that be enough to do most plants? It's oly like 1.9 wpg. The tank does get some sunlight too. What kind of light do you have on your tank?

kudos! you will be much happier in the long run!

[Ocho Cinco]

Hopefully I get the new fixture. It's supposed to come in but you never know. I'm going to run both but if I start getting a ton of algae I'll take the single one off. Should I be adding any kind if supplement?

[lauraleellbp]

In a low light setup you don't always need to add ferts; depends on your plantload vs. bioload. If you do get any deficiencies they won't happen as quickly and you'll have more time to address the issue (plants simply grow more slowly in low light tanks, which generally gives you more time to notice and work on problems). Since the plants aren't growing as quickly they don't need the massive amounts of nutrients required in high light tanks.

If you want to read up some on the chemistry of plant needs, etc. www.RexGrigg.com is a good place to go. Just keep in mind that there's a big difference between low and high light tank setups, and low light tanks don't typically need to supplement or inject CO2.

All my tanks are low light, and I personally use substrates that contain nutrients (I personally like Flourite, looks to me like you have EcoComplete in your tank which should work fine), fert tabs under the plants, and occasional Flourish comprehensive liquid for trace.

[Ocho Cinco]

Well, the fixture didn't come in today. It will be there by Thursday. About how fast can I expect my plants to grow? Like how long until they double in size?

[lauraleellbp]

There are so many variables that would go into that IMO there's no way to predict for sure. You should start seeing some growth within a week or two (it takes a little while for most plants to adapt to a new environment), and the rest will depend on how happy they are with the balance of light, CO2 and nutrients in their environment.

In general some plants grow more quickly than others. My fast-growing Bacopa caroliniana has grown more than an inch this past week. My larger swords Echinodorus africanus haven't done much of anything that I can tell, my pygmy chain sword E. tenellus have started putting up a new leaf or two per plant... this is in just over 1 wpg of T5HO lighting in my 90gal tank with a decent substrate and some Flourish comprehensive for trace ferts.

[Ocho Cinco]

It seems to me that all the plants but plant #2 are doing good. On #2 the leaves seem to be falling apart and kinda disinagrating (sp?). I can tell plant #1 is growing good tho!!!

[lauraleellbp]

If plant #2 is the Crypt (?), then that's very common- crypts melt b/c they don't like changes, but typically will grow back.