Newb with questions

[keitone]

Ok so I started this planted tank about a month ago, or I should say I converted a 3o gal tank to a planted tank.

I have 2 watts per gallon( 38 from t-5 fixture and 20 from a regular flourescent).

Substrate was what I had in there before it was planted, which is a mix of fine/coarse sand. Im not sure but I think it is getting a little to compacted and I was considering switching to eco complete, and its deffinatly not providing anything for my plants. It was cheap though and is a nice natural color.

As far as plants go I have; jungle val, crypts, aponogeton, dwarf sag, anubius, java moss, and a oriental sword.

Water parameters are
NH3 - 0
Nitrates - 10 ppm (water from tap)
KH -18 deg
GH - 6 deg
Ph ~ 8.0

I have a couple rasboras a pair of Neolamprologus brevis, a couple guppies, there were 4 small albino bristle nose in there but I havent seen the but I do find poo. I think.

I know that the tank is relatively new, but growth has been slow to non existant. The cryps have spread a little a few new leaves on the sword, and new leaf on one of my anubius. I havent seen any growth on the vals the dwarf sag, and everything is getting covered in brown algae, especially the java moss. I had the vals in another tank before this one and they grew like mad.

I havent been dosing anything consistantly. I have flourish but with the algae I am kinda hesitant to add it. I bought some excel and used it three times before I read that vals are sensative to it. So, I havent used it since. I did just put some jobes fert sticks in the sand last week.

Now that I have given the background on the tank. Here are my questions.

I have always had cichlid tanks and the general rule is to overfilter. What kind of effect does overfiltering have on a planted tank. Do the nitrobacter or whatever use up ammonia and nitrates that the plants could be using instead?

I was also considering a diy CO2 setup with a hagen ladder diffuser. With this setup is it really nessisary?

The substrate is leveling sand that I bought from home depot. While it does have some smaller pebbles in it it is mostly fine sand and might be getting a little to compact. I did get some mts snails hoping they would keep it loose enough, but they are usually out and about. I hear everyone raving about aqua soil but I dont know of anywhere localy that sells it. I really dont want to pay for shipping. I work at a mom and pop lfs and get a decent discount. Although we dont carry eco complete we should beable to get it. Would I really notice that much of a difference between eco/AS/flourite/onyx?

[Hoppy]

I don't now do low tech tanks, but I do know that plants need nutrients to grow well. That can be from the substrate or from the water column. Since you are using only sand as a substrate, and don't mention using plant tabs in the substrate, I assume you aren't providing the NPK needed by the plants. So, I suggest either getting some plant tabs or some water column fertilizers, such as potassium nitrate, mono potassium phosphate and Flourish for traces and dosing them in some routine schedule.

[keitone]

Originally Posted by Hoppy

I don't now do low tech tanks, but I do know that plants need nutrients to grow well. That can be from the substrate or from the water column. Since you are using only sand as a substrate, and don't mention using plant tabs in the substrate, I assume you aren't providing the NPK needed by the plants. So, I suggest either getting some plant tabs or some water column fertilizers, such as potassium nitrate, mono potassium phosphate and Flourish for traces and dosing them in some routine schedule.

Originally Posted by Keitone

I did just put some jobes fert sticks in the sand last week.

I was dosing flourish but have quit because of the algae and was assuming that it was excess nutrients. I suppose that it could be silicates in the sand as well, but im really not sure.