VOTE: 4 plants most likely to succeed in this setup

[fastfreddie]

Thanks for helping a "hopeful" plant keeper.

24 gallons- Link to the journal
Dimensions 18L x 19.6W x 19.7H
3WPG - 2x36watt compact fluorescent ( Should I only burn one lamp in the beginning? )
DIY Co2- Hagen canister with bubble ladder (not really DIY because all I DID MYSELF was buy the kit but.....)
Eco-complete for substrate
-Sorry no parameters listed. Tank is still empty.


Here is what I'd like: Please list how many bunches/ stems of each plant you would start with.

1. Some tall stem plants or grass for back
2. A fast growing mid ground plant- I need some quick results for encouragement.
3.A foreground cover plant.
4. One plant for fun of your choice.

For now the scape will be raised in the rear corners, leveling out to the front. I have some driftwood, but not sure if I'll use yet.I will not be adding fish for quite a while.

2 more things I am wondering:
Your favorite link for buying plants or name of good sellers in the swap n shop.

Do I need to go ahead and buy ferts? Specifics appreciated.

[dewalltheway]

I will offer up some because I have eco-complete and I ran DIY CO2 for some time so here it goes..

1.) Rotala Clorata (20-30 stems) Nice stem to for a bush effect but can grow tall enough for background. Also will give some nice pink to red coloring.

2.) Blyxa or creeping jenny (Blyxa 5-10 stems)(jenny 10-15 stems) Blyxa grows a little slower but makes an awesome midground plant and creeping jenny does grow faster and has a beautiful light green color.

3.) HM (sandwich bag full) This plant you grow tall or short depends on your trimming technique. Grows fairly fast and makes a good foreground to midground plant.

4.) Ammania Sp. Bonsai or Hemigraphis Traian (Bonsai 10-20 stems)(Traian 3-5 stems) I have grown to love both of these plants and I feel you can't go wrong with either one.

Some pics of these plants...
Rotala Clorata


Blyxa


Creeping Jenny


HM (It is the plant in the lower part of the pic)


Ammania Sp. Bonsai


Hemigraphis Traian (Still small and others)



There are so many plants you could go with and it really needs to be what you like and these are just suggestions so good luck and let me know if you need anything

[dewalltheway]

Originally Posted by fastfreddie

2 more things I am wondering:
Your favorite link for buying plants or name of good sellers in the swap n shop.

Do I need to go ahead and buy ferts? Specifics appreciated.

You will definitely want to buy ferts and I would go to Green Leaf Aquariums website (has a big sponsor link on here). Orlando is an great guy and will get you what you need.

As far as sellers, there are so many that grow great plants. Just look at there pTrader and see what they are selling and you will get some great plants.

[dewalltheway]

I just looked at your journal and I will suggest if you are running 3wpg of lighting you will find it difficult to control algae with DIY CO2. If you can at all afford it, I would get yourself a pressurized systems that you can control. You can find tanks on ebay and once S&S is back up, watch there for regulators or Orlando with Green Leaf has some great regulators and CO2 equipment.

[fastfreddie]

I can't thank you enough for your response. It was clear and simple--exactly the type of answer a beginner needs. The photographs were a huge help and I will take your suggestions based on availability. Some really cool looking plants!!!

As far as the light, should I only burn one lamp, dropping wattage in half, until I could get more CO2? This must have been my problem the first go round. I was running 3WPG with only excel for the first month the tank was up.

Thank you again for your time! Very kind of you.

[dewalltheway]

The only problem is when you drop off that other bulb then you are running only 1.5wpg which will effect the plants growth. If you want to run highlight plants and keep algae under control (you will never have no algae) you will almost need a pressurized system. I found this out and I spent the money to go pressurized because I am running 5.2wpg at my burst time and 2.6wpg durning my non-burst. If you don't want to deal with CO2 and highlight plants you could use low light plants. That is all part of the decision making process of what you want to grow and what you want your tank to look like and what you can spend.

[Hoppy]

Using the tank dimensions you gave, you have a 30 gallon tank, not a 24 gallon. 18x19.6x19.7/231=30 gallons. It is basically a cube tank.

I strongly suggest that you slow down your process of setting up the tank, and buy a pressurized CO2 system before doing anything else. And, I would plan on using a Koralia or similar powerhead in the tank to establish good water circulation, probably by mounting it low down, in the back, aimed along the rear glass, so the water flow is a circular pattern around the tank. You didn't mention a filter, but I would use a canister filter, with the outlet aimed so it slightly ripples the water surface to help with keeping oxygen in the water, and using it to try to get a top to bottom flow pattern in the tank. there are several ways to get the CO2 into the water, and for that size tank a DIY external reactor is one of the best ways.

Now, you will have a tank with good CO2, good water circulation, good filtration, and you can then consider whether you want to use both lights and have high light intensity or just one and still have good enough light to grow most plants, but slowly. Finally, you can start picking out the plants you want to grow, and I like dewalltheway's suggestions. One suggestion to consider is using a low growing Hygrophila, like the porto velho variety for the foreground planting.

Because of the cube shape of the tank, it might look and work best if you keep the tall plants in the middle, with low plants all around that, to allow good water flow areas, plus plenty of room for fish to swim.

[dank104]

can anyone tell me the name of this plant? it looks great!

[fastfreddie]

So if I'm hearing you two correctly, pressurized CO2 is a must in order to succeed with this selection of plants and amount of light. I may be able to set aside some money and do some more reading on pressurized CO2 over the next few months.

Would either of you recommend cycling the tank with some less demanding plants and a smaller light, in the meantime? That would be a lot more fun than waiting. If so, what plants would be a good choice?

Hoppy- About the cube. It is a 24g nano cube. Check it out

As far as the gallon calculation, maybe they don't count the water in the overflow?? It doesn't seem like 5 gallons are back there though. Not sure on that one.

The filter pump has really good flow. Maybe I could get some extensions to better control the outflow.

Thanks to both of you again for your time.

[fastfreddie]

Just one more thing Mark,
Reading your 55 journal.......If you were using DIY Co2 up until 3/16/08, I'd say your argument for pressurized just lost a little traction. I'd be so STOKED with results like that from DIY.

OK, reading on to whats beyond p.6. I'm sure you had good reasons for upgrading.

[dewalltheway]

Originally Posted by dank104

can anyone tell me the name of this plant? it looks great!

Attachment 10618

Riccia fluitans

[dewalltheway]

Originally Posted by fastfreddie

Just one more thing Mark,
Reading your 55 journal.......If you were using DIY Co2 up until 3/16/08, I'd say your argument for pressurized just lost a little traction. I'd be so STOKED with results like that from DIY.

OK, reading on to whats beyond p.6. I'm sure you had good reasons for upgrading.

You weren't suppose to read my journal! The plants I had in there up to 3/16 would do fine with DIY CO2 but I had to fight algae constantly. My moss and HC had thread algae in it and had to throw those out, and my glosso I had died out when algae started in it. Plus the hassel of taking the bottles and re-doing the solution every 2 weeks was just a pain. Now, I have a 10lb tank which lasted me 4 months before I had to get it filled and the timer turns the CO2 on and off. So much easier! You can grow very nice plants with DIY CO2 and high light but the warning is be ready to fight algae. You could start your tank up with the plants I mentioned and run 3wpg of lighting with DIY CO2 until you save some money for a pressurized system but I would recommend switching over as soon as you can. I lasted 3 months. Also, with a pressurized system you can dive into some more difficult plants like Erio's. The one thing you want to do though is get your dry ferts and make sure you do the EI method of dosing.
These are what you want to get:
Potassium Nitrate
Potassium Sulfate
Mono-potassium Phosphate
CSM+B
Iron
(I also dose flourish from the Seacheam line of ferts and since I use RO/DI water, I add Seacheam Equilibrium at water changes.)

[dank104]

Originally Posted by dewalltheway

Riccia fluitans

thanks!

[@marko@]

1. rotala vietnam
2. HM
3. riccia
4. narrow leaf microsword (great accent, but slow growing).

[kevinstpeter]

I'm new, but I would take your own suggestion and start with 1.5wpg and cycle the tank with low light plants. This is what I did with my 10gallon and I've slowly been upgrading. It also gave me time to work on trimming and replanting techniques, as well as time to research and read and learn more about everything. I think I would have gotten very overwhelmed with super fast growth without expierence. Good luck, which ever approach you choose!

Most Hygros work well, ludwigia repens, mosses, and java ferns would all work with low light there is a good list that I used alot on here somewhere. I've also recently fallen in love with the different crypts. They would do well.