[LeyWanderer]

I have recently acquired a 37gal tank. The tank is 22 in deep, about 18 inches from light to substrate at the lowest point. I currently have a 24" Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 and a Marineland f18t8 fluorescent as lighting for the tank. Is this going to be strong enough to grow lush plants? Would I be able to grow carpeting plants? I have a sandy substrate. I have contemplated just dismantling the tank and going for a 20 long but I'd prefer not to if I can avoid it.

I am beyond clueless to how lighting works, all I want is to be educated. I'm determined to have a beautiful lush tank. Currently the plants in the tank are Amazon Swords, Anubias, Java Moss, Pennywort, Java Fern, some sort of Rotala looking thing and something else that resembles Hygrophilia. All of the plants are rather sad looking at the moment as I only just put the Fluval on the tank 5 days ago. I dose Flourish Excel. Please help!

 

[AWolf]

You need to schedule fertilizing your plants. Flourish Excel is not a fertilizer. Giving your plants excel without fertilizer is like running a marathon without any water or food for a week before the race. Flourish (Seachem) puts out a nice comprehensive fertilizer. You should get some right away and follow the directions on the bottle.

Your lighting looks fine to me. That's very nice that you got a complete setup with plants. Do you have fish too?

 

[LeyWanderer]

You need to schedule fertilizing your plants. Flourish Excel is not a fertilizer. Giving your plants excel without fertilizer is like running a marathon without any water or food for a week before the race. Flourish (Seachem) puts out a nice comprehensive fertilizer. You should get some right away and follow the directions on the bottle.

Your lighting looks fine to me. That's very nice that you got a complete setup with plants. Do you have fish too?

Okay! I will do that tomorrow!

I didn't get the plants with the tank, they were ones I already had. I have multiple tanks. I'm just having issues with growing the plants in this new tank, and anywhere I go people tell me different things about the lighting so I very much appreciate your input! I have fish but they are in my other tanks for now, I want to get the scape in order before introducing them.

You need to schedule fertilizing your plants. Flourish Excel is not a fertilizer. Giving your plants excel without fertilizer is like running a marathon without any water or food for a week before the race. Flourish (Seachem) puts out a nice comprehensive fertilizer. You should get some right away and follow the directions on the bottle.

Your lighting looks fine to me. That's very nice that you got a complete setup with plants. Do you have fish too?

I also forgot to mention I dose Excel AND regular Flourish together. Sorry for the confusion.