FishProfiles.com Message Forums

first start off by saying this is my first attempt at a planted tank. I have been keeping a 20 gallon FW community tank for over a year. After weeks of research and craming my brain with information, I decided it was time to make the jump. This is how I planted my 10 gallon:

Foreground:
1 Anubias coffeefolia
8 dwarf sag

Middle:
4 java ferns
1 red wendtii

Background:
4 anachris

I also have 1 congenis and 1 ceylon that will be ready to pick up on Monday and I am ordering some more fast growers from aquabid.com. My question is based on my lighting, (2) 15 watt compact flourescent screw-in bulbs, for a 10 gallon tank, will I need to use any chemical ferts or Do2/excel? I was trying for a low light-low maintence tank to start. Would it be better to use (2) 10 watt compact flourescent bulbs? Any help will be greatly appreciate. I added 6 gold tetras and Bio-Spira along with the plants.

After 36 hours my water parameters were as follows:

Ammonia=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=5

I feel so lost and confused. My brain is about to explode!! I have gather lots of information from other forums but everyone tells me something different. Also, do I need to purchase liquid ferts or should I wait until the tank matures? I am sure I forgot something but... oh well........

Welcome to fishprofiles.
Sounds like your tank is gooing to be pretty full with plants. You could use either the 2 10 watts or the 2 15 watts. The 2 tens would give you moderate lighting and the 2 fifteens would give you a bright light. You really wont need any ferts for the plants you have listed. What is your substrate(gravel)?
Dont worry about everyone telling you something different. With aquariums, there are sometimes multiple ways to do something. People are just saying what they think.

hb3133,

Hi there and welcome to FP.

A few things - I think that 30w over 10G will be quite ok and may be enough to support the dwarf sags.

A Coffeefolia is more of a midground plant when all grown up, but that should not be a problem as the sags will fill the foreground nicely.

Question: What is a Ceylon? Is that an Anubias form?

I am not so sure that adding 6 fish while cycling the tank, even with Bio Spira, is such a great idea. Keep a close eye on the parameters and do 50% water changes when you detect any major readings.

Whenever someone starts in the planted tank world, they get confused, this is normal. Given that you have a rather significant plant load, I would suggest you feed liquid (if you have the money) ferts about once a week, after your water changes. What kind of substrate is in the tank, and how high is it? Do you know the basics about macros, micros, and excel?

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I could have simply edited my previous post, but I would like to point out two things in reference to clownloachfan's entry that I have not seen until after I finished my post:

1) 30W over a 10G may be just enough to get you to medium light levels. Basically, the smaller the tank the more watts per gallon are needed to achieve similar conditions (like medium or high light).

2) clownloachfan - if you don't feed the plant any ferts, then what does it live off? I understand Nitrates and Phosphates (from fish waste), and maybe some parts of the micros from the tab, but nothing in measurted entities, no balance, no potassium, uneven and missing micros.

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks for the quick replies. I feel a little better. I am using about 2 1/2 inches of Eco-complete followed by a thin layer of natural gravel. As far as the "Ceylon", its a
Hygrophila polysperma. Its a quick growing- background plant that is a great nitrogen sponge. So far the fish are doing well. I had great sucess with using Bio-Spira on my first tank so hopefully things will be fine. As far as ferts, are Seachems Flourish and Flourish Excel good quality? They sell it my LFS and was going to buy some today. I guess I'll leave in the (2) 15 watt C. Flourescents and see how things go.

hb3133,

Nice substrate height . Let me ask you this: Do you have the gravel on top of the Eco or below it? If it is on top then I would assume that over time it will find its way to the lower parts of the substrate, larger objects tend to "sink" and the Eco contains lots of small particles.

Yeah, any Hygro will grow fast in the tank, but keep an eye open for it so you can avoid this plant taking over and shading all others Good idea on using this plant as a Nitrate sucker, it will help quite a bit with getting the tank established.

The Flourish product line (as there are more than just two) is of good quality, if I would not have dry ferts for my larger tanks then I for sure would use these (or the Kent products). You know that Excel is not a fertilizer though, right? It is a carbon based solution which gives the plants some C, another entity that plants need to thrive (water, ferts, carbon, lights).

Do me a favor and chek out the Seachem Freshwater Planted section. Look at all the different products that are available for plants, read about what they contain and what their purpose is. Afterwards we have a much easier time to communicate on which product may be useful for you.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club