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Hi,
I have a 4 foot (190L/abut 50USG) tank that I have just bought some plants for. The Plants are:

Giant Val
Elodia
and an unknown type that has green & reddish/purple leaves.

How do I keep them healthy & growing? Do I need CO2? Do I need to fertilize?

The tank has a 40w fluoro light that is on for 2 hours in the morning and about 5-6 hours at night. It is in a fairly well lit room but, naturally, gets no direct sunlight. The tank is also very well filtered with a Fluval 304 and an Eheim 2213 on it.

I have put plants in this tank previously but they always go brown and die.

Thanks for any help or advice that you can offer.

)DASHMAN:88)

Its better to be hated for who you are...
Than loved for who you are not

Hi,

I think the problem you have is lighting and plant selection.

You are running about 1.25 Watts per gallon, and that is cosidered low light.

With that kind of light you may be able to only grow low light plants like:
Java Fern in any variatey
Java Moss
Anubias
Hornwort
Large-leaved Amazon Swordplant (Echinodorus Macrophyllus)
Radicans Swordplant (Echinodorus Cordifolius)
Saggitaria Subulata

Elodea and Vallisneria are hardy plants but they need above 2WPG to be happy.

You can check the folowing sites to check light profiles and choose among those.

[link=http://plantdatabase.qwertydigital.com/]http://plantdatabase.qwertydigital.com/" style="COLOR: #FFCC00[/link]
[link=http://www.tropica.com/default.asp]http://www.tropica.com/default.asp" style="COLOR: #FFCC00[/link]

Hey Dash. Welcome to plants! lol

You really should start off with reading that sticky on top of this forum, it's about starting plants etc.

You have less that 1 wpg those plants will not do very well and will eventually die.

At 1wpg your restricted to lowlight plants. Some of them include hornwort, crypts, java fern and moss.

But even for these plants (besides the java) you need to keep the lights on for a minimum of 8 hrs a day.

I find that timers on my lights make it very easy to know exactly how long they are on.

HTH

Last edited by Shannen at 03-Feb-2005 17:14

Ok,
Thanks for the advice.
Would I be able to increase the WPG by getting a stronger fluro? If so what should I get?
And thanks for the great links Falstaf they were very informative.

Thanks

DASHMAN:88)

Last edited by dashman at 03-Feb-2005 16:36

Its better to be hated for who you are...
Than loved for who you are not

Dash, Floro light's strength is determend by how long it is. You can get a glass top for your tank and add another strip light.