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That looks great!! How tall is your tank? My tank is 18" tall and my bacopa goes nowhere near the surface of the water yet. It is pretty short right now. It is getting some very green baby leaves on the top so maybe it will get taller? The tallest plant right now is the anacharis and my over grown nyphaea lilly that I have to keep pruning, other than that I'm just nursing everything along hoping the background plnats will get taller.....I'm not very patient.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I've been following most of that thread....whew, what an operation!!

My tank dimensions are 30"L x 12"W x 18"H for a total of roughly 29 gallons (I round to 30 ) I have a 28" long twin tube fixture with two 24" 20w Lifeglo tubes for a total of 40w. The Lifeglo tubes are 6700k each, according the package---good for plants. Where am I on lights?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Any one???

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

crazyred,

Sorry it took me while to get back to you, haven’t been on all evening.

One thing upfront: if you have a 29G, don’t round as it makes it much easier to identify your dimensions when being exact (I think there is only one standard shape for the 29G). And I have one too .

Where are you on lights? Sorry, but you are closer to the low end than the middle of intensity. You got the right temperature (6,700K) but not enough wattage.

As I said, same tank as one of mine. I had 40W when I started, but switched along the way to a 65W Power Compact. Look at the pictures and read the entries in [link=My 29G Log]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Aquascaping/61406.html" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] and you will notice exactly when the switch came.

Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi,
Total your wattage (2x40=80) and divide that by
the capacity of the tank 80/29=2.8wpg

~1-1.5 wpg = low light
~2-3 wpg = medium light
~3+ wpg = high light

Your tank is great for low and medium plants with some
high light plants as well.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 19-Nov-2005 22:30

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Frank,

If I am not mistaken then Crazyred has 2x20W and not 2x40W.

As such Crazyred is more around 1.3wpg and in low light range. But I know the setup very well as I had the same and some plants that are considered mid light will grow as well.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Ingo's right Frank, I have 2 x 20 W......I will look into getting a PC, I have my eyes on one that is 65 W I believe. Money is an issue, but I'm saving and Christmas is coming So far the plants look really good....even the bacopa is putting on new leaves.

I will cease to round the capacity of my tank. I understand what you mean about exact tank measurements, and a 30 is not the same as a 29....sorry, my bad.

I appreciate all the help y'all have given, I really want these plants to do well, so I will do upgrades. The only thing I'm not going to be able to do is CO2.....the location of the tank will not allow for it, but I might try a DIY set-up. The fish look like they are nibbling on the anacharis...is this a plant that fish view as snack food? If so, what to do?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Hi,
Ah well .. My Bad.
Should stop doing math without a cup of coffee, and
not rubbing the sleep from my eyes. At least the
chart is right and I showed the concept of computing
your wpg right.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

That's okay Frank, I lose track of these things myself and it's my tank!! I was checking my plants ealier and my bacopa is not only putting on leaves, but it is sending out little roots too. If any plant in that tank was going to go south I figure it would be that one. The sword rosette looks good too. None of my plants looks pitiful yet. Maybe I can do this "planted tank" thing.

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Nov-2005 14:04

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Hey crazyred,

In case you haven't seen it yet, I added Bacopa to [link=My 29G]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Aquascaping/61406_3.html" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] over the weekend as well. I am sure it will do great in your tank.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

AFTER:

crazyred attached this image:

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

crazyred,

See, that is the beauty &#8211; I have a 29G, you have one &#8211; yours is 18&#8221;, mine is 18&#8221;. There is only one set of dimensions for a 29G, that&#8217;s why I was so nit picky about you calling it a 30G .

Well, mine came from my big tank, [link=Linked Here]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Planted%20Aquaria/64425.html?200511211323" style="COLOR: #ff6633[/link] if you would like to take a look. That is why it is already so big. Also, keep in mind that I have over 2wpg.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I guess patience will have to be something I get good at. I ordered my plants from online and they came to me this size. The only plants in the tank before were the two nymphaea lillies (one growing better than the other) and some scraggly looking aponogetons. The new plants have been in there for about a week, so I'm not worried yet. My Amazon sword is putting on so many leaves that thins going to be monster. It's been in there 3 weeks.


I got it now about the tank gallon/dimension thing....thanks for pointing it out, I never even thought about it.

Last edited by crazyred at 21-Nov-2005 16:45

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I have another question....we were talking about the prospect of me being "trateless" (ie. plants would use up nitrates leaving me high and dry) and having to dose KNO3 to make up the difference. Well, I tested my water this evening thinking I would be fairly low because of the plants, but my nitrates were 40 ppm just like they always are the day of my regular weekly water change.

Question: Why are my plants not sucking up my nitrates? They all look healthy and are doing pretty well, but they are not impacting my nitrate levels at all. Just for the record, there are no nitrates in my tap water (I've checked). Any ideas on why my plants ain't using my 'trates?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

I'm surprised you have that much nitrate with Anacharis in there, especially since you said it's growing. Everytime I put Anacharis in any of my tank, the nitrate would plummet to almost nothing in less than a week. Are you sure your nitrate test kit is accurate? What's your fish stocking and feeding routine like? It's possible that if you have a lot of fish and/or feed a lot, the nitrate being produced is much more than the plants could consume.

Oh, and another thing I've noticed - you said you add Flourish Excel to the tank. Do you notice any changes in appearance to the Anacharis ever since you did that? IME that plant is extremely sensitive to Excel (also mentioned at the plantgeek.net profile). The lower leaves would immediately rot away.

Last edited by upikabu at 22-Nov-2005 21:03

Last edited by upikabu at 22-Nov-2005 21:04

-P

Well, some of the bottom leaves have fallen away, but I guess I chalked it up to shippin/planting stress, but they're not rotting away....maybe a little brown, but there is all kinds of green, new growth at the top.

I have cut back on the fish food, because I was overfeeding a tad. I'm pretty well stocked too (probably overstocked--check profile ), so maybe that keeps my nitrates up. Is this a problem for the plants? I'm probably not going to worry about KNO3 in my case. Should I quit using the Excel? I've heard that since it's a liquid form of carbon it helps when there is no CO2 being injected. Is this wrong too?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Yup, the browning/falling away of bottom leaves is most likely due to Excel (mine stayed green all the way through before I added Excel, even under less than 1wpg lighting).

How much Excel are you adding and how often? I heard Excel only lasts for about 24 hours, and once I stopped using it on my tank, the Anacharis resumes its normal growth on top. With your current (low) lighting, Excel is a good CO2 substitute. I use it on all my low-light tanks with good results (actually ended up throwing out all my Anacharis just so I could keep adding Excel ). If you don't mind pruning the Anacharis regularly and throwing out the rotting stems, you could continue with Excel. I'd probably space out the addition though (maybe every 2-3 days) so that it's less stress on the Anacharis (and you!).

The high nitrate is probably due to the overfeeding (stocking should be alright with the amount of plants you have). As long as you do regular (weekly) water changes, you should be alright, especially since you've cut back on the feeding. Perhaps check the nitrate a few days after your next water change (50%) and see if it remains that high.

Last edited by upikabu at 22-Nov-2005 22:08

-P

Sounds like a good plan. Thanks for the heads up on that Excel, I never would have caught that. I've only been using the Excel every other day or so 5 mL at a time, but I could cut back to once or twice a week with no problem....the other plants look great.

I did do my usual water change tonight (25%) and the 'trates are down to 15 ppm. I've never let them go over 40 ppm. Overfeeding has been wrecking havoc on my water params....I was battling elevated nitrites for a while (never more than .5 ppm, but my tank has been cycled for months ) and I linked it to the overfeeding. I love to watch my babies eat, but I know better now and am correcting the situation. This plant deal is nice, but there sure is more to worry about now, but doesn't the tank look better?

Even hubby noticed....he went to a buddy's house and they had a tank that was the same size, he said he couldn't believe the difference, because his buddy's tank was so bare----only two plastic plants and a couple of fish. Hubby's been spoiled looking at my tank all this time.

Last edited by crazyred at 22-Nov-2005 22:26

Last edited by crazyred at 22-Nov-2005 22:27

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

No problem - I didn't know myself until I happen to see that blurb in plantgeek profile (and confirmed with Seachem). It was too late by then, but at least it made sense of what happened.

Planted tanks are definitely worth the extra effort. I've only "seen the light" about 5 months ago but can't imagine going back to plastic plants (reminds me, I have to do something about my huge bag of plastic plants). I can totally relate to the change in spouse interest too - my wife has taken a renewed interest in my tanks ever since I switched to live plants (which she never did in all my years of fishkeeping). I just made sure my best-looking tank is near the kitchen where she looks at it all day.

-P

Okay, I just did some research at plantgeek.com (love that URL) and here's what I came up with on light requirements for the plants in question:

Amazon Sword: Medium-Medium/High
Corkscrew Vallisneria: Medium
Dwarf Sag.: Medium
Bacopa Caroliniana: Medium
Sword Rosette: Medium

The only one I see that looks like a problem is the amazon sword with the medium/high requirement, but it is putting on new leaves like crazy. I'm assuming that 1.5 wpg is medium lighting conditions. Perhaps not.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."