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I have a community setup with a gouromi, 10 neon tetras, 4 cherry barbs, 1 guppie, 2 cories, 4 shrimp, 2 kuhli loaches, 1 pleco. It has 260 watts for 12 hours a day. What kind of plants can i put in there? Also should i leave the light on for a longer time or shorter time?

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

With that kind of wattage you could probably have any kind of plant you want.

Wow, that's a lot of lights (almost 5 watts per gallon). With that much light you'll need to add CO2 to the tank, otherwise it will be algae heaven. Is it possible to reduce the lights on your current setup? If you can, I'd go with under 2wpg for a non-CO2 setup, or between 2-4wpg if you're adding pressurized CO2.

Once the light intensity is reduced, it's ok to leave it for 10-12 hrs a day.

-P

Hah lol it only has 130 watts, my bad. It has everything listed below, even CO2.

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

Sorry, didn't see "CO2 injection" in your original post.

With 130 watts you're a-ok (10-12 hours is fine). You should be able to put any low and medium light plants. Go to tropica website]http://www.tropica.com/[/link] or [link=plantgeek guide]http://www.aquaticgardensaustralia.com/[/link] and do an advance search to see a list of plants suitable for low and medium lights. Also don't forget to add fertilizers (both macros & micros) for your plants. A lot of us use the Estimative Index method for adding ferts - it works. You can read more about it [link=here. Ask more questions if you have any.

Good luck!

-P

Justin,

Just to clarify:

Hah lol it only has 130 watts, my bad. It has everything listed below, even CO2.
55gal Tank:Emperor 400 BioWheel filter,260 watt lights,C02 injection,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead and heater

So, what is it now? 130W or 260W ?

If it is 130W then upikabu gave you all the info needed. I would say medium light plants will do great in the tank.

If it is 260W then we should talk some more.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Why is there co2 injection if there's no plants

Or are there some in there already ?

If so what are they and how are they doing ?

I'm guesiing from your question if there are plants they ain't doing so good. In which case it's a nutrient issue rather then what kind of plants.

Lights fine for 12 hours max.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

You can grow medium light plants. I have 130w on my 55g...but no CO2, so I have major algae issues.

I have bacopa caroliniana, wisteria, crypts, anubias nana, dwarf sag, echinodorous tennellus, rotala rotundifolia, and ludwigia repens. Everything grows great...just slow.

Listen to these guys...they know their stuff.

*Kristin*

I have a few plants and they are doing ok. I couldn’t tell you the names of them that’s why I didn’t mention them. One set of plants has grown so tall its starting to fall over. It grew to the top of the tank and is now coming back down. The other set of plants are really small (they are suppose to be) and have algae growing on them. I just ordered these plants, tell me if it’s a little over kill please. http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/closed.cgi?view_closed_item&liveplantsb1141289399

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

Cabomba needs alot of light...and I think foxtail does also. You have 2.36wpg and CO2 so it may be ok. Maybe the plant experts can help on this one.

For the money it is a good deal IMO. Thats $1 a bunch...on most plant sites it is about $2 a bunch.

Check on the lighting requirements. If you have CO2 then they may do fine..even without bright light. I am not sure though.

*Kristin*

That's a good start, especially with the fast-growing, nutrient suckers like anacharis & hornwort. The anacharis, hornwort, red ludwigia (aka ludwigia repens) & cabomba should do fine in your tank given proper dose of nutrients (ferts).
Not sure about foxtail or "mermaid" (looks like mayaca?) - they may need higher light, but you'll find out. Someone else will be able to chime in with their experience.

What type of plant fertilizers do you have, if any? Have you read the EI article? It's probably time to start thinking about your dosing routine.

P.S. Also keep your CO2 in the 30ppm range.

-P

How do you keep your CO2 at a certain level? Also I have 4 different plant fertilizers: Seachem is the brand, Flourish Nitrogen, Flourish Iron, Flourish Potassium, Flourish Phosphorus. They all came in a kit and my LFS said would be a good start. I add the stuff once a week and on occasions only 1 every 2 weeks (I forget sometimes).

55gal Tank:130 watt coral lights,Eheim Wet/Dry 2227 Canister Filter,Powerhead, Co2 Injection and a heater.

How do you keep your CO2 at a certain level?

Measure your pH and KH and use this calculator to find out how much CO2 you have. Then adjust your bps (bubble per second) rate accordingly and test again until you get around 30ppm CO2.

Your LFS did good (a rarity). Flourish Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorus are your macro ferts. Flourish Iron and regular Flourish (did you get this in your kit as well? If not, you'll want to get it) are your micro ferts. You'll want to use all of them in conjuction. The goal is to maintain your macro levels around 10-20ppm NO3, 1-2ppm PO4, 10-30ppm K, and a consistent supply of micros (iron around 0.1-0.3ppm, others hard to measure). The dosing chart in Seachem website is a good start, but you may need to adjust some elements up or down depending on your fish load and plant mass. We can help you with that.

-P

Seachem is great, but to get levels of 15-20ppm of nitrate you have to add alot of flourish nitrogen

use this calculator
http://www.fishfriend.com/fertfriend.html

cynical

to get levels of 15-20ppm of nitrate you have to add alot of flourish nitrogen

Not necessarily - depending on your fish load and plant mass/nutrient uptake rate. It might be true in a lightly stocked, high plant mass, high tech (high light & CO2 injected) tank. In my fully stocked, heavily planted, low-light 42g, I never have to dose nitrate as the fish maintains it at 10-30ppm level constantly.

EDIT: Although cynical's point may be that to add the equivalent amount of nitrate, you'll be using much more of Flourish Nitrogen compared to a much cheaper, dry chemical alternative (KNO3). That's definitely something to consider once you run out of your current Seachem ferts.

-P