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Ok, been meaning to post this for ages, here goes.

This 37G is my first tank. I got it for last Christmas , and it has been doing fine fish-wise (except that for some reason guppies don't like it).
The main problem with it is that I have had absolutely no luck at all with plants. At first I thought this may have been something to do with my low lighting, but I got a second tube giving me 2wpg and still everything went brown. There is no CO2, which I will fix soon, but I think the main reason for my appalling death rate for plants is the gravel. Tt is very small (1-2mm) with not a lot of water circulation. Seeing as Christmas is coming up I thought I should get some stuff to deal with it.

Also I have a major algae (green furry stuff) problem. Now for some pics...

Vaguely sucessful
This sad remainder used to practically take up a third of the tank, but got covered in algae and all the leaves fell off
Hygro
The only other plant besides the java fern to survive, and this is out of sight
Plastic
This is one of the plastic sheets that divides the water from the lights. Is it too dirty?
Tank-right
The right side of my tank. The java fern is the only thing to have survived for a year.
Tank-left
The left side of my tank
A year ago
This is the tank when first set up, no fish. The nly plant to have survived thus far is, as I've said, the java fern.

Now: What do I have to do, and buy, to make this tank suitable for plants? Lets say the target plant is Cabomba.

Thanks in advance!

Where are your plastic rims? The tank looks as if it should explode.

Anyways if the gravel is too small you may have difficulty growing some plants. I tried growing plants in sand and was quite unsuccessfull. But you can always grow anubias plants and java moss and ferns no matter what substrate you have. Just anchor them to a rock or driftwood. I'd also suggest growing more of the plants that you've had some success with.

And about the algae....get more plants. That's it. More plants. CO2 helps, but only if you have a ton of plants.

Last edited by mattyboombatty at 12-Nov-2005 11:32

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

So, what are your tank parameters? The basics are: pH and temperature but see if you can provide KH. At what temperature do you keep the tank? You indicate that the tank has 2 wpg, how many hours are the lights on?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Temp is usually 25 degress centigrade. Ph I havn't checked in a while, I'll check that tomorrow. The lights are on I think from 11 or 10am to 10pm, with about 3 hours of only 1 light being on.

*bump*
ph is a bit low I think. Getting it tested since I lost the ph test kit.

I am very much the beginner at aquascaping, expert at killing plants not so hot at anything else - just wanted to help a fellow fluval user!

this website is very good

http://www.aquabotanic.com/begin.htm

And I don't know is this the right plant exactly but is this any help?

http://www.tropica.dk/productcard_1.asp?id=015

GFG

ps if you click on the bit that says "plant Pictures" you get loads and loads and loads and loads of plants to look at.

Good luck.

Last edited by goldfishgeek at 14-Nov-2005 16:26

Last edited by goldfishgeek at 14-Nov-2005 16:28

_______________________________________
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey S. Firestone

Well I went ahead and got the pH tested, turns out it was about 8. Maybe the fact that the sample was taken in an old chutney jar screwed it up, but it was washe pretty thoroughly.

Then I bought a few plants, here's my tank now:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/communisthamster/plantedtank002.jpg