Help With Plants

[Chaos553]

Yeaaaaahhhhh I've been gone for a few months due to summer work for school as well as homework and my new job and my friends. Sorry I've been away for so long guys =(, won't do it again, i promise

Anyway, I've had a planted tank for a bit and it's doing terrible. I'm not sure if it's the filter, the sand, or the plant nutrition. I'm aware that the lighting is alright since I checked with someone a while back when I set it up. Right now there's a nicely grown small Anubias plant along with a smaller amazon. The amazon is starting to brown up, but has new leaves growing through the middle so I'm going to clip the dead leaves tonight.

I really wanted to put the amazon in my 38g but i already have a mammoth centerpiece as well as a tiny garden of cryptocornes (i think i spelled it right). I was really wondering what a good plant nutrient is, since I haven't used one in quite a while and I really want to see my cryptocornes start growing, as well as my centerpiece amazon get a little larger. I do not have recent pics due to the fact of a crappy camera, but I'll post up pics as soon as I can find a decent camera. Help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

[JustOneMore20]

What size tank and how much light do you have over the tank where the plants aren't doing well?

A good fertilizer for low light tanks is Flourish (just the regular kind).

IME Amazon swords are not low light plants....they really grow better with atleast 2 watts per gallon or more lighting (will need more in smaller tanks, but Amazons will outgrow them). You may want to dose some Potassium as well as the regular Flourish, since swords especially can show deficiencies. I'm gonna guess though, that the reason your sword isn't doing well is the lighting.

A nutrient rich substrate also helps, but if you don't have one now, you may not want to switch over to one in an established tank.

[Chaos553]

You're probably right about the lighting, even though my anubias is doing pretty well, probably since it's a low-light plant correct?

My huge amazon is growing at an awesome pace, not to fast not to slow, so I'm not too worried about it.

As for fertilizer use, since I've never bought or used it, how to you apply it to a tank because wouldn't it get messy? I'm a plant noob I'm sorry lol.

And as for rich substrate are you referring to something like gravel? Sand gives my planted tank a nice color, but it's such a pain to clean the algae off of so I'm probably going to switch back to gravel sometime soon.

[JustOneMore20]

Correct, Anubias are low light plants.

If you use Flourish, its liquid and you'll just measure the amount you need. Its hard to measure it in smaller tanks, but you can kind of guess. I believe with the regular Flourish, one capful is good for 60 gallons, so for a 30g tank, use half a cap. For a 10g, use about 1/6th of the cap (definitely have to eyeball it with this one). If you wanted to use a syringe to dose it, you could, to be exact.

If you buy flourish potassium, its liquid as well and you just use the cap to dose it.

Nutrients for planted tanks and real "fertilizers" for gardens and such are different. Even though they are called the same thing.

And as for rich substrate are you referring to something like gravel? Sand gives my planted tank a nice color, but it's such a pain to clean the algae off of so I'm probably going to switch back to gravel sometime soon

I'm referring to a nutrient rich substrate....like those made for planted tanks: Eco Complete, Flourite, ADA Aquasoil, and even Soilmaster select. The last one isn't made for planted tanks. Its actually a clay based product used to soak up water on baseball fields, but it absorbs nutrients and holds them in, which makes it good for planted tanks. You can find the first 2 at most LFS. The third (Aquasoil) comes from http://www.adgshop.com and the fourth from http://www.lesco.com.

You don't have to have a nutrient rich substrate to grow plants, but it really helps. For the swords, the sand may be the problem. They seem to grow well in regular gravel, since it accumulates mulm/fish waste which is used as nutrients....sand doesn't do that.

[Chaos553]

Yea I realized how messy and obnoxious sand becomes, even though it really dazzles a tank.

I believe I bought Flourish a while back when I FIRST started getting live plants and I overused it making the ammonia levels rocket off the chart even though the watersprite I did have over grew my tank, so I had to throw it out because it started browning up.

What would be a good lighting fixture for a 38g with my amazon and the garden of crypts? At the moment the bulb reads as a 36" 20 watt Flourescent bulb. Thanks for your previous help btw.

[JustOneMore20]

My suggestion for a light fixture for the 38g would be a 96w compact fluorescent fixture, like this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...8&pcatid=11418. That will allow you to grow a variety of plants and not necessarily have to run CO2.

[Chaos553]

Is it really that expensive for a 36" 90w bulb?! Is that the hood fixture along with the bulb, or the bulb itself? I'm sure its alot less if it's just the bulb.

[JustOneMore20]

Thats the fixture and the bulb. A 96w bulb won't fit in your current fixture though, so you'll need to buy another fixture to get more wattage.

[Chaos553]

Oh alright. Thanks for the help