would love a planted tank but..

[ncassells]

i can never get a plant to live longer than 3 weeks, except for anubis...

i have a
330L tank 122x46x61(cm)
2 x external canisters adding up to 1500Lp/h
2 x 250w heaters
Undergravel filter (after reading some, found i shouldnt really be having this running if i want plants to survive)
3' aqua one tube white light. 30W, 230-240V
use a liquid fertiliser that contains iron and other minerals
5" thick layer of gravel.

tank gets 9 hours of light a day, and the light sits approx 5" above water level.

water parameters are all fine (i think), need to get gh and kh tested at my LFS, and the pH is currently at 6

all i want is for my plants to not die...

[wombat1100]

Bring your ph up for a start, you want at least 7.0 for most fish anyway and the plants seem to like it there better in my experience, try getting a 4 foot light and lower it closer to the tank if possible. Deep tanks seem to have trouble getting the light down to the plants.

[joz]

Possibly get a light reflector wi9th 2x 4' tubes.
If $$ are a concern ,buy some tri-phos daylight tubes.They DO grow plants.

[ncassells]

Bring your ph up for a start, you want at least 7.0 for most fish anyway and the plants seem to like it there better in my experience, try getting a 4 foot light and lower it closer to the tank if possible. Deep tanks seem to have trouble getting the light down to the plants.


Possibly get a light reflector wi9th 2x 4' tubes.
If $$ are a concern ,buy some tri-phos daylight tubes.They DO grow plants.

do i just do a water change and add less general conditioner to the water to bring up the ph?

and the tube is on a reflector, its as close to the tank as possible (sitting on top of it). money isnt a concern at all, what items would you suggest.
also, does having the underwater filter really make that much difference to whether or not the plants thrive?

[joz]

many people have different methods with planted tanks.
So this is my approach.

Ph approx 6.6-6.8

Ferts ,I use Flourish Excel.


Lighting,I have an 8' tank so I use 2 twin reflectors with Daylight tubes (T8's).It is 750mm deep and plants grow quite well.
Lights are on for 10 hours/day.

Because I replace them once a year the cost is minimal compared to the T5's which cost approx 7-8 times as much.But I do agree that T5 are better,especially the High Output tubes.

I use cannister filters only these days and avoid undergravel and trickle (especially if using CO2)

CO2, it works! even though I'm not using it atm (lazy)


My tank...
http://www.thefishtank.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1203944049 (http://www.thefishtank.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=10&d=1177731200)

[Batty]

Awesome tank joz

[joz]

Awesome tank joz

Thanks.........:)

[joz]

After this thread I was looking at my tank and realised that I hadn't changed my tubes for over a year.I usually change them every new year.

So I was thinking that my plants could be doing a bit better.
Went down to Beacon Lighting and bought 4 x 4' Tri-Phos daylight tubes for the pricely sum of $14.00. I had really forgotten how cheap they are.

Mixed up some DIY CO2 mix so I'll wait and see what happens.Hopefully before long I'll see that stream of oygen bubbles sprinking from all the leaves.:)

[ncassells]

After this thread I was looking at my tank and realised that I hadn't changed my tubes for over a year.I usually change them every new year.

So I was thinking that my plants could be doing a bit better.
Went down to Beacon Lighting and bought 4 x 4' Tri-Phos daylight tubes for the pricely sum of $14.00. I had really forgotten how cheap they are.

Mixed up some DIY CO2 mix so I'll wait and see what happens.Hopefully before long I'll see that stream of oygen bubbles sprinking from all the leaves.:)
wish i could figure out how to get this happening for my tank..
im fairly sure my fish eat all my plants too...
just ordered a 4' light with double t5 55watt white globes... hopefully this helps out a bit

[joz]

you want daylight tubes only, not warm or cool white.
Without getting aquarium dedicated tubes daylight are the only ones that will work with plants.

edit...I see your getting T5s not the regular T8s that I buy.

[tetratim]

My tank is the exact same size as yours...i use not special gravel, no co2, but i do fortnight water change and use 2 power glo lights and look what happens!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49968812@N07/

Cheers

[Jerk Face]

You need more light mate, the old addige is you need at least 1 watt of light per litre to grow plants. To keep my plants happy & to keep the alge at bay I have 900 watts of lighting over a 300litre tank. Tube types dont matter, Daylight tubes glow the nicest in my opinion.

[Batty]

need to replace my tubes too, may pop into local light showroom tomorrow.

[jannypan]

If $$ are a concern ,buy some tri-phos daylight tubes.They DO grow plants.

[Edu]

Also have a think about the types of plants your using, most anything from the sword family are hardy hard to kill much like the Anubis. Google "easy" "Beginner" plants and you get lots of hits. Start with these varieties and build your skills up, stay away from ones with ccoloured stems / leaves.
In all honesty I have had plants thrive in acid tanks as well as alkaline, so I have never concerned myself with PH too much - focus here is more to what’s best for fish rather than plants.
Honestly the answer to your issue lies in your post, think about plants in nature. They grow in summer during the longer days, root/leaf growth and build up stores of sugars for reproduction. In the world of hydroponics you lengthen the light cycle for growth and shorten to make plants fruit (reproduce). Anubis are slow growers that do fine in low light so based on the plants you can grow and the info provided my 2 cents would be down to three points.
1) Pick hardy plants
2) Your already looking at purchasing a new light and reflector, go with one that has multiple T5 bulbs. Make one of the bulbs a blue spectrum plant friendly bulb, check out the lighting section on this forum as I’m sure there will be some great advise in there. Why Blue? Because at 61cm your tank is reasonably deep and blue light travels through water the furthest. Think of the water being a light filter, the deeper you go the more light from the red spectrum is filtered out, blue gets down deeper into your tank.
3) Increase your light cycle to 12hrs, you want these guys to grow not fruit, at 8hrs of light plants will fruit and 10+ they grow...9 is not enough.

[bayshoreaq]

Yes, its absolutely true that without getting aquarium dedicated tubes daylight are the only ones that will work with plants.

[Stew_822]

I wouldn't mess with the pH if everything's going alright as it is. I don't think the plants would be affected too bad by it, and if you do want to raise it, DON'T use chemicals; you could put some crushed coral in the filter, that'd raise it t 7.5 over a few weeks so the fish don't get hurt.