# I need a little help, would be most appreciated



## Delthane (Sep 2, 2008)

Hello everyone, I need some help on my planted tank, I will give as many details as I can.

20 Gallon tank
24" long 12" wide 16" High

Lighting
Flora-Glo 2800K Bulb 15W more infohttp://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=112&PROD_ID=01016140020101
Lights on for 12 hours

Water Parameters
I'm not really sure what to put here, I do know being Rockford, IL Well water the ph is approx 8.5

Fertilization
I don't have a CO2 system, if someone could recommend a cheap effective one for my tank id appreciate it.
For Nutrients I'm using Fertilizer spikes 16-9-12 in my basic black substrate 

Plants
Cabomba
Wisteria
Anacharis
Another plant I don't remember the name of
and what Top Fin called Amazon swords (though i doubt it)

My problems are that my plants don't seem to be growing all that fast and the Cabomba seems to have problems establishing a root system and the tops of the stems are breaking off. The anacahris keeps getting uprooted by my corries or golden mystery snails same for the plant whose name I forget. The wisteria is doing fairly decent, though it doesn't have leaves on the lower portions of the stem. The so called amazon sword sometimes have a problem where the leaves die off, becoming almost completely transparent.

As you can see I have quite a few problems. I've considered giving my mystery snails to my landlords wife though if someone can give suggestions on solutions for their rampant devouring of my plant stems and leaves I'd love to hear it. Also if anyone can recommend some good ground cover plants and where to get them that would be extremely appreciated.

Please also ask me for anymore details you might need and I will try to supply them as best as I can


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2008)

Welcome to Fish Forums!


The main problem I see is that you have really low lighting. Plants fall into categories of low, medium, and high lighting. Some people use the watt per gallon rule and some don't. I think its a good starting point. Low lighting is around 1.5 watt per gallon and under, with under 1wpg being pretty low. But, you still have plant choices there.

You have about .75wpg, so you see where I'm coming from with the low lighting being your problem?

Cabomba, Wisteria, and Swords need more wattage than you have. Each of those should thrive in around 2 watts per gallon or more (meaning 40 watts or more over your 20g). That is why they aren't growing well.

Anacharis usually does ok in low lighting, but I believe your lighting may even be a tad low for it. It doesn't stay planted well and if you wanted could leave it floating. When I had Anacharis in one of my tanks, I never could get it to stay planted for long.

At this point, I wouldn't try co2. Your lighting is definitely the issue I see and really you don't need co2 until you get over about 2 watts per gallon. You could try it, but I really don't think it would make a difference.

Is there any way you could increase your wattage? You would have to get a different fixture, since your fixture wouldn't take any higher wattage bulb. That would be the way to get your current plants growing again.

If you can't upgrade, then you could try some different plants. Java ferns, Anubias, and Cryptocorynes usually grow ok in pretty low lighting. The first 2 need to be tied to wood or rocks.


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## TBS_Dave (Oct 6, 2008)

You could use a little more light on the tank. There is no need to go crazy buying made for aquarium lighting. Go to your local home improvement store and but a strip light, something w/ 2 bulbs, this only really works if you have glass tops or no tops as the plastic hoods tend not to be too accomodating. Get the highest wattage bulb you can for the fixture, probably 20 watt per bulb if my memory serves me correctly. If it doesn't match your tank, feel free to spray paint the fixture to match. Now keep in mind w/ adding that much more light to the tank something that can happen is an algal bloom. There are different ways to combat this, what works for me is cycling the time the lights are on. I have mine come on @ about 9 in the morning, off a little after noon, back on again around 5 then off @ 11. it works for me, but definately experiment to find out what works for you. Also, more plants will help out compete any algae for nutrients. To help keep the anacharis rooted, this is what works for me w/ all my stem plants, seperate them, and make sure to push enough of the stem down in the gravel to hold the plant, I tend to push 1.5"ish. Now, I don't use any ferts in my tanks, but I also have a substrate that was designed for plant growth. I don't use any CO2 injection and my plants grow just fine, but others swear by it, it's a case of what works for some doesn't for others. A good person to get some ground cover is a guy known as Thorny. his e-mail is [email protected], he'll hook you up. Any other questions just ask


btw, the fixtures not made specifically for aquariums are actually quite cheap. 4 foot double lamp strips can be picked up for under 10 bucks!


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## Delthane (Sep 2, 2008)

Advice here and in the chat MOST appreciated Kristin

Ill take that under advisement Dave, good thing i dont have any jumpers, i may be able to DIY this lighting fixture


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## TBS_Dave (Oct 6, 2008)

if you are worried about jumpers you could probably pick up a glass top for cheap at your local pet store, big boxes are cheaper than your lfs, or you could even call your local glass shop. just give them the dimensions and what you are doing and they should be able to help you out for rather cheap as well.


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2008)

There is a site that sells retrofit kits that might fit into you current hood. But, they are about as expensive (or more with shipping) than a new fixture....so I didn't mention it. Plus it would mean gutting your current hood and fixing this kit into it, which isn't terribly hard, but it would be really close to the water and compact fluorescent fixtures don't need to be right against glass (but reg. fluorescent is ok) and elevated CF fixtures.


If you want to look into it though, the site is ahsupply.com.


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## thorny (Jan 19, 2005)

TBS_Dave said:


> You could use a little more light on the tank. There is no need to go crazy buying made for aquarium lighting. Go to your local home improvement store and but a strip light, something w/ 2 bulbs, this only really works if you have glass tops or no tops as the plastic hoods tend not to be too accomodating. Get the highest wattage bulb you can for the fixture, probably 20 watt per bulb if my memory serves me correctly. If it doesn't match your tank, feel free to spray paint the fixture to match. Now keep in mind w/ adding that much more light to the tank something that can happen is an algal bloom. There are different ways to combat this, what works for me is cycling the time the lights are on. I have mine come on @ about 9 in the morning, off a little after noon, back on again around 5 then off @ 11. it works for me, but definately experiment to find out what works for you. Also, more plants will help out compete any algae for nutrients. To help keep the anacharis rooted, this is what works for me w/ all my stem plants, seperate them, and make sure to push enough of the stem down in the gravel to hold the plant, I tend to push 1.5"ish. Now, I don't use any ferts in my tanks, but I also have a substrate that was designed for plant growth. I don't use any CO2 injection and my plants grow just fine, but others swear by it, it's a case of what works for some doesn't for others. A good person to get some ground cover is a guy known as Thorny. his e-mail is [email protected], he'll hook you up. Any other questions just ask
> 
> 
> btw, the fixtures not made specifically for aquariums are actually quite cheap. 4 foot double lamp strips can be picked up for under 10 bucks!


Plants start to take up nutrients when the lights come on. Algae on the other hand sees the lights come on and starts to do its stretching excerises and warm up, kill the lights after 4 or 5 hours and algae will cuss you out every time. Like that bonehead said cycle the lights on a timer and you'll solve most of your algae problems.

Ok TBS it would seem logical to have your lights come on when you are home in the morning, so unless you're keeping bankers hours I'd have them come on around 5:30am while I'm drinking coffee and getting ready to run out the door.

Oh yeah thanks for the plug Dave, but in a month I will be set up for 3 times the curent volume. I just hope this country holds together while I goof around.


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## fishboy23 (Feb 18, 2006)

TBS_Dave said:


> if you are worried about jumpers you could probably pick up a glass top for cheap at your local pet store, big boxes are cheaper than your lfs, or you could even call your local glass shop. just give them the dimensions and what you are doing and they should be able to help you out for rather cheap as well.


Going further with this, local glass shop is a GREAT idea, one that I have used multiple times with great success. I basically drew up a blueprint of what I wanted, labeled with dimensions (in inches, the old guys that run those places hate metric) and went over to this handy little place a couple blocks away. They picked up a piece of scrap 1/4" glass, looked at my blueprint, made a quick modification so they wouldn't have to get out the drill, a couple cuts, and $2 later (that's right $2!) I was on my way home with a custom-cut 10 gallon lid of 1/4" glass...best $2 ever to go into that tank.


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## Delthane (Sep 2, 2008)

Thank you all. Its very nice to find such a place where trolls are basically non-existent and the people are friendly and have great amounts of knowledge. I leave my lights on 12 hours a day, but I dont have an algae problem. I used to have some brownish algae on the back wall of my tank, but that vanished when I got live plants with snails on them. Thorny do you have anything that would grow decent in the light conditions I have? I recently got laid off and need to try and spend as little as possible to keep my head above water so to speak.


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