# New 14 gal Planted Tank



## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

So I just setup my frist planted tank. It's a little bit of a learning process for me so I thought I would get some help with a few of the obstacles I've run into thus far. Here's a few pictures showing my setup and some close-ups of my plants:

This is just the general setup of the tank. It's 14 gal with 50W heater set to about 82 degree F and an Aqueon Power Filter.









Just another shot of the tank without flash to who you my lighting which is one of my concerns. I have two 60W equivalent daylight spiral fluorescent bulbs. I'm thinking I probably have too much light because that's a total of 120W on a 14gal tank which is about 8.5W/gal. 









This is yet another concern of mine. I have an air stone in the tank and there is a huge accumulation of bubbles on the surface that aren't popping. I've read that this is caused by a scum like thing on the surface but I can't see anything on the surface. There aren't even any fish in the tank either (but I plan to eventually when I get the whole water situation fixed).









A picture of my hornwort in the corner. I just got it a few days ago and was wondering if it will "green up" a lot or do I need to add any fertilizers?









Picture of my wisteria. The bottom leaves seem a little brown which I can't remember if they were like this when I got them or not. I thought maybe they were dying with the large amount of light I had?









Finally, my java fern. I've seen some nice health pictures of these but mine appears to have some brown spots all over it.









So that's my setup thus far of my first planted tank and was wondering if anyone had some advice on solving some of my problems thus far or if they have any general advice that I may have forgotten about in setting up the tank.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Things seem to be getting a little better with my tank. I still have lots of bubbles on the surface of the water but they all seem to dissipate after 30 seconds or so when I shut of the air pump. I also removed one of the spiral fluorescent bulbs to see if it would have an effect on my plants; as they're plants I'm still waiting to see some change although it does appear that my hornwort is growing straight up to the surface now (hopefully it doesn't take over lol). 

I also transfered over several of my female guppies (6 I think) and some fry that were in my 33 gal tank with the male guppies. Still trying to catch one of my females (she's REALLy fast and knows where to hide so I can't get her). I'm hoping that maybe with a few fish in the tank the plants will have a few more nutrients and grow better.

As always, any help/suggestions will be greatly appreciated!


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Id lose the fake plant background, your live plants will be your background lol
Java fern grows horribly in gravel, does much better on wood. Get some wood, and attach the fern to it, the wood will make your tank look better and the java fern will grow much better.
You dont want a bubbler in your tank because plants live off co2, and bubblers release co2 out of your tank. Plants make oxygen, so you dont need a bubbler and its actually hurting your plants.
Also plants will die off a little bit when moved until they get their roots re established. thats prob whats going on with some of your plants


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## Revolution1221 (Apr 20, 2010)

all black background is the only way to go lol. ive kinda let my live planted tank go a little bit ive been so distracted by everything else that my 10 G is not the biggest concern.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Thanks for the tips, I only got that background the other day because I saw it on sale for $0.40 a foot lol. I will go out and get the driftwood asap; I was looking at a pet store the other day and one of the clerks just kinda blew me off when I asked if they had any driftwood so needless to say I won't be going back there. My java fern has a 'sporeling' (I guess that's what you call it) developing on one of it's leaves, I don't think you can see it in the picture very clearly, but when is the best time I should remove the sporeling and plant it elsewhere?

I suppose I will take out the bubbler and see how things go from there, I've thought about rigging up a DIY CO2 system but I hear they aren't really needed for smaller tanks? Also, is there a way you can test for the amount of CO2 dissolved in the water?

Thanks for the feedback


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

I wanted to point out that that is not 120W of light as people speak of it in the fish hobby. If someone tells you that you need 1w to 2w of light per gallon, they mean florescent lighting not incandescent (what those lights say they are equivalent to). Incandescent lights are almost NEVER used in fish keeping, and so nobody uses the wattage from those lights. 

Its more likely that you have like 18w of light in your tank, which would bring it down to that 1w - 2w per gallon range.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

I wouldnt invest in a Co2 system, just put fish in there, they will add enough fertilizer in that small of a tank. In most cases in a planted tank the more fish the better.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Ok I thought I would post a little update 

I've tried to take everyone's recommendations. I got rid of the bubble and that seems to be doing nice. I also got a piece of driftwood and I'm going to attempt to get my java fern to grow on it though the roots of it seem to be a bit clumped together and not sure if I can get it to grow properly. I kinda tucked it away a little so maybe it will take hold there. The hornwort in the back right is growing insanely; everyday I come home from I see that it's grown like another inch  But yea, I did add back in the extra light so now I have two spirally florescents that are 14W each lighting the tank. 

The only thing I haven't done is get a black background yet lol. I figured I will do this in time but it's kinda hard to find the right background as the tank is a tall version of a 10gal. But yea I think I spilled water down the backside of the tank and now parts of the background are "water stuck" to the back and appear brighter than the parts that are hanging away from the backside.

So yea.. here's a few of some of the pictures I just took after some reorganization from putting in the driftwood:


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Tank looks 10 times better with the driftwood in it, just get on that background lol You could always paint the back black if you want to but of course that makes it sort of permanent unless its a glass tank.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

I also se what looks like water sprite on the left am I right? If so water sprite is actually a floating plant and will die if rooted like that, I can already see that its not growing any leaves down the stalk because its trying to get to the top of the tank. It will actually float and grow its roots down into the water


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

It's actually water wisteria (or supposed to be lol). But yea, I got a few clumps of it and when I uprooted a few of the stalks while moving around that driftwood I noticed some nice white roots that had been growing into the gravel. 

But I'm like you, I didn't think it looked that great and I wasn't really seeing and new growth along the stalk except some little stringy things toward the bottom.

I think I may go buy that background next week after I'm done with final exams


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

looks great!!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

The background you've got will work if you get it all off or all on the glass. Take it off, clean the water spots and either tape it to the rim well off the glass, or cut it to fit between the trim, take a little Vaseline and spread it out, then stick it on using a credit card to smooth out the bubbles. Stuck to the glass, the background will look much brighter. Off the glass, will look a bit further off. Really, I like the paint the matte black idea. Cheap, and the fish like it.


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## Plecostomus (Jul 31, 2006)

It looks like you've got some mondo grass on the far right there. That plant isn't truly an aquatic plant and will eventually die unfortunately. Did you get your plants from Petsmart or something? Because I bought mondo grass from them too before I found out it wasn't aquatic. The other plants look good.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Plecostomus said:


> It looks like you've got some mondo grass on the far right there. That plant isn't truly an aquatic plant and will eventually die unfortunately. Did you get your plants from Petsmart or something? Because I bought mondo grass from them too before I found out it wasn't aquatic. The other plants look good.


It unfortunately is mondo grass. I seem to recall the same thing about it not being a true aquatic plant and I think I'm starting to see that as well; the grass isn't doing as good as the other plants and I notice some of the ends of the blades are a little frayed. Ah well, I guess I will just let it go to see how well it does.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

Yay! So I finally got the black background and wow, you all were right! The tank does seem to look a lot better; it even look really great without a background at all and just open in the back but unfortunately the cords in the back kinda deterred from that idea. 

So yea... all is up and running now. The only problems I sort of see now is maybe a little algae growth but I now put my pleco in the tank and everything seems to be clearing up already! 

My next project for the tank after I let it settle and run for a few weeks is to maybe introduce some small grass along the bottom of the tank and possibly transplanting some of my plants into my larger aquarium. Other than that though everything seems good.




























(ugh... can't wait until I get a new camera, mine is like 6+ years old)


Thanks for the advice everyone! :fish:


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## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Very pretty, im sure it will look great after those plants start to really grow and fill in. My only warning is to be carefull about the plants you have that have needles (like a pine tree) as they will drop those as they grow, (kinda like a tree drops its leaves) and you will have a big mess on your hands if you dont keep on top of it. I know this because i had those exact plants in two of my tanks and they both dirtied up my tanks.


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## swordtail36 (Aug 16, 2010)

Patrico12345, I love your tank. You need to come to my house and set me up a tank like yours lol.


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## Patrico12345 (Aug 3, 2010)

I've been pretty sure to make sure I vacuum the gravel often and I pick out any plant debris that I see floating on the surface so hopefully that will help out a lot!

Thank you for the compliment swordtail36. It was relatively easy and cheap to setup a planted tank like this. I got the tank on sale from Petco for $40 which included all the basics (even a heater) and I got a bit of gravel and then found my Daylight lights at Home Depot. After that I did a little research on plants to find which ones were adequate with the lighting I had and presto! All done!


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