Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: graygang on October 01, 2013, 12:51:11 PM
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Iv just set up my first planted tank last nite and it looks amaZing if I do say so myself ! :)
It's a 54 litre (dimensions 60 by 30)I used tropicas plant growth substrate and capped it with a sand and fine gravel mix which I got from pets at home.
I have a 25- 30 watt lighting unit but could only find a 15 watt light that fits the length of the tank which I'm annoyed about .
Another thing is I got my plants from pets at home and tbf they all seems to be good quality but non of the staff new the names ,I got some dwarf hair grass, and the rest I can only try to match of pictures I see on the internet.
I have no co2 but om thinking about either the liquid form , or tropicas disposable co2 any recommendations would be helpful .
I also need to pick ups some fertilizer in the next few days.
I have a heater running and my filter which has been running in my 80 litre Afew weeks ,but thinking of changing it because it's crazy loud !
I would just like some info on the lighting situation any tips on sand and co2.
The plants are pearling already wich I assume is a good thing
Any information,opinions and questions are welcome .oh and if any one nos the names of the plants the would be great il try post a picture
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Pearling is when your plants are receiving enough light and CO2 to actually produce lots of O2 and that is not what is happening at the moment in your tank. It is just air bubbles trapped from setting it up and is very common.
If they were pearling you wouldn't need any more light, fertiliser or CO2.
The last time I was in P@H their plants were Tropica plants, all with name labels in. It's strange your store has removed them. You could try browsing the Tropica site here (http://www.tropica.com/en/plants.aspx) as at least the stock should match.
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Aah I see, and Yeh the hair grass was labelled but the rest wernt.
Have you any experience or knowledge on the disposable co2 ?
Or liquid form?
And they also have the tropica plant fertilizer in there so I will probably get that on a few days
Last question do you think the light I have is okay for the time being?
Thx for the reply
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I'm sorry, I've not got any CO2 addition in my tank - so I don't know.
As for the light.... you'll see the Tropica site has split the plants into easy, medium and difficult ones. If your plants are in the easy section then they tend to OK in the lower light.
Remember - a plant will only grow as fast as the 'smallest' condition will allow. So you can pump as much fertiliser and CO2 into your tank as you like, but the plants won't grow if there's not enough light. You need to get the light, CO2 and nutrients in balance for the plants to grow best. If you don't, you tend to grow algae instead.