Advice on kind for aquarium plants?
i am getting plants such as Anubias, Onion plants, anubias, wisteria, swordplants.
let me know what i need to buy (conditioner wise) to care for them.
I am doing a DIY co2 generator tomorrow, and i enjoy a 40 watt light for my 55 gallon tank.
Answers: remember don't use fast rising yeast...contained by your generator.
keeping plants is a tricky and fun game to play...
you have to balance pallid with ferts and co2 and a good substrate if your using a large light system which your not so you will be okay here.
If you have the money an eco-complete substrate is great and its rip and pour.
Black really sets the plants off nice too buts its up too you.
neutral is the tanks gas pedal and you have to match co2 to it and ferts, one of these is out and adjectives you grow is one or all six types of nasty algae.
build the generator for kicks but it won't do much for a 55 gallon container, there more for 20 gallon and lower but your running less than 1 wpg so the co2 naturally within the water should suffice,
Buy the flourish as soup advised but use it very terrifically sparingly as with your low light, fert uptake will be slow, overdose and algae comes in hastily.
heres a web site to help with upcoming algae issues...
http://theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
One of the tricks is.is to save the water circulating without it actually moving the surface, any surface agitation and co2 flys out of the reservoir during this gas exchange and all the co2 you made goes up in smoke.
but the reservoir doesn't really need it so no big deal.
get a timer for your table lamp, 3 bucks at a hardware store, 20 at the pet store lol.
I like 9 hours...but everyone is different.
make sure you enjoy the right light, the light in your ballast requests to be about 6700k, if its not, the plants will suffer and again algae will move in.
don't use fish to cure algae problems as they don't relief much. Otto's and amano shrimp will work hard but you won't see a visible change as they munch through micro algae not what you see.
with low light the key is leniency, the plants will grow just slower.
If you do well pressurized CO2 and a T5HO glo ballast added later beside some eco-complete and you can start growing some red, orange purple and yellow plants.
but what i just said would cost you nearly 300 for co2,150 in plants,120 in eco-complete, 60 in ferts and 175 for the twin T5HO GLO ballast..
around 800 bucks.
Some ancestors spend this first and just grow pounds of algae get mad and idle away alot of money...
just be patient, go to "the krib" theres is more info than you can read approximately what your getting into...
good luck!
You've got the lighting and CO2 under apposite control, so the only thing left to really verbs about is fertilizer, which isn't a huge deal, especially not for the plants you're looking at keeping. A broad, all around fertilizer like Flourish, Leaf Zone, Plant Gro, Flora Pride, etc. Flourish (which I use) is the most expensive initially, but it will actually finishing much longer than the others because it is so concentrated. As with all aquariums, you'll need a uncomplicated dechlorinator. Something that removes chlorine, heavy metals, and preferably neutralizes ammonia (which will come from the chloramine and potentially the water company itself). Prime and Amquel + are two of the more adjectives brands which do a superb job of neutralizing all of the above toxins.
