# Need help setting up/maintaining planted aquarium



## Pyro (Nov 20, 2005)

Hey everyone, I'm extremely new to the hobby of aquariums in general and maintaining plants in the aquarium. I've visited other forums and read a fair ammount of articles on the hobby, but I'm still having trouble with fertilization, CO2, and how to maintain a properly balanced aquarium. Here's what I have so far.

29 gallon all-glass tank (2.24 WPG)
65 watt Sattelite Power Compact Light (Dual 6700k/10000k Daylight bulb)
15 lbs. Eco Complete with added layer of gravel on top
I treat the water with Stress Coat, although I'll be moving to Prime soon.
10% water changes down weekly.

Tank is filtered with a Penguin 125 Biowheel (The up to 30 gallon ones)
Test Results show 0 ppm of Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate
KH is between 110-125 ppm
pH is 7.8
Last week, GH was at 200+ ppm, and pH was at 8.4 (I didn't measure KH last week, but it looks like the water hardness is balancing out a bit, which is probably good).

The inhabitants are currently 3 zebra danios, although I'm considering adding 2 ottos for the cleanup crew.

The plant inhabitants are anacharis, tropical hornwort, and jungle val.
The problem I'm having is there seems to be some diatom algae, and green hair algae is growing better than the plants :-?

I currently dose with nada at all, but I'm the proud owner of a bottle of Florish and Flourish Potassium. I also bought a Hagen Natural CO2 System as an alternative to DIY CO2. None of these things have been added yet. 

I'm not really too sure what I should be adding for the plants. They're growing, but the algae seems to be growing quicker. I decided to look up our water quality information and out of the tap, the levels are as follows...
Copper: .453 ppm
Flouride: 1.45 ppm
Nitrate: 1.02 ppm
Organic Carbon: 1.06 (reduction value).

I have the tap water, whatever the eco-complete provides, and the 3 danios.
I'm not too sure if the Natural CO2 system would help or not, as I've heard that the biowheel lets off most of the CO2 due to water agitation. Is this true, and if so is there an easy way to decrease the surface agitation with a Penguin?
What should I be adding to the tank to help the plants compete with the algae? I'm not really too sure what I need to do to get rid of the algae and help the plants grow. I took some pictures last night of the tank, so here they are.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help!


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## New 2 Fish (Dec 31, 2004)

Welcome to the hobby!
Do a search on Estimative Index. I think there's a sticky on it around. That will tell you how to dose your tank. I would order from Greg Watson. You'll need things like nitrate, phosphate and potassium.
If you don't want to get into DIY CO2, you should probably buy some Flourish Excel to get some organic carbon in there.
Also, if you can, you should get more plants in there to help outcompete that algae.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Hello, Pyro... Welcome  

You need nitrates (N03) in your tank in order for the plants to grow to out compete the algae, that is your first problem. Get some N03, if you like Seachem then dose with Seachem nitrogen. Your nitrates need to be as near 10ppm as possible. Also you need to have at least 1ppm of phosphates (P04) in the water.

Add the C02 system that you have, that will also help. But to get enough C02 into the water (20-30ppm), you will need to add another unit. That is if you don't want to deal with DIY.

Do larger water changes per week, at least 25%. I would do a 50% at first, then do 25% there after on a weekly basis.

Add more fast growing plants to your setup. The plants will help fight off the algae. Also spread the plants out that you already have in there.

To sum it up... Start adding ferts (micros/macros), add C02, do larger water changes and add more plants.


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## Pyro (Nov 20, 2005)

I guess I'll start having to dose Phopshate. Do the fish release enough Phopshate for the plants? I'd assume 3 Danios wouldn't, but  I've read that Fleet Enema is a good source of Phosphate too, although I'll have to hide my face at the checkout line if I buy that...but Seachem FLourish Phosphorus could be an option too.
(EDIT: On a side note, the Water Quality report I have doesn't list phosphorus, so there may be some in the tap water. I'll either have to buy a kit or call them up tommorow.)

As for the Nitrates, I understand that part. Would a greater fish stock (eventually) produce enough Nitrates? I guess until nitrates start getting above 10 ppm, I'll supplement with something like Flourish Nitrate. Are there any good DIY ways to put Nitrate in the tank?

As for CO2, I'll probably end up getting some Excel and running the Hagan ladder while dosing with Excel every other day, or something. I'm a High School student, and some of you know how that goes, so a pressurized system is sort of out of my budget. My 3 options seem like buying Excel, buying another Hagan, or starting DIY CO2 with the Hagan system.

25% water changes every week isn't a problem.

I looked at GregWatson, and shipping is pretty expensive, but for pure chemicals in a powder form, it looks like it might be cheaper than using the Seachem products, although I'm not not too sure how comfortable I am with not screwing up something with the pure chemicals  

The aquarium store sells the following plant(s) around here...would any of these be considered fast growers?
Wysteria
Diandra
Anubias Barselli
Amazon Swords
(All I can think up off the top of my head. They might sell a few more here, but selection blows.)

And here my solution to everything was going to be to throw a few ottos in the tank and just setup the CO2 system and add in some Flourish every once in awhile. Oh well  

Thanks for your help and the warm welcome!


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## New 2 Fish (Dec 31, 2004)

Wisteria is a fast grower.
I was scared about using the dry ferts also, but now I really like it. If the levels of one get too high or low, I can just adjust that specific one. I understand about the shipping tho. Depending on where you are, your LFS may or may not be cheaper with the prepackaged stuff.
Just ask questions here if you need more info. People will pretty much walk you through everything.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Pyro... Before you dose P04, buy a phosphate test kit to make sure that you need to add it. Yes, Fleet is a good source of P04.

A greater fish stock may or may not produce enough nitrates for your plants. It just depends on how many & what type plants you have. Another good cheap source of nitrates is "Green light stump remover". Which can be found at Lowe's stores.

If you are on a budget using the Hagan system along with Excel will be good enough. It is better than nothing.


Of the plants you listed Wisteria is a fast grower. Amazon swords also can be fast growers depending on the conditions of the tank. Stay away from Diandra it is a difficult plant to grow and should be left to the more experienced aquarist. Anubias falls under the category of a slow grower.


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## Pyro (Nov 20, 2005)

Well, the plants are starting to look a bit strange, and the anachris is getting rather lanky. Everything is growing, but the anachris actually has calcium deposits on the leaves. I searched the board and the internet, and it looks like that's a sign of a CO2 defiency.

I fired up the Hagen CO2 system, except the only thing that's happened is the yeast sank to the bottom, inflated, and start floating again. I screwed on the cap, and the only thing that's happened in the last 4 hours is the CO2 house has dramatically filled up with water...oy.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

In your shoes I would use Excel per the package directions for a source of carbon and forget the CO2. That lets you also forget about doing something with the filter to stop the loss of CO2. Excel can get expensive for larger tanks, but for yours it shouldn't be too bad.

I wouldn't worry about testing for phosphates or nitrates. The plants will use up whatever is in the tap water pretty quickly, and if they are growing well, they will use up the 10 to 20 ppm of added nitrates and the 1 to 2 ppm added phosphates too. If you go get too much in there, no harm, just do weekly 50% water changes and forget about that worry too. Use the fertilator above to figure out how much of each nutrient to add, then just enjoy the plants. That's the goal of the estimative index method of fertilizing.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> but the anachris actually has calcium deposits on the leaves. I searched the board and the internet, and it looks like that's a sign of a CO2 defiency


Well that is likely because you have very hard water, high pH, and no C02 in the water. The more C02 you add to the water, the lower your pH goes. That is how you can tell if the Hagen is working and how much C02 is in the water. At 8.2 pH, you have virtually 0 C02. I don't think I would put two Hagens on a 29 gallon tank. Get it working first, and see how much it lowers the pH. You can try Excel if you want, but to me it is a waste of money, and since it is not actual C02, there is not way to measure its affect. It will not lower the pH or provide you any way to see if you are reaching the optimum level that gas givews you.

You do not have enough plant mass for plants to have much of an affect on water quality, or to use much nitrate. You need a lot more stem plants. Hornwort is a floating plant that never grows roots. It grows fairly fast, but as a floating plant will block light to the plants below. Load up on Wisteria, Ludwigia, Bacopa and other easy to grow stems: what I call algae busters.


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