# New 30 gallon Plant Aquarium



## EaZy DuZ iT (Jul 15, 2010)

Hey guys I have a 30 gallon fresh water aquarium with 12 tetras(5 dissappeared), 3 red type of mollys, and these 2 other types of fish(their silver and have fins that kind of look like guppy fins)t i forgot its name their from petco), but their all very little fish. And 1 little frog.

My light is a 30inch Aqualight Coralife T5 High Output 2 bulbs, 1 is 10k and 1 is 6700k <---is this fine?

50gallon Marineland Filter (I have a 90 gallon marineland filter the 400, but i dont know if thats to powerful for the little fishes.

2 Rena 20watt Heaters

and a Red Sea Turbo c02 system (made for 40 gallons).


I have 2 bags of eco-complete (color black) in the aquarium.

I have a piece of drift wood, 3 bambos, and few types of other grass plants (all bought from petco).

The tank ran algae free for a month, but when i see little algae growth i got the c02 system, but its just gotten worse since then.

Any suggestions on what the problem can be, thanks guys my name is Mike.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Mike,

Welcome to APC! Actually I think you are doing pretty good. Do you know what wattage bulbs you have in your light fixture? And how long is your photoperiod?

Almost everything else looks good, the Red Sea Turbo may not put out enough CO2 once you get your tank well planted but there are ways to deal with that.

What I did not see mentioned was fertilizer. Are you fertilizing your aquarium? If so, what are you using, how much, and how often?

Lastly, a lot of the plants sold at the "Big Box" stores are terrarium plants and not true aquatics. Make sure you know what plants you are buying or they may last a month or two but slowly die because they cannot live submerged.


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## EaZy DuZ iT (Jul 15, 2010)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Mike,
> 
> Welcome to APC! Actually I think you are doing pretty good. Do you know what wattage bulbs you have in your light fixture? And how long is your photoperiod?
> 
> ...


Great Advice.

The bulb is 31Watts for 10k and 31watts fpor 6.7k.

I'm using the eco-complete black substrate and when i asked if it neeeded any nutrition or fertilizer they said it already contains it. Each Bag is 20 pounds and I have 40pounds in it.

The plants that i bought were all submerged from the day i bought it, it wasnt the plants that are in those white tubs, they were in aquariums.

Thank you so much for your help boss.


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## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

Do you have a bubble counter or a drop checker to measure how much CO2 is being injected in the tank? I would try to aim for a 30ppm CO2 level. I believe that would be the color green on a drop checker. Drop checkers are really effective in measuring CO2 levels. Also, where are you feeding the CO2 output tube? Into the intake of the filter?

The light and the substrate both look good. How long are you leaving the lights on. There was one time my timer broke and my lights were left on for over 24 hrs. Even with CO2, my tank broke out in hair/fuzz algae. Leave your photoperiod around 6-9hrs/day.


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## EaZy DuZ iT (Jul 15, 2010)

I usually leave it on from 6:30pm until 1:30Am so that is 7 hours

I do not have a bubble counter or a drop checker. Where can i but one and what would work fine with my setup?

The c02 is being injected through a pump (its the red sea turbo c02 system)

Thank you so much


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## NursePlaty (Mar 24, 2010)

I think the red sea turbo co2 system is a lot similar to a DIY co2 system. It doesnt generate a good amount of CO2 like a pressurized system does. I used to link up 3 bottles of DIY co2 all for a 20g and my drop checker still remained the same color "dark blue". 

Ever since I went pressurized, drop checker turned green or yellow depending on my output adjustment. 

You can buy a drop checker from ebay for $6. They are all from china and takes 2 weeks to deliver. I dont use the solution it comes with because god knows what the solution is made out of over there and not sure if its accurate. You can make your own solution. Take a gallon of distilled water, add small amounts of baking soda enough till you reach 4 degrees of KH. Then fill the drop checker with it. Add in 3 drops of pH indicator into the drop checker and you are done. Both the KH and pH liquid test kit can be bought at fish stores from the brand API. 

Just my suggestion.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Mike,

Your lighting and bulbs look fine.

As for the algae, clean up as much as you can physically and try cutting back your photoperiod by 30 per day, wait a week and see if the algae growth slows down. I did not see any mention of water changes. I would recommend a 33% weekly water change to help minimize algae growth.

Algae seems to flourish when I have poor plant growth; are your plants growing well and healthy? Good plant growth requires nutrients. You may or may not have sufficient nutrients in your tank and without testing you really don't know. See if your LFS does water testing, specifically for Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates. If not, pick up a water test kit and at least start testing your Nitrate levels. 

Let us know the results.


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## EaZy DuZ iT (Jul 15, 2010)

Seattle_Aquarist said:


> Hi Mike,
> 
> Your lighting and bulbs look fine.
> 
> ...


alright im going to cut back 30 minutes on my lights to see if that helps. I would do 25% water change every two weeks, so i guess thats where i messed up(this is my first time doing freshwater, ive been doing saltwater for few years).

Luckily, My LFS does water testing so i will take my water in for check.

My plants, i dont think their growing. Most are turning brownish =/. the bamboos look good in color but containts blackish algae on them.

Also, when i do the water change, Im used to saltwater sand so i would never use the vacuume to suck debree off the floor because it would suck the sand in, and i feel like it does the same with the eco compelte black substrate. Would it be fine to just used the vacumm to take out the water instead of trying to suck stuff off the substrate?

For my red sea c02, how long would i leave it on for ? It also has a + and - bar on the pump allowing me to adjust it, where would i put it?

Also, what type of testing would tell me if I have enough nutrients? Thank you so much, you guys have been too much help


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## EaZy DuZ iT (Jul 15, 2010)

anything guys? ;[


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## mudboots (Jun 24, 2009)

Maybe a pic of your tank would help. I didn't get the impression from the first post that you had enough plants to justify needing CO2 and added fertz, and perhaps a low-light setup would be sufficient.

10k and 6700 are "green" to me, but everyone's eyes are different. I use the same temp bulbs over my 125, but also use one called "pink" (a "whatever"-grow bulb high in red sprectrum; good for plant photosynethesis) which balances the colors out nicely.

The fertz and CO2 thing is one of those"depends" issues where you need to have a general idea of what your plants need per species. For instance, I run 234 watts T5-HO over a 125 gallon a tank with no fertz or CO2 injection, based on what I grow and an organic substrate. That plus the fish waste (by overfeeding the fish I am really feeding the tank) offers all the CO2 and nutrients my tank needs to keep the plants flourishing and the fish happy. Other folks have tanks where they dose daily and inject CO2 using pressurized gas. You might cruise through some of the sticky threads in the various forums (El Natural, et cetera) and get an idea of the type of system you are willing to maintain.

Your plants might be passing away into plant heaven. Many times, as Seattle mentioned, the chain stores will sell plants, submersed et cetera, that simply will not live for more than a few days to weeks under water. My suggestion would be to get plants from people here in the For Sale or Trade Forum. While you have to pay shipping, you will get more for your money, you will know beyond reasonable doubt what species you are getting, you will get superior quality plants, and you will know that they are truly aquatic (or they will be labeled otherwise).

Good luck


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Mar 7, 2008)

Hi Mike,



> My plants, i dont think their growing. Most are turning brownish =/. the bamboos look good in color but containts blackish algae on them.


Bamboo! Unless it is aquatic bamboo, which is not sold in stores but is occasionally available on forums like this, the leaves have to be emersed. Just out of curiousity, where did you buy your plants?

When I did DIY CO2 I left it on 24/7.

Ask them to test for nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia.


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