# Newstarter with planting plants



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Hello all,

I have only just gotten onto the whole planted tank idea and have just ordered 50 plants. So have alot of questions which I have read but unclear on, hope someone will be able to help me outon the answer. 

The tank that the plants mainly will be at the start is a Aqua One 620T. It is a fairly deep tank measuring 62wx72hx39d cm. Lighting is currently provided by 2 x 18W PM lamps and is set to be on 7 hours a day at the moment. Substrate is 1 to 1.5cm of medium size gravel (about ~5mm diameter). Filtration of the tank is via the standard overhead filter. Water temp stays around ~28C.

The plants I have ordered are as below:

2 BLUE RUSH
12 FOXTAIL
10 PS WYSTERIA
1 BUTTERFLY IVY
10 LUDWIGIA PALUSTRIS
9 MYROPHYLUM 
2 PONGOL RUSH 
5 DWF PAPYRUS HEADS

Fishwise there are currently:

2 x clown loches
5 x tetra neons
2 x some species of tetra (would be great if someone knows what species they are)


The questions I have are as below:

1) Is my layer of substrate thick enough? or will I need to put more in since this is an established tank with fishes in there now?
2) Would I require CO2 for this tank? The place I am got the plants from indicated that I dont, just double checking
3) What sort of fert would I need to get, if any?
4) Anyone here from Brisbane or Gold Coast Australia by chance? :-D 

Thanks...


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

You really need about twice that amount of light to grow those plants. And, the substrate needs to be about 3 times as deep, preferably 1-2 mm grains, not 5 mm. You can do without CO2 unless you increase the light to more than 90 watts. You will have slow growth tank, so you won't need much fertilizing. If you look through the stickies in the fertilizing forum you can see a couple of fertilizing methods. And, spending an hour or so with Rex Grigg's website, http://www.rexgrigg.com/, will be very educational for you.


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Thanks for the information hoppycalif. To increase the substrate to be deeper, I do have more smaller grains like you mentioned, however the problem I have is how do I put the extra grains in (assuming it has been washed an all) without causing major problem with the current fishes?

For the lighting I have seen in another forum before about changing the tubes to something different for more lights, I will look into it this weekend hopefully.

And I will get onto the fertilizing section soon.. slowly working my ways thru atm..

Thanks again.


----------



## KatjaT (Dec 7, 2007)

Hi! I can only answer to your guestion about those tetra's.They are _Hyphessobrycon columbianus_


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

KatjaT said:


> Hi! I can only answer to your guestion about those tetra's.They are _Hyphessobrycon columbianus_


Hello, which one would this species be the one with the black stripe or the other one?


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

The one with the black stripe is a Penguin Tetra (Thayeria boehlkei).

I don't see how adding your gravel will bother any of the fish you have in your tank. It will begin to age and since there is already nutrifying bacteria in your tank you will be fine. The small grains will fall to the bottom and the larger stones will stay on the top. It would be best if you could have all smaller grains. The roots of the plants can stay planted better.


----------



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

I'm don't know if your plants are true aquatic or not. The problem is the common names in Australia could be entirely different from whats used here or rest of the world. Any plant that is called a "rush" is usually a pond plant that grows above water. Many rushes are in the Eleocharis family or are other types of reeds. The only Eleocharis species that will grow UNDER water are those we call "hairgrass".

Butterfly ivy.. I have no idea what that is. It could be most anything. Papyrus heads, don't know what that is either, but I suspect it is a pond plant. The only ones I know are true aquarium plants is the Wisteria, Myriophyllum, Foxtail, (in this country Foxtail is a Myriophyllum specie) and Ludwigia.


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Tex: Thanks, spoke to a local aquarium wholesale place and thats what they told me about the gravel too. Have got some smaller ones in now, but think I will have to get more later on.

Robert:
This is what I got.... http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...m=220189702141&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=012


----------



## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

OK, well, since he doesn't use latin names its impossible to know what they are, but he does describe them as "aquarium and pond plants", so I am leaning to pond plants!


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Hrmm.. Ok thanks I will see what comes via the post tomorrow and tomorrow.


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Hrmm.. The plants have arrived and I have checked them.. Have a question now (couldnt work out which section it should be posted either, so decided to post it in this post as well). Are snails good or bad? Or are there good ones and bad ones?

I already had some smaller snails in the tank already and i have got a clown loach atm (two other ones have died from white spots) which seemed to have kept them under control, but the plants i just got have some bigger snails on em. They do look different tho. Should I keep them or take them out ?


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

The loaches should be willing to take care of those snails, whether they look the same or different. I don't think snails and loaches can coexist for more than a day or two.


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Hrmm.. well this is where it is strange. I havent seen the loaches go nuts and clearing out the snails, however i have noticed that alot of the smaller baby snails have decreased in number alot.


----------



## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

yotis said:


> Hrmm.. The plants have arrived and I have checked them.. Have a question now (couldnt work out which section it should be posted either, so decided to post it in this post as well). Are snails good or bad? Or are there good ones and bad ones?


There are both good and bad snails for a planted aquarium. Good snails like ramshorn snails, Malaysian trumpet snails, Pomacea bridgesii, nerite snails, and pond snails will clean up leftover food, some algae, and dead/dying plant leaves and other organic matter while leaving healthy plants alone. Bad snails will eat everything and mow your plants down to nothing or chew the stems in two and leave everything floating at the surface. You'll know pretty quickly if you got bad snails.

Some people don't like snails at all and get rid of them whenever they can. You can keep your snail population in check by not overfeeding. I usually have a snail population boom when first setting up a tank and then things level out and the population declines to a sustainable level, unless I overfeed my fish. 

Your loaches should keep your snail population down. If they aren't going after the snails, don't feed them for a couple days and watch your snail population plummet. That is, if you don't want any snails.


----------



## yotis (Jan 10, 2008)

Hrmm.. I had the same advice about not feeding the loaches.. but I have tetras in the tank too.. how do i not feed the loaches but feed the tetras? :S


----------



## Tokyobaby (Jul 26, 2007)

don't worry, your tetras will do fine without food for a few days


----------

