Plant Advice

[Shawn84]

I want to have start a low tek planted tank in my 55 gallon. I currently have 2 15W 4600k fluorescent light and a 48" Coralife with 2 6700k compact light. I currently just have different type of anubias and fern, cabomba in the tank. What can i add to the tank? My subtract is white silica sand. Please advice me on the type of plant i can grow in my tank. Thank you

[Patrick S]

With 2 x 15W + 2 x 54W(?) = 138W, you have an aquarium with "medium" light. You could probably grow a good variety of plants if CO2 and other nutrients are available.

By low tek I assume you mean no CO2 injection and no daily fertilization?

If your substrate is silica sand only, and especially if it is well cleaned, you don't have any nutrient or CO2 in it. I would suggest you to read Diana Walstad "ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM". Her approach is to use a first substrate layer of potting soil (containing enough CO2 and most nutrients for years) eliminating the need for CO2 injection and daily nutrients dosing. The result is usually not as stunning as a high tek tank, but it can be beautiful as well, is low maintenance, and can last for years. However, you would need to completely empty your tank and add this potting soil layer. Note that if you have fish that like digging in the substrate, potting soil would not be ideal...

An alternative could be to choose slow-medium growing plants, mainly feeding by the roots (Cryptocoryne, Echinodorous, etc.), and use fertilizer tabs in the substrate around the roots.

Here is a list of plants, classified by lighting needs, that could give you an idea for plants growing in a tank like yours:

http://www.canadianfishforums.com/plants/plants.htm

Patrick

[Shawn84]

The Coralife 48" have 2 65W. So i would have 160W currently in the 55G. I don't want to remove my current subtract i just want some idea of what i can add on to it. I do have peacock eel and 2 albino weather loach that occasionally burred them self in the sand. All other fish doesn't disturbed plant. I also don't want to set up an CO2 injection. I wanna keep it as low maintenance as possible.

[dan2x38]

Silica sand is not an ideal planted tank substrate. It doesn't allow aeration so root rot is a strong possibility. IMHO as a newcomer to planted tanks I wouldn't tackle a Walstad tank as my first effort.

If you are serious about planted tanks I would consider replacing the substrate. There are several choices out their like Flourite & Eco-Complete (Google for more...). I ended up doing this in my first planted tank after 6 months of failure. Soon after the replacement my plants took off.

There are a great deal of plants you can grow with your light and without CO2 injection or complex fertilizer regiments but be warned it is addictive... LOL Just Google 'Easy to Grow Aquarium Plants' the list is quite long. You can supplement CO2 with Sea Chems Excel and some liquid premixed ferts. You can save a lot by ordering online from a place like mops.ca.

Good luck and research such gurus as Tom Barr as well as Walsatd. There is a long list including Rexx Grigg and others too.

[fischkopp]

Good plants for "low tech" are crypts and swords, some hygros, wisteria, marselia, for example ... but unless you find out that a certain  species is difficult, demanding or finicky in one way you can try any plant that you come across and like the look of.

"low tech" is a stretchy term though. It usually means that a tank is setup at low cost and without any additional equipment that support plant growth. In short: low light and without CO2.

With the power compact above the aquarium the light is plenty though, I would consider it medium to high light. It is in my experience too high to be running without supplementing CO2. So if you are looking for a no-trouble setup, I recommend to reduce the light.

Yes, silica is next to useless for plant. Not so much because it limits aeration - this only becomes a problem if the substrate is very fine and starts to compact - more so because its inert and doesn't contain any nutrients the plants could use. It only serves as substrate that plants can hold on to. You can use black earth underneath the silica, which works very well but isn't anything I would recommend if you are just starting with plants. Soil is a mess once you aqua scape a little and tends to deteriorate after some time, which can lead to the release of harmful sulfur-dioxide into the tank. Dedicated plant substrates don't have these problems.

In your case, as has been mentioned, root tabs are probably the best way to supply the plants with much need nutrients.

[Shawn84]

I have the coralife compact running about 4hr a day from 11-3 thats is the time my tank is at the brightest. the rest of the time it would be running on just the 2 15W. I know silica sand is not the best sub for planted tank. But I don't want to take out the sub at the moment due to some fish after couple of months it just got use to the tank. Don't want to put it through the stress again so soon. After reading more on substrate and so on I think i might hold off on adding any "rooted" plant to the tank until i'm ready to change the substrate. Though i am pretty tempted to change it right now but i love my fish so i"ll wait.

[dan2x38]

I changed the substrate in a 38 gal. tank in approx. 3 hrs. I used a large rubber maid bin and lots of buckets and anything to hold water. I drained 50% of the water into the bin and then moved all decorations into it to preserve all beneficial bacteria. I stored the filters in buckets of water to preserve all the bacteria as well. Once the water was low enough I carefully netted all fish added to the bin. Drained the remaining water into all the buckets and what not so I was able to keep almost all of the original water. Now I scooped out the substrate. I added the new plant substrate. I placed a plate and then a cereal bowl on top of that. Now start adding the water back by pouring the water into bowl slowly. By the time the tank was 1/2 full I planted it and put in the decorations. I added more of the saved water. Then I added some new treated water to top off. Started up my filters put in the heater and finally the fish.

I was careful enough to hardly stir up the substrate. I did this the first time with red Flourite and that stuff is dusty but it was fine. Whole process just over 3 hrs. In another couple hours it was almost cleared up perfectly. Not one fish was harmed and even had their regular feeding that night. 

[Stussi613]

I looked into these planters before I decided to go with a dual zone black fluorite/ silica sand setup in my discus tank...

http://hydrophytesblog.com/ripariumsupply/?page_id=4&category=6&product_id=6

They might work for you.

You can get a sense of how I achieved my dual zone setup in the pics here:
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=49295.0

[Shawn84]

I found those before. I was just wasn't sure how well they work. But over all I think i will eventually change my substrate so that i can grow plant. But just not now. Maybe once my albino clown knife out grow my tank i will do the conversion. But i would like to thank everyone for the advice Much appreciated

[charlie]

Hi Shawn, nice to see you wanting to take your tank up a notch, i`ll offer my opinion base on what you have established in your post.
Here is what you have
Tank- 55 gallon tank -48x13  presumably- since you mentioned a 4 ft fixture.
Lighting -  160 watts total ( 2x15 +2x65)
if we go by the old WPG rule of thumb , you are just shy of 3 watts per gallon
Substrate - silica sand & no desire to change at this time
Your goal is to have " low tech" tank with little maintenance?= subjective
I think it can be done with most of what you have with a minor hardware tweak & a bit of understanding of how plants grow.
It has being established that light is the main catalyst of everything growing in a planted tank, if you accept that then it would be safe to assume that the lighting you have does not work for your goal, just shy of 3 WPG will grow most so called high light plants in that tank, therefore supplementing both carbon & other nutrients probably will become a necessity .,So there is the hardware tweak you need to make, i suggest a single T5 HO 54 watt light with some form of reflector.( we can discuss this later).
Your sand substrate can be an issue in terms of compaction, but unless we know the granular size it`s hard to say it will or will not,  that said if you narrow your choice to low light  , undemanding stem plants, compaction will not be much of an issue, since most stem plants would prefer to uptake it`s nutrient demand from the foliage given the choice, a bit of poking around the plant base every now & again before water change will help also.( root rot).
Your biggest hurdle will be selecting the right plants, apart from the ones you already have. Also establishing if your bio load & the natural environment of the tank can supply enough nutrients to keep up with your plant mass, AKA as" balance of the tank".
Note most of what i attempted to convey to you was included in some of the replies posted, as always nothing here is hard core or gospel but will certainly give you a good head start .I probably missed something , but willing to try & address those if brought to my attention
Regards
Always willing to go into more detail anytime you see me.

[Shawn84]

Thank you all for your input and opinion. I will start a true planted tank once i move my albino clown knife fish out of the 55 and into the 150. I just love waking up every morning looking at my ACKF swimming gracefully around the tank. Even though he is a beast.