Need Help with Plants (Beginner)

[daworldisblack]

Asian/dwarf ambulia, anacharis, cabomba are also other plants that I find are fast-growing and good beginner plants as alternatives.

[76brian]

Thank you charlie. The article that was posted on this thread regarding low tech plant setups it says to fill your aquarium with fast growing low tech stem plants. Can you please show me what plants to get and from where. So I can go and buy the plants. As I would like to have my tank plant setup done by Tuesday latest and also before that buy a T5H0 bulb with lower wats in the 25 and under range.

I could be wrong, but I don't think you can buy lower wattage T5HO bulbs. A 36" is 39 watts, a 48" is 54 watts, etc... it's just the nature of the beast. Standard T5 (non-HO) bulbs will work in the T5HO ballast, and they are a lower wattage, but they will run at a higher output, "overclocked" if you will, thus their lifespan will be reduced.

I'm faced with the same problem as you, I have T5HO as well and I've decided to use fiberglass window screen to go in between the lamps and the tank to cut down on the light. I cut it to the right size and just lay it on top of the clear acrylic splash shield inside the light fixture. Maybe my fixture is different than yours, but you should be able to find a way to do this with a little creativity. I'm not sure if this cuts it down enough, nobody answered my question, but it's what I'm doing and seems to be doing well so far.

As for easy, fast growing plants, have a look at the plant profiles on plantedtank and on aquatic plant central. Most of them are easily available at local shops, or someone in the club might sell you some when they do some pruning. Buy a membership and put a call out in the classifieds for the ones that strike your fancy.

Here are the links to the sites mentioned above...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myPlants.php
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/index.php

[masoud100]

Well I just bought a T5 bulb/lamp from PetsMart and it is I believe 28 Watts Colour Enhancing. So now instead of the two 54 T5HO Bulbs on I got one 54watt T5H0 and one 28watt T5 Colour Enhancing. So now my lighting should be good. How is the wisteria plant I saw them today and liked it but waiting for forum members before buying.

I also realized I have Hygrophilia as it was my first plant I bought and it has grown alot and I like it. I will also be posting pictures of my tank sometime after Friday Night around 1-2am. Maybe after seeing the pic forum members can help me with my aquascaping.

[76brian]

Well I just bought a T5 bulb/lamp from PetsMart and it is I believe 28 Watts Colour Enhancing. So now instead of the two 54 T5HO Bulbs on I got one 54watt T5H0 and one 28watt T5 Colour Enhancing. So now my lighting should be good. How is the wisteria plant I saw them today and liked it but waiting for forum members before buying.

As I said in my previous post, you can use the regular T5 bulb in a T5HO ballast but it will run at a HIGHER output and a reduced lifespan. I don't think you accomplished what you needed to there, but it's your money. From what I've been learning, the watt rating of the bulb isn't the only determining factor when it comes to T5HO. The light output of a 28 watt T5HO is much more intense than a normal 28 watt bulb. You still have too much light I think, but I'm not an expert.

For your question about the water wisteria plant, did you not look at the 2 links I posted? It's listed there.

[masoud100]

Thanks 76biran just read it again and yes Wisteria if good for my tank. I am going to be getting a lot of plants by Wednesday from PetsMart or Big Als and kind of want opinions on which plants I should get.

[Toss]

If you can't change your light, just reduce the number of hours. It works the same. If you tinkering with the wattage, you will do more harm than good for your fixture in the long run.
I have been following this thread and like charlie said, it is all about balance. All I can add is patient. When you buy new stem plants from LFS, they usually need a few weeks to adapt to your low tech tank. There is no need to buy a bunch at the same time. On the fish side...don't buy Chinese algae eater, SAE is better only when they are young and in a group. SAE will be less productive and become aggresive as they grow older. Oto cat and BN plecos is your other choice for algae clean up crew.

happy planting

[masoud100]

Ok so your saying it is better for me to have both 54 watt (combined 108 watts) on for a brief amount of time than to have one 54 watt and one 28 watt (combined 82 watt)? Also by me having a T5 28 watt in a T5H0 fixture will it ruin my fixture or just reduce the light expectency of the 28 watt bulb from a yr to like 6 months? Also I already got a Golden Algae Eater before I saw the post.

If having both 54watt is the better option how many hours should I keep it on for? I will them exchange the light (28 watt) for a 36 inch light and put it on my normal fixture that came with the tank and use it as a display light when my T5H0 lights are off.

Also it was said to buy very little plants and not a lot at once? why is that? Because most places have deals like buy 3 get 1 free, etc

PS. I am trying to upload my picture of the tank but my file is too big what should I do

[Toss]

overdriving a bulb means extra heat. overheating an electronic device is never a good thing. Since the different is only 26 watts, why not just use the original bulbs. The amount of hours is depends on your setup. If it a low tech, should start very low and increase gradually. Remember preventing algae is a lot better you trying to clean them off.
If you buy a lot of plants at the same time, you need to feed them. They also may die off and create organic waste thus affecting your cycle. There is also a chance that they might carry some parasites. You are dealing with too many variables early in the game.

[sylros]

Well, I've got a Coralife High output 96W = 6400K on a 36gal tank. Yes, I've my foot on the pedal like Charlie says. But my lights are still on for 8hrs a day on a timer. Then I've got air flow going in during the night to help with oxygenation.

What I did to reduce the intensity is to spray a frost paint on the top of the glass. This helped quite a bit as my plants were looking spindly from growing too fast. And not enough nutrients especially that the tank was only put together last november. It took several months, almost 6 months to get the hand of fertz and the right plants.

Like you I wanted it to look full, with a lawn in the forefront. Well I still don't have my lawn because I haven't found a low light version yet but the plants that helped filling in the tank and grew very fast was the Water sprite, it will grow as tall as the tank is, same thing as hygrophilia.

Give yourself a chance to understand all the relations, me too, things were growing well for the first few weeks then all of a sudden the plants started dying. Then you have to diagnose what the problem is and that takes time.

BTW - to make you photo smaller either reduce the resolution to 72dpi or make the size smaller to 800x600 pixels. The size is probably easier to do by using windows photo editing tool. Or post them on a photo site and link to it.

[masoud100]

So your saying I should keep my lights on for about 8 hours? The combined 108watt? Also I have uploaded a pic of my tank and would like opinions

[Stussi613]

So your saying I should keep my lights on for about 8 hours?

No, what people are saying is you need to find the balance for your lighting on your tank. Start with 3-4 hours a day and see how the plants do. If its not enough, add and hour. If you get to the point where the plants are doing well and the algae is also doing well cut back a little bit so the algae stops growing, but the plants are still doing well.

I have an 8 light fixture over my 125 gallon tank and I only run two bulbs running for 8 hours a day. 4 lights on for the same amount of time makes the algae take over the tank in less than a week.  It took me a month to figure out that this was the right formula for MY tank and MY light fixture.

[masoud100]

So how will I know whether to add more hours or decrease more hours? Also I was going to use the 28 watt as my viewing light on my original normal fixture. Is it okay will it increase algae if say I got my T5H0's on for like 5 hours and then later in the day have my regular 28 watt on for 4 hours?

[bettabreeder]

Do you have java fern planted in substrate? The roots of the java fern need to be exposed to the water column by being tied to driftwood or rocks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[masoud100]

yes last night I tied my Java Fern to my driftwood and some to my rock

[charlie]

So your saying I should keep my lights on for about 8 hours? The combined 108watt? Also I have uploaded a pic of my tank and would like opinions

Masoud, my advice is for you to get a firm inderstanding of lights in the planted aquarium & how it relates to everything else such as plants - co2 - fertlizer, once you have a good understanding of these ( tools in your tool box) you can then begin a road to happy planted aquariums, even if you encounter a few bumps in the road it will be much easier to steady the ride 
Regards

[masoud100]

Hi Charlie my tank's algae control is good now as I believe I have my lights on for 5-6 hours 2 T5HO. I have my golden algae eaters, snails, eating up all the algae everytime I see them. My glass is shining now compared to before. Just need to fill my tank completely with plants maybe sometime in a couple days

[masoud100]

Thanks to SaZaBaZy for giving me some water wisteria my tank looks pretty good to me for now. Also knows alot about plants, etc and I learned alot from him when going to pick up the plants.

Here is a pic of my new tank look...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89001056@N03/8118056390/in/photostream