newbie question

Hi.

I have a recently set up 75 gallon tank. I am getting back into the hobby
after a long lay off, and have been so busy learning about water chemistry
that I haven't paid much attention to plants at all. I have a bunch of
silk plants in my tank, and only two live plants -- a java fern and a java
sword. The sword is doing great, and seems to be growing rapidly. The
fern lost its biggest leaf when I put it in my tank, but now it, too,
seems to be recovering and growing nicely.

I took one bit of advice from the newsgroup/web and replaced the bulbs in
my light fixtures, however I still am probably on the low end of W/gallon.
The LFS tells me (verfied on-line) that the two plants I bought are low
light, though, so I think I'm ok in the short term.

My question is... where do I go from here? I definitely want to add more
plants, and can use any advice from the group.

Here are some specific questions:

1) In the short term, would Seachem Flourish be beneficial to my two
plants?

2) If I'm not interested in adding CO2, should I just forget about more
plants? That is, is a CO2 system of some sort an absolute necessity?

3) Any recommendations for floating plants? My gouramis love the plastic
plants I've floated for them, and it would be nice to replace them with
live plants.

Just FYI, my aquarium info is:

75 gal
pH 7.2 (brought down slowly from 7.6 by driftwood addition)
8 dKH
13 dGH
not sure of the NO3 level -- I don't have a test kit for it yet.
my substrate is a mix of pea gravel from the local hardware store and
polished river stones from Petco.

36 various dwarf fish (honey gouramis, threadfin rainbows, pygmy
corydoras, and a few others)

Any advice appreciated!

--chris





NB: This email address is dead. If you would like to email me directly,
please use: cpalmaATSYMBOLastro.psu.edu

"Chris Palma" wrote in message
Hi.
I have a recently set up 75 gallon tank. I am getting back into the hobby
after a long lay off, and have been so busy learning about water chemistry
that I haven't paid much attention to plants at all. I have a bunch of
silk plants in my tank, and only two live plants -- a java fern and a java
sword. The sword is doing great, and seems to be growing rapidly. The
fern lost its biggest leaf when I put it in my tank, but now it, too,
seems to be recovering and growing nicely.

I took one bit of advice from the newsgroup/web and replaced the bulbs in
my light fixtures, however I still am probably on the low end of W/gallon.
The LFS tells me (verfied on-line) that the two plants I bought are low
light, though, so I think I'm ok in the short term.

My question is... where do I go from here? I definitely want to add more
plants, and can use any advice from the group.

Here are some specific questions:

1) In the short term, would Seachem Flourish be beneficial to my two
plants?

2) If I'm not interested in adding CO2, should I just forget about more
plants? That is, is a CO2 system of some sort an absolute necessity?

3) Any recommendations for floating plants? My gouramis love the plastic
plants I've floated for them, and it would be nice to replace them with
live plants.

Just FYI, my aquarium info is:

75 gal
pH 7.2 (brought down slowly from 7.6 by driftwood addition)
8 dKH
13 dGH
not sure of the NO3 level -- I don't have a test kit for it yet.
my substrate is a mix of pea gravel from the local hardware store and
polished river stones from Petco.

36 various dwarf fish (honey gouramis, threadfin rainbows, pygmy
corydoras, and a few others)


Man, that sounds like a great tank.... I love gouramis.... the dwarfs are
gorgeous, and pearls.. I've always loved the pearls...

Anyhoo.... Keeping with low light plants, will allow you a few plants,
Aponogeton crispus, Anubias, Nana and Barteri are ok, Cryptocoryne wendtii -
red or green, and even bronze if ya like.... Anacharis, horwort, moneywort,
Water sprites... There are more, and some may not work, just be prepared for
the ones that don't work, to yank them out...

Be forewarned, Crypts, are one of these plants that may look like it's
'melting' but that's common for them to show melting when
transplanted/uprooted.. If it doesnt' show signs of recovery, yank it...

Also, I must say, some is trial and error...

Ferts... Flourish will help a great deal, and what else will help, is
Flourish Excel, it's a carbon source that's 'not as good' as CO2, but helps
where there is NO CO2 at all, other than room air...

For a floating plant, maybe some sunset hygro, or any hygrophilia for that
matter.. that's just a shot cuz my hygro grew so fast, I just uprooted it
and let it float anyway...

BTW, Java fern will multiply wonderfully on driftwood and in the cracks and
crevaces of rocks, if left alone long enough... Makes for great
aquascapes...

Good luck, get a camera and post pics over in alt.binaries.aquaria , k?

--
RedForeman ©® future fabricator and creator of a ratbike streetfighter!!!

==========================
2003 TRX450ES
1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
1987 TRX250R (sold)
1987 CBR600 Hurricane (sold)
1987 VFR700 Interceptor (sold)
1995 TRX300ex (sold)
2000 CBR600F4 silver/red (sold) *sniff*sniff*
'98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
==========================
ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸¸¸,ø¤° `°¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°`°¤ø
"By US Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer
meets the definition of a telephone fax machine. By Sec.227(b)(1)(C),
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On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 16:48:50 -0500, "RedForeman ©®"
wrote:

"Chris Palma" wrote in message
Hi.
I have a recently set up 75 gallon tank. I am getting back into the hobby
after a long lay off, and have been so busy learning about water chemistry
that I haven't paid much attention to plants at all. I have a bunch of
silk plants in my tank, and only two live plants -- a java fern and a java
sword. The sword is doing great, and seems to be growing rapidly. The
fern lost its biggest leaf when I put it in my tank, but now it, too,
seems to be recovering and growing nicely.

I took one bit of advice from the newsgroup/web and replaced the bulbs in
my light fixtures, however I still am probably on the low end of W/gallon.
The LFS tells me (verfied on-line) that the two plants I bought are low
light, though, so I think I'm ok in the short term.

My question is... where do I go from here? I definitely want to add more
plants, and can use any advice from the group.

Here are some specific questions:

1) In the short term, would Seachem Flourish be beneficial to my two
plants?

2) If I'm not interested in adding CO2, should I just forget about more
plants? That is, is a CO2 system of some sort an absolute necessity?

3) Any recommendations for floating plants? My gouramis love the plastic
plants I've floated for them, and it would be nice to replace them with
live plants.

Just FYI, my aquarium info is:

75 gal
pH 7.2 (brought down slowly from 7.6 by driftwood addition)
8 dKH
13 dGH
not sure of the NO3 level -- I don't have a test kit for it yet.
my substrate is a mix of pea gravel from the local hardware store and
polished river stones from Petco.

36 various dwarf fish (honey gouramis, threadfin rainbows, pygmy
corydoras, and a few others)


Man, that sounds like a great tank.... I love gouramis.... the dwarfs are
gorgeous, and pearls.. I've always loved the pearls...

Anyhoo.... Keeping with low light plants, will allow you a few plants,
Aponogeton crispus, Anubias, Nana and Barteri are ok, Cryptocoryne wendtii -
red or green, and even bronze if ya like.... Anacharis, horwort, moneywort,
Water sprites... There are more, and some may not work, just be prepared for
the ones that don't work, to yank them out...

Be forewarned, Crypts, are one of these plants that may look like it's
'melting' but that's common for them to show melting when
transplanted/uprooted.. If it doesnt' show signs of recovery, yank it...

Also, I must say, some is trial and error...

Ferts... Flourish will help a great deal, and what else will help, is
Flourish Excel, it's a carbon source that's 'not as good' as CO2, but helps
where there is NO CO2 at all, other than room air...

For a floating plant, maybe some sunset hygro, or any hygrophilia for that
matter.. that's just a shot cuz my hygro grew so fast, I just uprooted it
and let it float anyway...

BTW, Java fern will multiply wonderfully on driftwood and in the cracks and
crevaces of rocks, if left alone long enough... Makes for great
aquascapes...

Good luck, get a camera and post pics over in alt.binaries.aquaria , k?


I have a 75 gallon low light tank and it is gorgeous to my eyes. I
fought the plant problem for months before I understood what I was
fighting. Then I got an assortment of "low light" plants, rated for
less than 2 watts per gallon. I had a few that didn't survive, but
not I have about 6 species and all are flourishing. They grow slowly
thus need less maintenance. All but one of the species stay below 8
inches, but one does grow to the top and I have to trim them back and
use the cuttings to start more.

Sorry I can't name names. I know Crypt, Java, and Annubias. I think
I have 3 sub species of Java, at least they have some similarities.

There are books that list plants by light levels. I found a couple of
internet plant sellers that had assortments by light level, but some
included are rated 2.5 wpg and didn't fair well in my tank.

I don't use CO2 or any fertilizer supplements. I have over 60 fish
and they provide the nutrients.

Thanks for the tips and for the compliment!

I am really happy with how things turned out -- although I know that I
still have a lot to learn. My setup doesn't look all that natural right
now (the silk plants are nice, but not all that realistic compared to a
heavily planted tank), and I think that the biggest improvement I want to
make is to eventually move towards a more natural look. I'll try to get
some images up as soon as I can. Maybe I'll wait until I track down a few
of those plants you suggested and get them planted, first.

--chris


On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, RedForeman =A9=AE wrote:

Man, that sounds like a great tank.... I love gouramis.... the dwarfs are
gorgeous, and pearls.. I've always loved the pearls...

Anyhoo.... Keeping with low light plants, will allow you a few plants,
Aponogeton crispus, Anubias, Nana and Barteri are ok, Cryptocoryne wendti=
i -
red or green, and even bronze if ya like.... Anacharis, horwort, moneywor=
t,
Water sprites... There are more, and some may not work, just be prepared =
for
the ones that don't work, to yank them out...

Be forewarned, Crypts, are one of these plants that may look like it's
'melting' but that's common for them to show melting when
transplanted/uprooted.. If it doesnt' show signs of recovery, yank it...

Also, I must say, some is trial and error...

Ferts... Flourish will help a great deal, and what else will help, is
Flourish Excel, it's a carbon source that's 'not as good' as CO2, but hel=
ps
where there is NO CO2 at all, other than room air...

For a floating plant, maybe some sunset hygro, or any hygrophilia for tha=
t
matter.. that's just a shot cuz my hygro grew so fast, I just uprooted it
and let it float anyway...

BTW, Java fern will multiply wonderfully on driftwood and in the cracks a=
nd
crevaces of rocks, if left alone long enough... Makes for great
aquascapes...

Good luck, get a camera and post pics over in alt.binaries.aquaria , k?

--
RedForeman =A9=AE future fabricator and creator of a ratbike streetfight=
er!!!

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3 D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
2003 TRX450ES
1992 TRX-350 XX (For Sale)
1987 TRX250R (sold)
1987 CBR600 Hurricane (sold)
1987 VFR700 Interceptor (sold)
1995 TRX300ex (sold)
2000 CBR600F4 silver/red (sold) *sniff*sniff*
'98 Tacoma Ext Cab 4X4 Lifted....
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3 D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D
=F8=A4=B0`=B0=A4=F8,=B8=B8=B8,=F8=A4=B0`=B0=A4=F8, =B8=B8=B8,=F8=A4=B0`=B0=
=A4=F8,=B8=B8,=F8=A4=B0`=B0=A4=F8,=B8=B8=B8,=F8=A4 =B0`=B0=A4=F8,=B8=B8,=F8=
=A4=B0`=B0=A4=F8
"By US Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), a computer/modem/printer
meets the definition of a telephone fax machine. By Sec.227(b)(1)(C),
it is unlawful to send any unsolicited advertisement to such equipment.
By Sec.227(b)(3)(C), a violation of the aforementioned Section is
punishable by action to recover actual monetary loss, or $500,
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of $100 per hour (4 hour minimum).




| Chris Palma, | The preceding was a work of fiction, =
|
| University of Virginia Astronomy | any similarities to persons living or=
|
| | dead, places, or events is purely =
|
| www.astro.virginia.edu/~cp4v | coincidental... =
|

NB: This email address is dead. If you would like to email me directly,
please use: cpalmaATSYMBOLastro.psu.edu

Thanks for the tips -- I'm planning on heading to the LFS in the next few
days to see what he has in stock. I think I'm leaning towards at least
trying some crypts.

---chris


On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Dick wrote:

I have a 75 gallon low light tank and it is gorgeous to my eyes. I
fought the plant problem for months before I understood what I was
fighting. Then I got an assortment of "low light" plants, rated for
less than 2 watts per gallon. I had a few that didn't survive, but
not I have about 6 species and all are flourishing. They grow slowly
thus need less maintenance. All but one of the species stay below 8
inches, but one does grow to the top and I have to trim them back and
use the cuttings to start more.

Sorry I can't name names. I know Crypt, Java, and Annubias. I think
I have 3 sub species of Java, at least they have some similarities.

There are books that list plants by light levels. I found a couple of
internet plant sellers that had assortments by light level, but some
included are rated 2.5 wpg and didn't fair well in my tank.

I don't use CO2 or any fertilizer supplements. I have over 60 fish
and they provide the nutrients.


NB: This email address is dead. If you would like to email me directly,
please use: cpalmaATSYMBOLastro.psu.edu