freshwater plants question

I just got an order of plants from That Fish Place, very happy with them. I
have several corkscrew vals, 2 rad___ (something) swords, 2 dwarf onion
plants and a moss ball. I only have a 10 gallon, so these amount of plants
give a very nice, moderately lush setting for my community tank. I have a
125 penguin biowheel filter. And I use 2 (20 watt) compact fluorescent
bulbs. Having said that I hope my filteration and wattage is adequate
because I'm not an expert. Now onto my concern about caring for these
plants. I have limited funds, time and expertise so I want to make the best
of the plant quality. I'm not going to go out and buy an expensive
complicated co2 thingy. Currently I have plant tabs and I also have florish
excel. Given all this info, what would you suggest in my plant care?
Thanks!

One more question. Prior to live plants I did a water change every 3 weeks
and that seemed fine. I never have problems with fish deaths or water
quality (I do test monthly). However I did have moderate algae growth on
the glass and plastic plants. With the plants to add oxygen to the tank and
to fight with the algae, should I do water changes more often with plants,
or will I find I can go longer with the plants? keeping in mind I will be
adding florish excel to the water. Also I'm a little confused with the
florish excel instructions, it says to add 1 ml for every 10 gallons "every
day or every other day". Does this seem too frequent?

"Tara Legale" wrote in message
...
I just got an order of plants from That Fish Place, very happy with them.
I have several corkscrew vals, 2 rad___ (something) swords, 2 dwarf onion
plants and a moss ball. I only have a 10 gallon, so these amount of
plants give a very nice, moderately lush setting for my community tank. I
have a 125 penguin biowheel filter. And I use 2 (20 watt) compact
fluorescent bulbs. Having said that I hope my filteration and wattage is
adequate because I'm not an expert. Now onto my concern about caring for
these plants. I have limited funds, time and expertise so I want to make
the best of the plant quality. I'm not going to go out and buy an
expensive complicated co2 thingy. Currently I have plant tabs and I also
have florish excel. Given all this info, what would you suggest in my
plant care? Thanks!
================================
Get a "complete fertilizer" type liquid at your local pet shop. Pet
Supermarket and PetsMart carry them in my area. Or go to the Foster & Smith
online site and see what they have. That's where I get mine.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

"Tara Legale" wrote in message
...
One more question. Prior to live plants I did a water change every 3
weeks and that seemed fine. I never have problems with fish deaths or
water quality (I do test monthly). However I did have moderate algae
growth on the glass and plastic plants. With the plants to add oxygen to
the tank and to fight with the algae, should I do water changes more often
with plants, or will I find I can go longer with the plants? keeping in
mind I will be adding florish excel to the water. Also I'm a little
confused with the florish excel instructions, it says to add 1 ml for
every 10 gallons "every day or every other day". Does this seem too
frequent?
=========================
I feel I wasted my money with Flourish Excel. It made no difference one way
or the other. I got the best results from the tabs placed in the gravel
under the plants and plain Flourish. Excel isn't a fertilizer and it didn't
kill algae in any of my tanks as some people claim. Continue the water
changes.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

Tara Legale wrote:
I just got an order of plants from That Fish Place, very happy with them. I
have several corkscrew vals, 2 rad___ (something) swords, 2 dwarf onion
plants and a moss ball. I only have a 10 gallon, so these amount of plants
give a very nice, moderately lush setting for my community tank. I have a
125 penguin biowheel filter. And I use 2 (20 watt) compact fluorescent
bulbs. Having said that I hope my filteration and wattage is adequate
because I'm not an expert. Now onto my concern about caring for these
plants. I have limited funds, time and expertise so I want to make the best
of the plant quality. I'm not going to go out and buy an expensive
complicated co2 thingy. Currently I have plant tabs and I also have florish
excel. Given all this info, what would you suggest in my plant care?
Thanks!


Sounds like a nice selection of plants......the vals should send out
side shoots eventually and spread nicely across the tank......Can't
comment on the lighting really as I'm no expert but it should be
adequate for most plants - you might have a problem with the red plants
as these often require a higher light intensity...

As for encouraging the plant growth it sounds like you have got it
sussed for now - I don't use CO2 either but do use Flourish Excel in one
of my tanks - I've been dosing weekly with the water change, not quite
as per the instructions on the bottle but it works for me. One thing
that I have found is that I've never had a problem with algae in the
tank where I do use it......It is in the same location where I had an
algea ridden 4 foot tank so it's not down to direct sunlight......The
theory with plants and adding ferts and CO2/Flourish Excel is that by
promoting the growth higher level plants the algae gets starved
out....Of course you will still get the green spot stuff on the glass....

As for water changes if you are happy with your water quality then your
current regime should be fine - the plants will help keep the good water
quality and reduce phosphates and nitrates naturally (so in fact improve
it).....Personally I would say increasing the water change frequency
would have a negative impact rather than a positive one on the plants -
I do weekly changes on my tanks that sometimes creeps up to
fortnightly.....Just one thing to add on the water changes, and that is
making the assumption that you gravel vac at the same time, is be
careful vaccuuming around the plant roots....in fact the roots of the
plants should help keep the gravel cleaner and aerated anyhow.....

Gill

I used to buy plants, only to have them dissolve and die off in my 120L
tank. Better lighting and flourish excel, combined with a better choice
of plants bought on-line has worked wonders. Algae (which I didn't
really have a problem with to begin) has all but disappeared. I do a 15%
change every week, skipping one in every four weeks. Fewer water changes
are better for plants, worse for fish. It's all about finding the
balance that works for your setup. I dose with flourish 3 times weekly.

HTH,
Rob.

Whats this Carol Gulley still pretending to know what the hell your
talkin gabout. You need to get off the internet its for adults. Carol
Gulley is a plagaraizing attention whore badly in need of meds. She
really belongs in that fat assed low carb diet group with her other
buddy!


-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Ahhhhhhhhh, so if its not Miss Legale all 350+ pounds of her....whats
a matter there fat ass you like the attention you got before and had
to come back for more.......or do you plan to grab info and then slam
the group again?


-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

"~Roy~" wrote in message
...
Ahhhhhhhhh, so if its not Miss Legale all 350+ pounds of her....

Sigh... And we were doing so well for awhile.

Tara Legale wrote:

I just got an order of plants from That Fish Place, very happy with them.**I
have several corkscrew vals, 2 rad___ (something) swords, 2 dwarf onion
plants and a moss ball.***I*only*have*a*10*gallon,*so*these*amount*o f*plants
give a very nice, moderately lush setting for my community tank.**I*have*a
125 penguin biowheel filter.**And*I*use*2*(20*watt)*compact*fluorescent
bulbs.**Having*said*that*I*hope*my*filteration*and *wattage*is*adequate
because I'm not an expert.

You've got way too much light without CO2 injection. I had 2 of the 10 watt
CFs in a 10 gallon and my plants did great. I did use Excel as well as
fertilizer tabs so can't say which did the most good.

I'm not familiar with the Penguin but I used the smallest AquaClear with no
problems. I changed 2 gallons of water once a week, but that will depend on
your fish load.

The plants will eventually deposit an amazing amount of crud (mulm) so be sure
to vacuum occasionally.

My suggestion would be to add some pygmy chain swords (E. tenellus, IIRC) to
carpet the tank with 2" high grass. Yes, it does make the vacuuming a little
harder, but it really looks nice.

--
It's turtles, all the way down