I HONESTLY FEEL LIKE I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT RAISING MY FISH AT THIS POINT. I HAVE A 55GAL TANK WITH 4 FISH AND I WANT TO START PLANTING LIVE PLANTS, BECAUSE I AM SICK OF CLEANING THE FAKE ONES BECAUSE I HATE THE WAY THEY LOOK WITH ALL KINDS OF ALGE ON THEM. I WAS OUT OF TOWN AND SEEN THAT A WAL-MART STORE HAD LIVE PLANTS THAT YOU COULD PURCHASE AND I WAS INSPIRED. I LIKE THE IDEA OF PLANTING GROWN PLANTS BECAUSE I CAN PLACE THEM IN A WAY THAT LOOKS NICE. I DID DROP IN SOME BULBS/SEEDS THE OTHER DAY AS AN EXPERIMENT BUT THEY ARE JUST FLOATING AROUND, I THINK THAT ROUTE MAY BE A LOST CAUSE. NOW HERE IS MY QUESTIONS AM I GOING TO NEED ANY SPECIAL TYPE OR DEPTH OF GRAVLE OR SAND, OR CAN I JUST PLANT THEM IN THE INCH OF COARSE ROCK THAT I ALREADY HAVE.
My best advice to you at this point would be to do as much research as possible, by going through these forum pages, and learning how to keep your tank properly cycled and running smoothly. Have you read through all the articles in the article section, these will help tremendously?
Once you feel comfortable with your existing tank and feel you have algae, the cycle, your fish, and all other elements under control, then step into live plants... as this is yet another element you will have to keep controlled. This is just my opinion though, as i personally know its very hard to do the other things before even worrying how to keep plants alive.
Or if you like to dive in heads first, give it a go and there will be plenty of people to give you great advice or solutions to your tank problems.
(on a side note, all my plants are fake, and I have yet to clean one from algae or anything... i just keep everything else in check and the plants stay clean... so its also possible to improve your existing tank to the way you like it... we can offer advice on better filteration, etc... just tell us exactly what you have for equipment and your routine)
spongebob is right, absolutely right, with the do your homework, make sure that you are ready for plants and know as much as there is to know about them, substrate- you want at least three inches of something along the lines of eco-complete planting substrate. this can be expensive, 20lb bags run anywhere from 30-40 bucks depending on where you go, if you have a lfs, that you go to quite often they may give you a bit of a discount but i wouldn't count on that, secondly- filtration, you want to over filtrate your tank, nothing will be more helpful and beneficial, third- you want your tank to be at a stable temp of around 78-82 degrees for most live plants, fourth- make sure your tank is properly lighted, this i can't help you much with because i use a system i've developed for my specific need, but i can tell you that you are going to want high wattage full spectrum bulbs, maybe a double set of metal halide lamps would work for your 55 gal. fifth, make sure you choose your fish wisely, many many many many fish are omnivorous and will decimate your plant population in a very short time. these are just some suggestions to get you started. start slow and work up to perfection, if it isn't right do it over, if it isn't broke don't fix it.
hope this helps,
Brandonzzzz
UHU......HUH! OK WELL I WAS ON THE ROAD WITH WORK ALOT AND I JUST LANDED A JOB THAT WILL KEEP ME LOCAL AND I WAS CHANGING 25% OF THE WATER ONCE A MONTH BUT NOW I AM CHANGING 25% OF THE WATER EVERY OTHER WEEK. THAT SEEMS TO REALLY HELP MY TANK CLEANLINESS.
AS FAR AS THE LIGHTING I HAVE TWO 16 INCH 15WATTS FLORESCENT LAMPS SPANNING THE WITH OF THE INIRE TANK. I WOULD THINK THIS SHOULD BE ADEQUATE LIGHTING. DO YOU?
AS FAR AS FILTRATION I HAVE A WHISPER 30-60 THAT HANGS ON THE BACK OF THE TANK I AM THINKING I WANT TO GET ANOTHER ONE FOR THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TANK. I JUST INSTALLED A 12 BUBBLE STONE IN THE BACK CENTER OF THE TANK THE OTHER DAY FOR TWO REASONS ONE I WANTED BETTER WATER CIRCULATION AND TWO MY OXYGEN LEVELS WERE A LITTLE ON THE LOW SIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CLEANING CYCLE.
NOW SPONGEBOB I SEE THE PIC OF YOUR TANK AND WOW THAT IS NICE, VERY CLEAN. YOU SAY YOU NEVER HAVE TO CLEAN YOUR ARTIFICIAL PLANTS. WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR PLANTS NEVER GET ICKY AND MINE DO?
the wattage should be fine just get some diff bulbs, one spectra max full spec and one flora-sun, this should be more than plenty for your sized tank, extra filtration never hurts, also i forgot to ask how long do you have your lights on per day? this could be part of the cause for the algae growth, too much light can have an effect on algae growth, if you cut down to roughly twelve hours or a little under depending on the fish you keep, just think about how much daylight they would have in their natural environment and stick with that, and you should do just fine.
I have the lights on 24/7, thats prolly a bad thing HUH? I have been thinking about going to a more natural cycle but i am not sure how i should swing that. maybe i could use a timer switch that plugs into the wall. Should i have the lights on in the day time or turn them off at night?
I have a $10 dollar timer plug for my lights... and they are set to go on around 5 pm and turn off around 11 pm (so roughly six hours). I don't have the tank near any direct sunlight... and when I had my lights on for any longer than 7 hours i would get bad algae, so i bought the timer and i havent had any problems since then. For sure this is your issue, I would leave your lights on for a max of 7-8 hours, less if you see algae taking over (some few amount will grow, but very slight which you can also then control with your water quality). It depends on how much sunlight you get, if you dont get much you can leave it on for a bit longer, but try less first as opposed to more as its hard to clean algae.
Another element that adds to algae is water quality. I just used an algaecide to get rid of a green water algae bloom (which was teh result of excess nutrients from 6 fish i added at once)... it worked like a charm, but my nitrite levels were deadly for a few days after as i did water changes every day of 25% until they reached zero, so try to stay away from that product, you shouldnt have to use it except in extreme cases, and if you do you have to closely watch your water levels (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate). You can get a liquid test kit for these by API.
Try the timer and you will see a huge difference in the water quality. Depending on the algae you got, your plants might need replacing, as some are impossible to clean certain algae off.
As for the filteration, I would personally suggest a gph of 10 times your tank size if not more. Personally I have two filters on my 20 gallon, which move close to 240 gph (or 12 times my tank size). You say you have a whisper 30-60... im not sure of the gph, but a whisper 60 has 330 gph... which is about 5-6 times your tank size... i would add another of similar size, but check your current filter's gph and add accordingly. It will make your water much clearer and healthier for the fish, you will notice them much happier and active. At that point you can look into adding other media for different uses.
24/7! I think we have the cause of the algae problem. Your lights should only be on 8-10 hours/day although for some plants you may need 12 hours. That is the max though. Anymore than that and you are asking for problems. Like spongebob said - get a timer. It makes life much easier.
I'm coming in kind of late in the thread. All I want to say is that Anubias, my favorite low light plant, will grow in anything as well as on wood. It comes in leaf sizes from the size of a dime to that of a large orange shaped football.
I have mainly gravel, a mix of relatively fine to medium sized, in my 100 gallon planted and Amazon sword, anubias, even vall (a reed like plant) grows pretty well in it. Val requires a bit more light though.
I recently started a planted tank where I chose a mix of Eco-Complete and fluorite because these are considered the best for plants, though you can't use an undergravel filter with these.
also - -if i might butt in here . . . .if you've been running those lights 24/7 for 5 months straight ....I'd say you've gotten all the goody out of em.....rule of thumb I use is ...new bulbs every 6 months {and thats running 2 timers on 10K and actinic, different lighting sorry} but the theory is the same on bulb life....after 5-6 months you are loseing your spectrum and not getting much benifiet....especially if your entertaining live plants.....just a thought,
SB with the save!! I try to change my bulbe every 4 months though because i am running a higher time level than most, i run roughly 12 hrs on my flora suns, cause they are purple color and simulate more of morning and evening hours, and my spectra max i run six, the spectras are on a timer, for six hours during the midday time of my cycle and the floras on for full 12 my plants and fish could not be happier. the extra light is needed for some of the plants that i have. although i want to get a set of moon light lamps for the night time eventually when my wallet recovers from all the spending i have done in the past three months!!! eventually i want to simulate a full natural light cycle and work with the phases of the moon, more or less an experiment really, i want to follow the tides so to speak, even in a fish tank it's still water and the moon has an effect on water water everywhere. so in this thinking i want to simulate the entire natural cycle and see if this effects my tank and fish in any way shape or form as far as comfort and creating an entire biosphere type environment. as fish keepers we try to mimic natural environments as best as we can so that fish health is at peak at all times, that's kind of where i am coming from with this, what ya think?
these are all just ideas that i thought i would throw out there not to hijack this post but i feel like it's sound thinking and that everyone reading this post could benefit from reading....
Brandon
I'm envious of your set up Brandon. Sounds wonderful. My co2 is showing positive results with my plants. I'm working with old light though, and I'm sure it would be better with a $450.00 money dump to get new bulbs.
