planted driftwwod

[Mattzilla]

i have a piece of planted driftwood that is looking a little poor. the plants are alive and growing SLIGHTLY...but it's not flourashing. i don't add any fertilizers or anything at the moment.

what do you think i should add to my water to 'pep up' my plants??

[kevkoi]

Might consider adding some liquid fertiliser to spruce up the growth.

[Mattzilla]

is that likely to cause an algea bloom???

[nornicle]

yes definitely consider dosing liquid fertilisers, but dose very very lightly..

i would personally recommend upping the lighting more... even anubias need some light to grow well! (i.e about a minimum of 2 4ft tri phophors over a standard 4 ft tank)

[luvfishies]

What is the lighting over the tank? Ideally, you should have more than 1 WPG (Watt Per Gallon), even for low light plants. What is the K value of the lights? Plants will use lighting in the 2,200 - 10,000K range. Higher than that, and the light isn't as useable for the plants.

I would be hesitant on adding ferts until we know the lighting.

Also, what kind of plants are we talking about here?

[flukes]

I would have to disagree about the kelvin (K) value that you said plants will thrive at, my lifeglo made by hagen is 18,000 k and the other globe is a NEC Biolux Tri phospher. All up i think it comes to about 1.6wpg and that is enough to keep my low light plants healthy. I add liquid fert, when ever i remember which would really only be every fortnight. I have no ferts in the substrate.
Id advise you not to get 2 of the same globes, in my decision i got the lifeglo which had a high K, and also higher amounts in the blue and green spectrum and the other globe (NEC Bio lux) was chosen mainly for the Tri phospher. Globes have different lengths or beams of light and most aquarium globes will only be dual (2) phospher were as the tri phospher has 3. So with these 2 globes i have covered most of the plants needs.
The Hagen lifeglo can be found at most aquariums and the NEC biolux can be found at bunnings, just go to the lighting sections and look for a green box with fish on it!!
Again id just like to state that this is for low light tanks, without Co2 and not much ferts. I think if you do want to have the plants in a discus tank you want to stay on the easy side of things, just because if you do decide to have high light plants, with a 3wpg+ amount of light Co2 will be needed and unless you are willing to pay big bickies for a pressurised system and maybe even a ph controller then the amount of Co2 and the ph for that matter is hard to maintain stable.

Now back to the topic, what are the plants on the driftwood?? I am guessing as nornicle said some anubias and maybe some java fern. Well these plants are classified as low light plants so you shouldnt need to be doing too much to get them thriving. Really low light plants need 1.5-2wpg, medium light plants 2-3wpg and high light plants 3+wpg. Just again in a discus tank you really want to be sticking to low light plants just as higher light level plants need more maintaince which can effect you water pars. The low level plants are great with discus anyway in my tank i have the following which are flourishing at 1.65wpg
- Amazon swords (great for discus)
- Anubias (a few different kinds)
- Vals (these are probably doing the worst in my tank but they arnt dying)
- Java fern (great for drift wood)
- Java Moss (great for covering rocks and driftwood but make sure it doesnt get out of hand.)

With these plants you should be able to keep a great planted tank with plenty of places for the discus to hide. I am guessing the problem with your tank is amount of lighting as these low level plants should be ok without alot of use of ferts. So get the watts of you globe/s add them together and divide by the gallons of water in the tank. I am guessing you only have one globe in there which i dont think is enough for plants.
eg.
Globe wattage - 36watts (Hagen) + 30watts (NEC) = 66watts.
Gallons on planted tank - 39.something ill call it 40.
66watts/40gallons = 1.65wpg.
Enough for the plants listed.


Hope this helped.
Scott

[Mattzilla]

thanks for the info guys

i have one light tibe...it is a biolux 30 watt

my tank is 2 feet deep... i have attached a picture of my planted driftwood so you can see what plant species there are.

i wouldn't have a clue of the names of what plants there are so please let me know
i do know there are three different types of plants.

two are very similar....just different in size

thanks

[Mattzilla]

i have circled the three types of plants

1. i think this is anubias??? this is growing quite well
2. some sort of sword?? this is on the majority of the driftwood and is doing the worst. it used to have lots of very large green leaves. i did have an algae problem growing on alot of the leaves and i think that killed a lot of them
3. this is very similar to the large sword (2) and is gowing quite well as well. it's very hard to see in this picture

what advice do you give me???

i am not interested in adding any equipment to my tank, i just want them to grow a little better so they don't look half dead

thanks

[Proteus]

FYI... 6500k is the BEST spectrum warmth in regards to planted tanks...

Having said that, it doesnt mean other areas of the spectrum wont work, just some are more prone to Algae, etc...

6500-6700k is basically the same spectrum as what Plants would normally get off the Sun...

But, as with most areas in this hobby... whatever works is good...

[Mattzilla]

does it say on the globe what it is....ie 6500k or whatever???

[Proteus]

Sometimes it does, other tmes it is only found on the packaging...

If you know the brand, and type, do a Google search as most manufacturers have specs for there tubes and bulbs online...

[Mattzilla]

i have some more info on my tank that may be helpfull

200ltr tank
2 foot tall
one 30 watt biolux globe on a timer...on from 11.00am - 11.00pm every day
7.2 ph
60ppm carbonate hardness
0 ppm nitrite
0-5 ppm nitrate
40% minimum w/c daily

does that help at all?

[luvfishies]

I'm a little confused..this is a BULB light?

[Mattzilla]

no it's a flouro tube

[benanddebbie]

Matt

We have run a 6x2x2ft tank for a number of years, and many relocations, on flouro tubes and no fertiliser in the substrate or added. The growth after the first foot from the top has always been limited (slow).

After some discussion with my father who is in the lighting game i managed to get some 150W Metal Halide lights that all his customers with aquariums have been delighted with. Can supply more info if you like - it is definitely worth doing some homework with electrical wholesalers as they were a lot cheaper than anything i have seen in any fish shop.

After making a hood to hold the lights above the water and allow ventilation the plant growth has skyrocketed even at the base of the tank. The light level difference in the 2nd foot of water is phenomenal and it has significantly increased the colours noticable in the tank.

As far as we are concerned if you can go metal halide it is well worth it. :lol: Bare bottom is not really an option then though as there would be lots of reflection.

[flukes]

Geesus you pulled this one out of the archives...

Thats when i could actually type something larger than 2 sentences.. :lol:

[Mattzilla]

talk about an old thread.....lol

[flukes]

Is that tank still up matt, driftwood and all??

[Mattzilla]

i still have the tank but none of the fish or the driftwood

[flukes]

Well it was a year ago!! :wink:

Was a nice tank though..

[DiscusMan]

So tell us all

Did the plant die?

Die it get eaten?

Come on you cant leave it hanging now :)

Wayne

[Mattzilla]

i sold it actually..... it grew too well and got too big for the tank even after i cut it up and attached the cuttings to some new driftwood. in fact all the planted driftwood i have now is from that on big one pictured.....

so in a way i still have the plants.... i guess...lol