Fish tanks and live plants

[sephiroth]

I got a 65 gallon at home with African Cichlids -- no plants though, these fish will eat em.

My daughter has a community tank (guppies, tetras) and we had plants in there, but they all died (got eaten).

The only place we've had success with plants is in a Betta bowl (yes, three tanks total) where we've got some sort water plant where the roots are in the water and the leaves form a canopy above the water. It's actually quite a pretty set up. This may be what you need for the 6 gallon. A 6 gallon tank si so small you can just do frequent water changes to keep it clean. Take the filter and any other kind of BS out. A good live plant will keep the nitrogen cycle going.

[561design]

Originally Posted by BRANDON BOND

sounds like I need a fish tank.

Get one of these guys in your shop.

It's an Arowana AKA dragon fish. They've been known to grow over 3 feet long in the amazon river. I had one that was almost 2 feet long in a 200g tank. Then one day he jumped out.

That was one expensive fish to maintain. He'd only eat feeder fish.

[acidbaby]

Is dosing calcium and co2 something one would do in a freshy tank? I keep reefs and use plants as algae control. They cut down on nuisance algae by utilizing nutrients that help algae grow. The last thing you want to be doing is dosing any tank with PO4 (phosphate) algae blooms from hell will occur.

wetwebmedia.com is another great fishy pet site, Bob Fenner runs it, he writes fishy books.

[Corigan]

Originally Posted by acidbaby

Is dosing calcium and co2 something one would do in a freshy tank? I keep reefs and use plants as algae control. They cut down on nuisance algae by utilizing nutrients that help algae grow. The last thing you want to be doing is dosing any tank with PO4 (phosphate) algae blooms from hell will occur.

wetwebmedia.com is another great fishy pet site, Bob Fenner runs it, he writes fishy books.

Acttually this information is quite wrong from a freshwater planted perspective. In my reef tank I would never add PO4, but in a freshwater planted tank it is mandatory. That is if you are doing a high light setup. There are two ways of thinking with planted tank, low light no co2 and high light with co2. Any plants that need high light will need co2. I have a 5# co2 cylinder and regulator that dumps co2 into a co2 reactor that dumps into the tank. This promotes the growth of plants. The more co2, the faster and more lush they will grow. Of course it is a constant balance as if you have too much co2, it will kill your fish.

As I stated earlier in this thread, if you tank is consuming all of your nutrients your plants will starve much like the algae in your reef tank. You will need to keep your nutrients in a 10:1 ratio. I.E. 10ppm for Nitrates and 1ppm for Phosphates. If you let these out of control, algae bloom. If you don't have any phosphates in the water, then the plants will starve and have deficiencies. It is a total different method of thinking than that of what we do in our reef tanks. Some people just feed extremely heavy and multiple times a day to keep their phosphates up. My system demanded so many nutrients since it is such high light that it eats through the nitrates and phosphates. I have to dose P04 to my tank. I have no visible algae whatsoever as the plants eat it up. i
I have to tell you though, the first time I dosed phosphates I thought my system was going to explode with algae, but that is not the case with plants. The plants actually eat it up. They will grab the nutrients before the algae will. This is why you use the co2 to spur their growth so they out-compete the algae for nutrients.

As for calcium, yes, you may need to add this. My water is extremely soft (less than 2dkh Hardness) and my KH is even worse (1KH). I have to add both equillibrium, which is a mixture of magnesium flakes, calcium, iron, and a few others things to bring up the GH. I then have to add baking soda/baking ash to bring up the KH. If I don't buffer the KH when adding co2, then there will be a PH crash and all will die. co2 additions lowers your PH. If you don't have high calcium your plants will grow short, small, and curled. It is a sign of calcium deficiency in plants. Also calcium deficiency will mess with the uptake of nitrogen in the plants. This will lead to the plants not only be curled, but yellow in appearance.

All of this is discussed on Planted Tank and the APC. Tom Barr is kinda the guru when it comes to planted tanks. Bob Fenner is the man wen it comes to reefs.

Matt

[561design]

Here's the completion of my office tank. I stocked it with plants right after the first posting of this thread. I've been using a liquid fertilizer and the correct amount of light. I let it go for a few weeks so I could see the growth and color in the plants. I then stocked up the tank with fish. So far so good. My next step is to go 100% bio filtration or use some Purigen. Either way I want to remove all the carbon in my filtration process.

[resonanteye]

Originally Posted by BRANDON BOND

sounds like I need a fish tank.

it'll lower your blood pressure for sure
just don't get fish that hide always hahaha...that is my mistake

[Corigan]

Nice Picture. Are you running carbon 24/7 on your system even when you fertilize? Carbon will remove much of the fertilizer that you dose the tank with. That wisteria is still in it's form when it is grown above water, wait till you see it when it grows out in it's submerged form. The Anarachis will grow fast as well.

Matt

[561design]

Right now I'm running a very small amount of carbon in the system. I'd like to run a full bio setup and dump the carbon. My Nitrites and Nitrates have slightly gone up since I've stocked the tank. So I've been doing more frequent water changes @ once every two weeks. I'd like to figure out how to contain those levels so it'll be a little more self sufficent.

BTW, I didn't realize you were up in Woodstock as well. What part? I live over by Woodstock Elementary. Just north of Old Town Woodstock.