Ting's 2ft Tank

**Ting** · 24th Feb 2006, 01:18

Hi all,

Need some advice here, it's been almost a month plus, but my plants seems to be growing very slowly. Especially my red lily, no new leaf yet, still as midget as ever. Maybe because I reset the whole tank.

I topped up more base fertilizer, new sand.
But partial water is recycled from the old tank
still using the same external filter, have not clean it until last week

using Co2 tank, pumping almost 3-5bubbles per sec, 8hrs a day
15watt acardia florescent light, I think around 8000-8500k.

Please advise

Ting

**Goondoo** · 24th Feb 2006, 01:25

Originally Posted by Ting

Hi all,

Need some advice here, it's been almost a month plus, but my plants seems to be growing very slowly. Especially my red lily, no new leaf yet, still as midget as ever. Maybe because I reset the whole tank.

I topped up more base fertilizer, new sand.
But partial water is recycled from the old tank
still using the same external filter, have not clean it until last week

using Co2 tank, pumping almost 3-5bubbles per sec, 8hrs a day
15watt acardia florescent light, I think around 8000-8500k.

Please advise

Ting

Whats the size of your tank? Look too big for 15w light?

**joe** · 24th Feb 2006, 09:18

goondoo, title says 2ft la

15w seems pretty low for a 2ft tank ... can try increasing it if u can

**eddyq** · 24th Feb 2006, 09:34

IMHO,15 watts not enough for 2 ft tank,try 2x36PL. Can insert root monster near red plant.Also plant more, yr scape too bare and to contain algae.

**Goondoo** · 24th Feb 2006, 15:06

Originally Posted by joe

goondoo, title says 2ft la

15w seems pretty low for a 2ft tank ... can try increasing it if u can

oops.... must be too tired

**PeterGwee** · 24th Feb 2006, 15:58

Add more light but not too much. 2x15w FL or a 36w PC light should be enough to grow plants well abit slowly (but then you get more room for error in terms of CO2/nutrients.).

3-5 bubbles is a bit high for a 2ft tank. Unless you are shedding it off at a high rate from loads of surface turbulence, you need to look into where the CO2 is actually getting to and the method.

Regards
Peter Gwee

**ranmasatome** · 24th Feb 2006, 16:44

check your fert dosage as well... you lotus is dying from a totally white leaf!!

**Ting** · 25th Feb 2006, 01:12

Thanks guys for the advice.

Last time I used to use a 36w PL, but the tank temp went up to almost 30 deg, so i thought maybe cutting down, the temp can be easier to maintain. Currently the temp is 26-28 deg (partly due to the cool weather and my room fan). Maybe I'll add another florescent tube. But will the algae booms?

Co2 wise, I'm using only a simple diffuser, been trying to figure out how to utilise it better. that day I tried putting the diffuser very near to my filter inlet, so the co2 will be sucked into the filter and mix into the water. not sure if it's effective.

For my poor lily, i think later i give him a treat of fertiliser tablet. hope it likes.

Ah by the way, I'm thinking to make a moss wall to make my tank less dessert-like, any good recommendations?

cheers
Ting

**anaconda** · 25th Feb 2006, 01:23

You can try shoving a root monster near your cluster of stem plants. That works for me. Plants grow fast and thats in my super low maintenance tanks. No base fert, no CO2, no dosing of any nutrients, running just 1x36W tube on timer for about 8 hours and fan . Just top up when water is low and remove some of the protein flim when it gets too ugly

**|squee|** · 25th Feb 2006, 10:56

Imho, moss walls look fake and won't contribute anything to the lushness of your tank.

Try buying more plants, like more cryptocoryne to plant around the ones you have now. Get stemmed plants, they're the easiest plants to use to get the thick grown-in effect.

As for your light, algae might come if you do not have enough plant mass in there (which you don't have right now) to "soak up the excess energy".

**PeterGwee** · 25th Feb 2006, 11:23

Originally Posted by |squee|

As for your light, algae might come if you do not have enough plant mass in there (which you don't have right now) to "soak up the excess energy".

Dominate from the start is the key, excess nutrients isn't the issue. Much like agriculture, you get unwanted weeds but if you plant the crops you wanted to grow in sheer mass from the start, the weeds would be of little issue.

Regards
Peter Gwee

**d2hpeter** · 25th Feb 2006, 12:21

the other thing to take note would be the water temp, esp for good moss growth.
Learned this thru hard lesson. Previously tried to grow moss bed without putting cooling ac fan and was disaster.
Now with the fan and temp at 26C, moss grow like crazy even with average light. White tips forming everyday.

**evolim83** · 25th Feb 2006, 23:14

You might wanna to look at the 2ft Maqnum light!
NA selling quite cheap, with warranty somemore!
Would not advice you to go for the moss wall too!
Too troublesome liao!
Make sure you increase your plant mass before increasing the lights!
Gd luck!

**Ting** · 26th Feb 2006, 22:08

thanks guys,

I've stuff some fertiliser to the plants today.

Will go plant hunting next week. guess if i wait till the plants mature to fill up the tank will take ages...

how about tenalus grass or hair grass? I tried tenalus grass in the begining of the setup, but all got wiped up... don't know is it because of my heavy current from my oversize filter (it's actually meant for 3ft tank), or I planted it too deep...

will need to get some bigger plants to fill up the tank background. any "lobangs"?

cheers
Ting

**|squee|** · 4th Mar 2006, 22:39

You must have planted them too deeply. Try hairgrass then since you've got very good flow.

**escahmo** · 5th Mar 2006, 00:49

nice tank..................

**Ting** · 1st Apr 2006, 02:06

Here's my tank after 2 months.

added some more plants and relocated my poor little red lily, showing some improvments by growing 2 more tiny leafs... better than nothing...

haven't change my lights yet, cos everything seems quite ok at the moment.

jus planted some hairgrass on the foreground. after some painful experience with my naughty giant sae sweeping all my hairgrass out a few times

Not going to touch my tank anymore. now wait for everything to florish.