My second try at planting, help needed please :)

[freddiewee]

hi im freddie and im new to this forum and i have a few questions.
plesae bear with me and with some of the questions because im a quite a newbie to plant keeping.

i have tried to grow plants before, it worked. kinda. then all died cos my fan fell in, electrocuted all e fish too... some plants grew better than others for awhile before the incident, lol so changed to chiller.

i currently have a 200 litre (53 gallon) 4ft tank by 18" width by approx 55cm ht. theres about 4" of substrate (1-3mm size) inside my tank which i laid fertilizer in the middle layer. i use a CO2 tank and a external filter. i also use a chiller set at 25 degrees and a UV system.

i laid the fert like 2 years ago so i think its kinda worn down over time, any recommendations to what kind of fert tt i can use without disrupting the soil. i heard of laterite but i went to aquastar in yishun and only found it in powdered form so instead i bout jbl's fert in ball form and how much should i put per plant? currently i have sword ferns and javaferns and a few other plants tt are easier to keep. i also use seacheam Flourish and Excel.

i also have a slight brush algae problems, should i put medication in, which im rather fearful of disrupting the water balance, or just get more mollies and algae eaters to clean it up?

i use 4x36w pl lights at 6400k turned on for 8hrs a day with co2. is it also true that you would need 3 watts per gallon to successfully grow plants? so by calculations it would be about 40watts per light to get to the mark and im 18 watts short. not looking into MH as lots of $$ and hot. i also heard that sometimes no matter how much wattage you get the penetrating amt by the light is not enough to reach the bottom of your tank, right now my tank from water surface to gravel is less than 2ft.
do i need to get higher wattage bulbs? and how would i know that the light is able to penetrate deep enough?

Planting bunching plants never seem to work for me even with the tongs. the bottom part always gets soggy and the plant would die as for stem ones they're fine cos not as soft... any tips to prevent this?

Finally how much kg/cm sq of co2 should i put out esp since i plant to plant the whole tank. cos ive always been judging by the bubble counter...

[jason6142004]

i currently have a 200 litre (53 gallon) 4ft tank by 18" width by approx 55cm ht. theres about 4" of substrate (1-3mm size) inside my tank which i laid fertilizer in the middle layer. i use a CO2 tank and a external filter. i also use a chiller set at 25 degrees and a UV system.

i laid the fert like 2 years ago so i think its kinda worn down over time, any recommendations to what kind of fert tt i can use without disrupting the soil. i heard of laterite but i went to aquastar in yishun and only found it in powdered form so instead i bout jbl's fert in ball form and how much should i put per plant? currently i have sword ferns and javaferns and a few other plants tt are easier to keep. i also use seacheam Flourish and Excel.

i also have a slight brush algae problems, should i put medication in, which im rather fearful of disrupting the water balance, or just get more mollies and algae eaters to clean it up?

i use 4x36w pl lights at 6400k turned on for 8hrs a day with co2. is it also true that you would need 3 watts per gallon to successfully grow plants? so by calculations it would be about 40watts per light to get to the mark and im 18 watts short. not looking into MH as lots of $$ and hot. i also heard that sometimes no matter how much wattage you get the penetrating amt by the light is not enough to reach the bottom of your tank, right now my tank from water surface to gravel is less than 2ft.
do i need to get higher wattage bulbs? and how would i know that the light is able to penetrate deep enough?

MH is better at light penatration. correct me if i am wrong.

Planting bunching plants never seem to work for me even with the tongs. the bottom part always gets soggy and the plant would die as for stem ones they're fine cos not as soft... any tips to prevent this?

Finally how much kg/cm sq of co2 should i put out esp since i plant to plant the whole tank. cos ive always been judging by the bubble counter...

concentration of CO2 in water is usually measured in ppm. some people find it safe at 30ppm, 50ppm toxic for fauna. to find concentration of CO2, use the CO2 calculator here using PH and KH values: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/aq_calculator.php

[freddiewee]

oh hey thanks moss noob... heard theres also new t5 highout put lamps, wonder how are those tho.

[jacian]

Welcome to the forum!

You should be okay with the jbl balls. You may want to read up on the plant nutrients to understand fertilization better. I find that you do not need Seacheam Excel as you already have a CO2 system

If it is a slight brush algae, I will prefer to live with it that using medication. Adding more algae eater and manually removing it will helps. Anyway, with better nutrients balancing, hopefully the algae will be gone.

Your current lights setup should be enough for your sword plants and java ferns. 3 watts and more is required if you are into light demanding plants. However, not sure how old is your PL tube as it is advised to change a new tube every year.

The bubble counter will let you know how much CO2 you are injecting, get a CO2 drop checker to know the CO2 level in your tank. You may also use the kH and pH to determine the CO level.

[torque6]

Agree, an overdose of sechem sometimes are used to treat algae, however as discussed earlier, live with them, once your plants get establish, algae will be gone as now they will be competent to absorb nutrients far greater than algae.

As with base fert, jbl has been known as to be good, Im using just the gex soil which already have fert and dosing florena/potassium on a weekly basis.

[freddiewee]

oh hey thanks all! i appreciate the help, ill try it out and see how it goes