Tank remodeling help needed

[Jatt16]

After the snails invaded my tank and grew to unstopable numbers i stripped my 220l tank and rinsed and put everything into boiling water(i know it is pretty cruel but what could i do i already tried snail rid but it didn't work) These snails were seriously unstoppable. So now i am starting fresh again the tank has a top aquaone tank filters a heater and 3 tubes a pink, a white, and uv. I always wanted to have plants in my tank but they normally would shrivel up and turn yellow what can i do prevent this probem, do i have to add any plant equipment.I am thinking to add guppys, platties and swordtails and a betta and have a gravel substrate.

Any opinions will help

Thanks

[lmsmith]

Sigh. Shoulda sent the snails to me.

.

Plants need light and food. Fish poo can be food, so it sounds like you need better lighting. Try changing your bulbs. They get old after a year or so and I always get a big boom when I replace the lights. You also need the right wavelength for plants, but there'll be someone here who knows much more than I do about that.

Apparently, you need 3w/gallon to grow plants well. That info was from www.plantedtank.net. I have way less that that, but I do notice yellowing if I need to change the bulbs.

You could also try some sort of fertilizer. Lots of people use daltons aquatic mix under their substrate. I've also found that sand works really well for plants.

Sorry for this rambling post. I'm more tired than I thought :-?

[Jatt16]

so lighting was may main problem and yes i might try daltons aquatic mix

Theres twice as many snails in my other breeding tanks, you can have as many as you want

[VinsonMassif]

You only get too many snails from a glut, or over supply of available food.

The easiest way to reduce (and maintain low) snail populations is restrict food supply.

[Dave+Amy]

hard if it's Discus..they should get fed more often than most fish - especially juvie tanks

[Jatt16]

Thanks for the replys just had some more questions

what colour tubes should i get and how many watts shold they be

and this may be dumb question but if i add daltons aquatic mix and i clean the gravel wont they mix up and dirty the tank

thanks

[Dave+Amy]

I found my 10,000K tube from the local electric wholesalers work really well in growing my plants (I don't even use much fert) - only set me back $15 whereas if you got it from a petshop think it was quoted arounf $40?

Why are you set on using Daltons? Have you thought of using a smaller grain pebble?

Personally haven't used Daltons before but I'd imagine it would be easier to siphon and clean a tank with slightly larger pebbles - and you need your water quality very high since you've got Discus (was for Discus wasn't it?)

[whetu]

Dalton's isn't essential, and as you're just getting into plants I would suggest you start off not using it - you can always get some if you decide to set up a high-tech planted tank later.

I would suggest your two current issues are lighting and nutrients. Start off by changing all three of your tubes as suggested already. Also add a few slow-release fert balls under your plants. Once the plants are nicely established, you can also add some general solubale ferts to the water. Apparently PMDD is a cheap and effective option (I haven't tried it myself) but you can also get general, balanced ferts from an aquarium shop.

Good luck with your plant project - it's well worth putting in the effort for a beautiful tank.