Sea Gull Posted June 11 Report Share Posted June 11 My tank has water! Finally there is something to do other than killing off some specific bacteria. Aquarium system 2.0 now has plants, a Hydrocotyle (pennywort) species and a Nymphoides indica (snowflake lily). They've put on healthy leaves since being submerged. They're going to need to provide cover for my fish, so they've still got some growing to do before any animals go in. They're in a new system without much available "stuff" to use for this, and their new growth is slowing down and looking weaker. They seem to be especially struggling with nitrogen and iron, but the idea of putting a complete fertilizer the water column is making me nervous about algae blooms. Is it worth adding root tabs to my plants to get them the missing nutrients? And is there a way to add small amounts of usable nitrogen to my water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 11 Report Share Posted June 11 I have never had a tank without fish but know a lot of people use root tabs successfully. Why not add a fast growing plant, like water sprite/Indian fern? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Gull Posted July 20 Author Report Share Posted July 20 thank you! These are great ideas and we were just about to buy some root tabs before my dad noticed the tank light somehow decided to stop responding to being turned off. We decided to make the light period longer instead of unplugging and replugging the whole thing a couple of times a day. The pennywort (which is apparently fast growing and unkillable) has died. Though the lily has been enjoying the extra space and nutrients, it's twice the height and width it was before. Once we've sorted out the light situation and algae we'll try another fast growing plant and some root tabs. It was definitely a good choice to wait for the system to get some stable growth before adding fish. Even if this was not the type of problem we'd expected. Caryl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted July 20 Report Share Posted July 20 We have old fluorescents on our tank for lighting. It is very noticeable how much brighter it is when we replace the tubes! We used to have a steady supply as it was my husband's job to replace all the light tubes in his work buildings every 2 years so we had an endless supply but he has now retired and we threw out a lot of the tubes a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.