# Advice on my first planted tank



## 6.0DSLPWR (Jun 6, 2010)

Hey guys. Ive had this tank for about 5 years now and about 6 months ago I started turning it into a planted tank. This is my first planted tank and between being young, going back to school a few times for an apprenticeship and saving to move out on my own I wasn't able to dive right into a planted setup so I did it in stages which I realized wasn't the best way to do it. At times I battled algae issues and dead plants but I was forced to learn a lot along the way.

Over the past 6 months Ive changed my setup to support plants and currently the tank is...
55 Gallon Tank
Hagen Glo Dual T5HO Light
Eco-Complete Substrate
Fluval 305 Filter
Hydor Inline Heater
10 Gallon Co2 Setup from JL
Up Agua Inline Diffuser
EI Ferts (KNO3, KH2P04, K2SO4, Trace)

I am following this dosing schedule I found online

40-60 Gallon Aquariums
+/- 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- 1/8 tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- 1/8 tsp K2SO4 3x a week
+/- 1/8 (10ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

I have been dosing the fertilizer for about 3 months now and at first was using Fluval Excel. I have only had pressurized Co2 for about a month. With the Fluval Excel and EI Ferts my plants never really changed or very slowly changed. Since adding the pressurized Co2 though I can notice a huge difference in the plants every day. I still need some advice from the plant experts here.

First is regarding a plant I bought many months ago and forgot what it is called. If anybody knows please let me know. My question about this plant is that it has developed brown spots on the edges of the leaves that eventually turn transparent and then seem to die leaving the plant with a chunk out of it. From what I have read online it looks like either Nitrogen or Phosphate deficiency. What do you guys think? 









Second is about the Dwarf Hair Grass in that same picture. I want to cover a lot of the ground with the Dwarf Hair Grass. Is there a way to trim my current Dwarf Hair Grass and replant it or am I forced to buy pots of it in order to cover more of my gravel?

Last is about a piece of driftwood I have with some Anubias and Java Fern attached to it. Since adding the Co2 the Anubias has started to grow quite fast but the Java Fern hasn't changed at all and still looks bad from before I added the pressurized Co2. Will the Java Fern recover and start to grow or am I doing something wrong?









Thanks a lot for any advice. I look forward to adding many more plants to my tank and some more stone/driftwood. Before this my tank was full of blue gravel, plastic plants and ugly ornaments. I like the natural look I am getting now way more.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

Hey. Nothing wrong with taking the long way around to a nice planted tank. It might of cost you more money in the end but the experiences you get to keep. Some good old trial and error. It will benefit you in the long run. 

The plant in the first picture is Bacopa. Which type Im not sure. Someone else might be able to tell you. Once it gets taller you can cut a piece off and re plant in into the substrate. The place where you cut the plant it will now grow to heads. The new planted portion will grow aswell. This will help make the plant thicker without having to go buy more. Everytime Ive had this plant it does seem to lose some of its lower leaves. 

Give the Java Fern time it will bounce back. A small portion like yours is a young plant. It will take time to grow. Remove leaves that dont look good. Cutting old leaves off will tell the plant to grow new ones. 

Good luck with the tank!


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

One thing I learned after a couple months is that you might need to modify your dosing regime depending on your plant load. Meaning when you get more plants or when they grow faster (because of co2) you may need to add more than the recommended EI amount. I wouldn't call myself an expert since I've been struggling with plants, but have you tested your water? Test kits aren't accurate unless you make reference solutions. Sometimes you just need to adjust your regime watch your plants for a week and then try something else. 

In my case, last week I know that I have about 3x more phosphate than is recommended (intentionally dosed), but no change in plant deformities, stunting, and melt so now I know that I'm most likely dealing with no3 deficiency. I'm currently dosing about 5ppm more no3. I'm going to do that for another week to see if my plants get better. Next I'll try Micro. Meanwhile also you gotta watch to see if there are any algae blooms from the change in ferting.


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## 6.0DSLPWR (Jun 6, 2010)

jbyoung00008 said:


> Hey. Nothing wrong with taking the long way around to a nice planted tank. It might of cost you more money in the end but the experiences you get to keep. Some good old trial and error. It will benefit you in the long run.
> 
> The plant in the first picture is Bacopa. Which type Im not sure. Someone else might be able to tell you. Once it gets taller you can cut a piece off and re plant in into the substrate. The place where you cut the plant it will now grow to heads. The new planted portion will grow aswell. This will help make the plant thicker without having to go buy more. Everytime Ive had this plant it does seem to lose some of its lower leaves.
> 
> ...


I have already cut the plant a few times and re-planted it trying to get a thicker bunch of plant together. I am still concerned about the leaves of that plant that are turning brown and eventually the brown spot disappears leaving the leaf with a chunk missing. I also increased my Co2 a couple days ago and today while looking at the tank I noticed the java fern does have some very early stages of new growth. Hopefully the plant will start to grow a little more. On Saturday when I do a WC I am also going to remove any bad looking leaves from all my plants.



Reckon said:


> One thing I learned after a couple months is that you might need to modify your dosing regime depending on your plant load. Meaning when you get more plants or when they grow faster (because of co2) you may need to add more than the recommended EI amount. I wouldn't call myself an expert since I've been struggling with plants, but have you tested your water? Test kits aren't accurate unless you make reference solutions. Sometimes you just need to adjust your regime watch your plants for a week and then try something else.
> 
> In my case, last week I know that I have about 3x more phosphate than is recommended (intentionally dosed), but no change in plant deformities, stunting, and melt so now I know that I'm most likely dealing with no3 deficiency. I'm currently dosing about 5ppm more no3. I'm going to do that for another week to see if my plants get better. Next I'll try Micro. Meanwhile also you gotta watch to see if there are any algae blooms from the change in ferting.


I have a API Master Test kit and a RedSea PO4 Test kit. My kits are a little old though so I am not sure if they are even any good any more. Is there a certain brand of test kit you recommend? I think the Bacopa is suffering from Nitrogen or Phosphate deficiency from what I have been reading so I want to get a couple new kits and test for those and see if I need to increase some Ferts or if I have too much of some Ferts.


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## kacairns (Apr 10, 2012)

For the dwarf hair grass, you might just have to give it time. I've had mine planted for 3 weeks now, on the surface it looks like nothing is happening, below the surface is a different story, I can see the roots have branched out upwards of 4-5" from the main portions and as of today I finally see individual new strands popping up through the substrate (eco-complete). With that said as soon as I get all my own fert dosing down and algae all dealt with I'm sure in due time I'll have a nice lush carpet of dwarf hair grass in my 180gallon tank


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

6.0DSLPWR said:


> Is there a certain brand of test kit you recommend? I think the Bacopa is suffering from Nitrogen or Phosphate deficiency from what I have been reading so I want to get a couple new kits and test for those and see if I need to increase some Ferts or if I have too much of some Ferts.


I just use API, I don't really trust the kit's accuracy but all I did was did a REALLY big water change and upped my po4 dosing to 5ppm. Checked with test kit and saw it was around 5.0ppm and then dosed accordingly for the next week. Now, I just upped my no3 dosing. Here's the calculator I use to tune my ferts Yet Another Nutrient Calculator. I can't exactly recommend this, but I was dosing a solution but switched over to dry dosing to problem solve the deficiency. I'll go back to solutions again for ease of use after figuring everything out with dry ferts. Walking this out with you, I'm just a week or so ahead of problem solving 
Here's my issue: http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/planted-tank-specific-13/stunting-deformed-new-growth-33091/
Hope this gives you a place to start. I wish I saved the webpages from Tom Barr's site to PM for you to reference. I'll see if I can find some of them again.


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## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

jbyoung00008 said:


> Hey. Nothing wrong with taking the long way around to a nice planted tank. It might of cost you more money in the end but the experiences you get to keep. Some good old trial and error. It will benefit you in the long run.
> 
> The plant in the first picture is Bacopa. Which type Im not sure. Someone else might be able to tell you. Once it gets taller you can cut a piece off and re plant in into the substrate. The place where you cut the plant it will now grow to heads. The new planted portion will grow aswell. This will help make the plant thicker without having to go buy more. Everytime Ive had this plant it does seem to lose some of its lower leaves.
> 
> ...


Yes, totally agreed. 
I am just a rookie so I am not an expert in any sense of the word LOL. But I do have some of the same plant as yours before so if you dont mind heres my 2 cents. What I have noticed is that when they were first planted they sometimes act a bit funy but once they have developed their roots they will just keep growing. You may just need to give it some time. If you see some bad looking leaves, just cut them off. Also, in my case the new growth always had smaller leaves than the old one, which I think is quite neat.
Java fern is a very slow growing plant. New plant will form as baby plants on the bottom of the leaves. If you see some ugly leaves just cut them off. Dont expect it to grow overnight as it is a rather slow growing but very hardy plant.
Good luck.


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