"Shawn P. Good" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to develop a planted tank in my 55-gal community tank, but my
plants don't seem to be flourishing like I want. Right now I have 4
clumps of microsword (still alive but not spreading) for foreground
plants, hornwort (I tried anchoring clumps in the gravel, but it rotted,
so now it's just floating around the tank, making a mess by fragmenting
everywhere), 2 bunches of red ludwigia (one rotted to nothing and the
other seems to be heading that way), 2 banana plants (the leaves are
turning black and breaking), and one java fern (seems to holding it's
own, but 2 leaves are black, not green). I add liquid plant fertilizer
after each weekly water change, but it doesn't seem to be helping.

INFO: My tank size is a 55 gal. I have one-bulb hood with a 40-watt
4-foot fluorescent light bulb. My substrate is just small (pea-sized)
gravel. I do not have CO2. I'm planning on mixing in some type of plant
substrate like Floramax for Planted Aquariums (Question: how much for my
size aquarium ? www.thatfishplace.com sells a 40-lb bag for $28). My
water source is well-water, which is run through a water softener because
of extreme hardness (iron) in our well.

My main question however is about CO2. First, should I have it ?
Second, if yes, why are they so expensive ? The CO2 systems I see online
and in catalogues seem to be very expensive. However, I saw one online
(again at www.thatfishplace.com) by Hagen that seems very inexpensive and
I was wondering what other people's opinions on it are. The product is
Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant System (Hagen) and can be seen at
http://www.thatpetplace.com/MainPro/...71+0966&PgNo=1

Any help would be appreciated for this planted-tank newbie. I'm so
inspired by people's planted aquarium tank pictures on different
websites. I'd love to get my tank to even half that !

Thanks - Shawn

You have a bit of a battle ahead of you Shawn. The ingredients for good
plant growth are adequate to high light, soft to neutral water and lots
of nutrients. Your light level (40w/55g = 0.72w/g) is low, and distance
from light to substrate is not short, so results will be modest when/if
the plants start growing. If everything else was good, many of your
plants would adapt and show reasonable growth eventually, but everything
else is not good. Well-water has too many minerals in it and it
interferes with plant growth. Zero minerals is no good either, so you
want some. Your water softener adds salt, at a ratio which depends on
the amount of calcium being removed. Since you mentioned that your water
is very hard, then the quantity of salt being added might be significant,
and plants do not like salt. If your softener is working well, it might
be removing too much minerals they need. As well your pH is probably
quite high (this is unchanged by the softener), and not all plants do
well in high pH.

Summary: post your well water parameters (pH, gH and kH), increase your
light levels (a must), and research plants which do well in high pH. Do
you have any convenient sources for soft water?

In regards to CO2 injection, I think this would certainly help your
situation. It will lower your pH a bit, but it will not give you the
results you see, with tanks running with soft water and lower kH levels.
The Nutrafin CO2 injector system is rated for 10 to 20g. If your other
parameters were all good, you would see some difference running your 55g
on 1 injector, but given your other challenges, I'd definitely get 2, and
alternate their filling. Alternately, look into the DIYs. There are
many designs on the web, and I think you will need a fairly 'industrial'
strength setting to kick your tank into the high gear that you sound like
you want.

If your plant expectations are modest, adding another 4' polo light and
CO2 might do the trick. Go with a shop light fixture (2x40W) to get a
cheap lighting upgrade. I see you cross-posted to r.a.f.p. That's
probably the best place for the advice you need. Best wishes.

NetMax