"Elaine T" wrote in message
m...
With your current lighting, you might try Rotala indica or rotundifolia,
Java moss (Vesicularia dubyana), or smaller swordplants like Echinodorus
"Ozelot" or Echonodorus parviflorus "Tropica". Java moss grows quite
quickly in my hard water and keeps my 2g betta tank nitrate free.
With more light, try Limnophila, Water sprite (Ceratopteras cornuta), any
Hygrophila spp. (all are tall and quite vigorous), Baby's tears
(Hemianthus micranthemoides - great for smaller tanks), Alternantheria
reinckii (also tall but grows slowly), or Echinodorus tenellus (pygmy
chained sword). There are many other suitable plants for higher light -
those are just some attractive, smaller ones. Water sprite and Hygrophila
polysperma are particularly vigorous growers for me.
Thanks for the suggestions. I shall keep an eye out for these at the LFS.
If you can't get a new fixture, at least make sure any T8 or T12 bulbs
you're using are under 6 months old, or designed for constant light
output like Tritons.
They are Tritons if I remember right, but the oldest must over a year old
by now. If I don't get a new lighting system I will replace them in 2
stages.
No sense replacing Tritons. They keep a very good output until they die.
I really like those bulbs. See if a polished reflector is available for
your lighting fixture instead. You could also have a mirror cut as a
backdrop to the tank to reflect light back in to the plants.
After I actually looked under the hood I have 2x15W Arcadia tubes. I have
used Tritons in the past and remember liking them. I will probably replace
the Arcadias with Tritons if T5's proove to be pricey.
The volume of water in the tank I worked out to be approx. 13 UK Gallons
giving me roughly 2.3 Watts/Gallon (UK). However, I added the second tube
fixture myself and I think at least some of the extra light is lost due to
the architecture of the hood. There is no room for metalic reflectors, but
the inside is white; well, it was after I cleaned it.
As for the back, that is currently matt black, I hadn't thought about the
light I was loosing there. I think a couple of 12"x12" mirrored bathroom
tiles as a backdrop might do the trick. Presumably I will then need to add
cleaning the back glass to the maintenance program. It doesn't currently get
cleaned.
As for ferts, what are you dosing? You may need quite a bit of potash to
help the plants use all that nitrate.
You can get Tropica Master Grow from the same place that sells the
lighting you're considering.
http://www.fishathome.co.uk/watertre...mastergrow.htm It's a
great fertilizer. www.gregwatson.com sells PMDD ingredients from Canada,
but I don't know what shipping would cost.
I'm actually using Nutrafin PlantGro. It contains Iron, Manganese, Zinc
and -Nitrogen-. So I appear to be adding more Nitrogen and no potash. I just
bought a big bottle of it too.
Also, what's your pH? If it's high, you can use Seachem Acid Buffer to
lower KH and pH to make more C02 and trace elements available to the
plants. http://tinyurl.com/866ua That should help a bit too.
My pH is about 7.8 - 8.0 straight after the lights come on, when, presumably
it should be at it's lowest with the CO2 on all night. The test kit is
pretty out of date but it sounds about right. I hadn't considered adding a
buffer, I was hoping the CO2 would have more of an effect on lowering the
pH, but I guess the effectiveness of yeast generated CO2 is pretty limited.
I would love to go for RO water but that is definately overkill for such a
small tank.
--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com
Thanks again for all the advice. It has given me much food for thought.
-Jon