Hello all you green fingered Aquarists.
I would appreciate it if any of you would be able to answer the following
queries.

I'll explain my setup first:
Small tank -+ 40 Litres, about 10 Gallons. 1 x 10watt Flourescent and 1 x
Desklamp with a 60watt 350 Lumens blue globe. Small internal canister filter
with Co2 dispersing. Don't know what plants I have, here in South Africa LFS
employees are not very clued up on plants at all. I think 2 of them are
Anubias, 1 is a java fern and the rest (3 others) are grassy type plants.
25% water change weekly, with dechlorinator.

My queries a

1. When pruning is it best to cut at the base or top of the stem.

2. I don't have a test kit so am unable to test for nitrates, ammonia etc.
But I'm assuming that my Nitrates are at zero as the tank has been going for
about 3 weeks now and everything is growing damn well. No fish added just
yet. Will it be cool to add a glass of water or so from another tank that
has a number of fish in it to up the nitrates a tad? I am adding 5ml or so
of some Sera fertiliser once a week but it contains 0 Nitrates or
Phosphates.

3. I have noticed small ammounts of brown algae developing on the leaves of
the 2 Anubias, should I just leave it or maybe do a small water change /
prune leaves??? Should I add more plants, maybe the algae is forming cause I
don't have really fast growing plants.

Any Advice greatly appreciated. Everyone have a fantastic weekend.

Small tank -+ 40 Litres, about 10 Gallons. 1 x 10watt Flourescent and 1 x
Desklamp with a 60watt 350 Lumens blue globe.

If that desklamp is an incandescent bulb, it's probably not doing much for your
tank, except warming it a little. You have a low light tank: one watt per
gallon.

If you don't have test kits, you might want to get rid of the CO2. You don't
need it, with such low light. And if you add too much, it can kill your fish.
It's not worth the risk, IMO.

I think 2 of them are
Anubias, 1 is a java fern and the rest (3 others) are grassy type plants.
25% water change weekly, with dechlorinator.

Anubias and java fern are good choices, They will do fine in low light. The
grass...if it's Vallisneria, it may be okay.

1. When pruning is it best to cut at the base or top of the stem.

It depends on the plant. These articles explain how to prune:

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a...ic/default.asp

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/a...ic/default.asp

For your plants...if Anubias and java fern get too big, you can divide the
rhizome (the horizontal "root") and make two or more plants out of one.
Generally, the leaves aren't pruned, but if you need to remove a leaf for some
reason, you can remove it from the base of the stem.

Vallisneris are hard to prune. You can cut them like grass if they get too
long, and remove dying leaves from the base. If your grass-like plant is
hairgrass (eleocharis), it, too, can be trimmed like you mow a lawn.
Lilaeopsis (another grass-like plant) generally doesn't grow tall enough to
need trimming.

2. I don't have a test kit so am unable to test for nitrates, ammonia etc.
But I'm assuming that my Nitrates are at zero as the tank has been going for
about 3 weeks now and everything is growing damn well. No fish added just
yet. Will it be cool to add a glass of water or so from another tank that
has a number of fish in it to up the nitrates a tad?

Yes, that would probably be okay. Though at three weeks since setup, it might
be better to just add a fish or two. Since you have other tanks, you could
cycle the tank nearly instantly, with filter media from established tanks.

3. I have noticed small ammounts of brown algae developing on the leaves of
the 2 Anubias, should I just leave it or maybe do a small water change /
prune leaves??? Should I add more plants, maybe the algae is forming cause I
don't have really fast growing plants.

Brown algae is common when there's not enough light, or when a tank is newly
set up and still establishing itself. You don't really have enough light for
fast-growing plants. An otocinclus catfish will make short work of brown
algae.



Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Hi Cam,
True Aquarium Plants had a page on their site that had an excellent
description of plant propagation and luckily I saved it before they
went offline. Let me know if you would like me to email it to you.
Cris

On Fri, 9 May 2003 09:17:48 +0200, "Cam"
wrote:

Hello all you green fingered Aquarists.
I would appreciate it if any of you would be able to answer the following
queries.

I'll explain my setup first:
Small tank -+ 40 Litres, about 10 Gallons. 1 x 10watt Flourescent and 1 x
Desklamp with a 60watt 350 Lumens blue globe. Small internal canister filter
with Co2 dispersing. Don't know what plants I have, here in South Africa LFS
employees are not very clued up on plants at all. I think 2 of them are
Anubias, 1 is a java fern and the rest (3 others) are grassy type plants.
25% water change weekly, with dechlorinator.

My queries a

1. When pruning is it best to cut at the base or top of the stem.

2. I don't have a test kit so am unable to test for nitrates, ammonia etc.
But I'm assuming that my Nitrates are at zero as the tank has been going for
about 3 weeks now and everything is growing damn well. No fish added just
yet. Will it be cool to add a glass of water or so from another tank that
has a number of fish in it to up the nitrates a tad? I am adding 5ml or so
of some Sera fertiliser once a week but it contains 0 Nitrates or
Phosphates.

3. I have noticed small ammounts of brown algae developing on the leaves of
the 2 Anubias, should I just leave it or maybe do a small water change /
prune leaves??? Should I add more plants, maybe the algae is forming cause I
don't have really fast growing plants.

Any Advice greatly appreciated. Everyone have a fantastic weekend.