"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/...=&TKW=co2&SKW=
&EDP=34560&T1=F12+0171+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
--

First thing first, I think you need more light, shoot for 110W total
or more, with such a big tank, personally, I would go for 2 X 70W HQI.
Without intensive lighting, CO2 injection won't benefit a great deal,
plants are limited by dim light. And secondly, as you planned, you
need a better substrate.


Cheers
Kenneth Ho