Three Questions

[RedneckDaveAb]

Well, my bare bottom discus tank has a few potted plants. They are not doing well and soon to be put in another tank. I suspect the 85 degrees is too warm for them

1. I am looking for suggestions on what plants can handle the "heat"

2. It is a 70 gallon tank with 2 - 40 watt grow lights. I understand this is considered to be "low light". How many watts would be considered "middle of the road" or "high"

3. Any thoughts on grow lights? Good or bad? I don't like it shows the fish, should I stick with them or go with a different spectrum?

Dave

[Debbie]

In my tank I have amazon swords, water wisteria, rotalia indica, vallisneria, and Cryptocoryne crispatula. Do you use fertilizer?

For a low to mod light tank you need 1 1/2 to 2 watts per gallon.

I use power compacts in my planted tank, it is a high light tank so I couldn't answer that one.

[diablocanine]

IME, it is not normally the temp of the tank but the lighting/substrate/fertilizer regime that causes the problem. Most plants will do well in warm water but they will require more lighting and ferts in warm water to do well. You are a little over 1 wpg which is very low light for that size tank. If you are going with more lighting consider AH Supply lighting, I would recommend 10000K.....DC


Well, my bare bottom discus tank has a few potted plants. They are not doing well and soon to be put in another tank. I suspect the 85 degrees is too warm for them

1. I am looking for suggestions on what plants can handle the "heat"

2. It is a 70 gallon tank with 2 - 40 watt grow lights. I understand this is considered to be "low light". How many watts would be considered "middle of the road" or "high"

3. Any thoughts on grow lights? Good or bad? I don't like it shows the fish, should I stick with them or go with a different spectrum?

Dave

[Alight]

As the others have said, warm water is not the problem. I haven't found a plant yet that won't grow at 85 F.


In my grow out 55, I only have 80 watts total. As I understand it, a 75 is only longer, not deeper. I'm growing a bunch of different types of plants in this tank in pots, with just this much light, only on 8 hours a day. Some of them grow fairly slowly, but look quite good. I use pure flourite in the pots. I do not add fertilizers to the water, and I change 60 -70% of the water daily (8- 5 inch Juvie Discus, a couple of BNs and and a few otos are in the tank).
The lights are just 48 inch Shop Lights, 5500 K bulbs, on a glass top. I could easily add another set to make it 160 watts, or overdrive them and even get more light, but everything does well with no algae, so why mess with it.

The only plants that grow very slowly are the Red Temple and the R. Macranda. The Macranda doesn't look good, but the Red Temple looks quite good, even though the leaves are small.

Try pure flourite in the pots, check your nitrates (should be 5 - 10 ppm for the plants to do well--phosphates 0.25 - 0.5 ppm) which is where mine go with the fishload in the tank.

Water is medium soft (about 4-5 GH) and pH is ~6.4 - 6.6)

Forgot to add this part! The plants in the pots are amazon swords--fairly fast growth--quite large plants now--one thing good about low light for amazon swords is they don't get so huge like they do in a moderate light tank. They are about 12 inches in diameter, and about 12 inches tall. (started as plantlets from the mother sword in my fully planted tank). -- Green cabomba--grows fast even in low light, crypts, anubias (slow growing), green hygro (grow very slowly).

[RedneckDaveAb]

What does fluorite do?

Dave

[nacra99]

Fluorite is a great substrate that is very rich in iron which many plants need to grow well.

If you are thinking of a low tech (low light) tank, the only plants that i have kept successfully in my low light discus tanks are Anubias and Java Fern. If you are lucky, you might be able to get an amazon sword to grow (although very slowly) as well.

For low-light bulbs, i like to go with Hagen's Life-glo 2, or any 5000'ish - 6000'ish K lights.
Personally, i would go for a slightly higher wattage... 2WPG is a good place to start without having to inject Co2.

Marc

[pcsb23]

1. I am looking for suggestions on what plants can handle the "heat"

crypts, annubias, swords, vallis


2. It is a 70 gallon tank with 2 - 40 watt grow lights. I understand this is considered to be "low light". How many watts would be considered "middle of the road" or "high"

Light is usually referred to in watts per gallon and as a rough guide its ok, depends a lot on the technology. My view is under 2wpg is low, 2-3.5 is med, above 3.5 high. I find once much above 3wpg you need to consider CO2



3. Any thoughts on grow lights? Good or bad? I don't like it shows the fish, should I stick with them or go with a different spectrum?

Dave
T5's or power compacts are excellent, colour temps in the 6000K range works for me, though you can mix and match to suit your eye.

[Dissident]

You could get away with 4x40W (2 dual-bulb shop lighs) and keep a varity of low-light plants quite well and only adding Flourish EXCEL and some root tabs.

Most low-light plants are heavy root feeders and will need a rich substrate. You could use standard gravel or go with something like Flourite/EcoComplete.

If you are looking to have a show-tank like you see in AGA contests you will looking at a much more elaborate setup. I am not saying you cannot have an amazeing show-tank that is a low-light tank.

Some plants:
http://www.aquariumplants.com/Low_Light_Plants_s/25.htm
(and 90% of the mosses out there will work well)