Few Planted tank questions

[CraigG]

so my planed tank has been up and running for about a week. I already was advised to get 10k bulbs. Which I have done and installed. So far the plants look good. Though my Amazon seems darker and has either dark brown or black in a few spots. Near the top which is right underneath the canopy.

My questions are:

1. I have a uv light(had it previously when I had discus and stingrays) should I buy a new bulb and start using it again?

2. Currently my 2 67k bulbs come on at 8am and go off at 7:30pm ( when I get up for work and 2 hours when I get home). My 2 10k go on at 11am-5pm. Is this setup ok or should I change it?

3. Besides color how can I tell if my plants are doing well? I'm color deficient so I have trouble seeing shades of green.

4. I currently don't have a co2 system setup. My friend who just went reef just gave me his carbo plus. I'm using Flourish Excel until I figure out what to do about co2. What are your thoughts on co2? And carbo plus system?

[Harriett]

Craig,
What size is your tank, what kind of filtration do you use, what's the set up?
1. UV: I think the trade off is that if you run the UV sterilizer, you keep the tank water specs very very high, which is good, but if the discus are not exercizing their immune systems, they tend to deplete and that is bad. Then they are sitting ducks. I would NOT use the UV, personally.
2. Can't answer without knowing your system.
3. You need someone to be able to look at the leaves and tell you if they are bright or pale or turning brown. You also want to look for deterioration or holes and for growth.
4. A planted tank requires a balance of light, nutrients, and CO2. There are lower light plants like the crypts and anubius and some swords that do fine with lower light and dont require CO2 to thrive, and there are lots of plants that do need it to really take off. ALL plants will do better with it--again, the balance is the bottom line. The more light, the more nutrients and CO2 required to stay in balance and not get hit with an algae forest...
5. I prefer 67k lights--I messed around trying different lights and that is my personal fave. 5k to 67k are sort of the middle of the spectrum
6. Carbo plus does nothing to increase the CO2 level in the water for plant growth, in my opinion. I thought I would do that in my tank many years ago when it first came out bu tthe research on plant forums led me away from it and towards a pressurized CO2 system.
7. Flourish EXCEL is a good product, I think. It works quite well as part of the system I use. You MUST be very careful that when you add it, you do not pour it anywhere near the fish. If they swim through it, you will lose fish--I speak from experience. [What I do is feed my guys at one end of the tank and pour it in at the other--not hard]
Read up in the archives here on Simply and also go to the planted tank forums.
Best of luck
Harriett

[CraigG]

thanks for the response.

My tank size is 75 gallons with built in corner over flow.
My filter is a sump system with a rio 2100.

Thanks for the warning about Flourish Excel. Thankfully all meds and supplemts go into the sump and water changes go into the overflow so it doesn't disturb the fish.

I have 5 discus, 4 German blue rams, 2 gold rams, 1 tiger pleco, 3 cory cats, 6 pristela tetras

[alan j t]

your swords leaves will get all ugly and die
but you should get new leaves starting to grow in
swords are heavy root feeders so
what i did was add plant jobes to the roots of my swords
now ther huge

how much light do you have over your tank
excel is a great co2 additive, for now

[CraigG]

260 watts the top isn't open. I have the glass top as well as a canopy

[Harriett]

260 watts the top isn't open. I have the glass top as well as a canopy

That is ALOT of light on a 75, Craig. I would back up some unless you are doing the total high tech hi powered approach, in which case you will need lots of ferts going in and CO2 injected to keep up...otherwise you can expect a ton of algae, for starters.
With a new tank set up I usually start with a shorter photo period and build up with both light hours and ferts as the tank matures, while also injecting CO2. If you are just doing swords and medum level light plants, I would say 2-2.5 watts per gallon would be fine and less edgy. You are up at about 3.5 wpg right now.
How does that sound?
Best regards
Harriett

Have you read up on ferts so you have the general idea of how to get going? Fine tuning is of course unique to every tank.

[CraigG]

Thanks,

For the advise. The lights came with 4 65 watt bulbs so thats what I was using.

I'll probably do alot more reading and see if I can find some lower watt bulbs, as well as looking to setting up a co2 system.

I haven't read up on ferts yet but I'll do that as well.

Thanks again

[Harriett]

You are welcome--why not use the lights you have but just take one bulb out to give you about 2.5wpg. If you see algae coming in you could pull one more for starters--that still gives you a little under 2 wpg, which is fine for swords and crypts, anubius. The other thing is that with a new planted tank set up, I start photo periods at about 8 hours and build up a half hour every week or two until I get to about 11 hours. I start the CO2 in the beginning also. I have some ambient light in my tanks from windows. I do not dose ferts on a new plant tank for a couple months until I see how it settles in.
Best regards
Harriett

[Apistomaster]

Harriet made a really good point about gradually increasing your light's intensity gradually.
Too many people start out full power on a new tank and see their aquarium and plants become overwhelmed with algae very fast.
You definitely have excess light capacity if you use all the lamps. I have one 75 gal and your light, on full power, would give my discus a sunburn. They are more used to 120 watts. I have a low light planted tank.
So many different configurations of light fixtures are out there.
The kind that has sets of lamps on different circuits is the most versatile.
You will want to balance the distribution of the light so you don't have areas too bright nor areas too dimly lighted.

[prolude006]

Hey there,
I too have a 75 gallon planted tank... I have a coralife power compact setup for lights that uses 4 65 watt bulbs. It comes out to almost 4 watts per gallon when you factor in plants, substrate and other things in the water. I run the 6700k/10000k combo bulbs. My discus are doing great and I leave my lights on for 12 hours a day with a timer. I dose with seachems flourish additives (trace,excel,nitrogen) and my algae is very very minimal, I need some for my otociniclus. I do not use co2.
My plants do quite well and I sell a lot to my lfs as they do grow quite fast. I have low light to high light plants. I have yet to see a plant I cant grow. You would do just as well, however, with less light if you needed too.
Just try it both ways to see what works for you.
Have fun:)

[White Worm]

Heres mine (75g) tonight after a new background paint job and a 80% w/c.

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Here it was before the paint job. I've also had a little growth. Pressurized CO2, EI Method with the dry ferts and 50% weekly w/c's. I would guess 2WPG.

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