Isabella

Hello everyone

I will be ordering new plants for my 75 gallon tank soon. I will be removing most of the plants I currently have there and planting new ones from the below list. What do you think of the plant species and numbers? Are the numbers too few, too many, or just fine? Are the plant kinds OK for my type of tank?

Tank specs: 75 gallon tank (48" long x 18" wide x 20" tall), 1.7 WPG of lighting, 100% Eco-Complete substrate, no CO2 injections, Rena Filstar XP3 canister filter + Eheim Aquaball powerhead for better water circulation, occasional use of Seachem Flourish liquid fertilizer (I try to stay away from it as much as I can, but I use it occasionally so that my plants don't die.), and that's basically it.

Are these plant kinds and plant numbers OK with the setup? Particularly the Swords: too few or too many? Should I add or subtract some of them? (The below image is a screen shot taken of my "shopping cart" from AquariumGarden.com - that's where I order.)

P.S. Out of the plants I currently have in the 75 gallon tank, I'll be keeping: my 2 current Anubias in there (Nana and Coffeefolia), maybe some Java Ferns, and my 3 Crypts Balansae + 3 Crypts Willisii + 3 Crypts Lucens. So, add these plants to the below list. Also, I'll be looking for Java Moss elsewhere as it's very hard to come by at AquariumGarden.com.

Isabella

Hey Mr. Waxhead - thanks for your reply

I've actually had this tank running for more than 6 months and I believe it's pretty established by now. When I first planted it, in fact, I had LOTS of Hornworts and Water Wisteria to absorb the excess nutrients (Also had/have Crypts, Vallisnerias, Java Ferns, Anubias, Sagittarias, and Water Sprite). The reason I want to re-plant now is precisely because the tank is now established and I am ready to replace the plants like Hornworts and Water Wisteria with Swords, and the like. Or, do you recommend keeping Hornworts in the tank after re-planting too? As for Seachem ferts, I do use Flourish Although I am planning to try my tank without any fertilizers, with fish wastes serving as the main source of ferts. If my plant start dying without the liquid fertilizer, I'll start using Flourish again. I am not using any CO2 injections by the way. It's a low-light tank. With respect to Seachem ferts, do you suggest I should use another fert in addition to Flourish? Or is Flourish alone OK? My plants seem to be doing well with just Flourish. Plus, my substrate is nutrient rich. Lastly, the substrate where the Swords will be planted is 3" deep. It's 2.5" deep in the front of the tank (for small plants), and 3" deep in the back (for large rooting plants).

MrWaxhead

Very nice, as far as nutrient soaks, I tend to leave some hornwort or cabomba in my tanks pretty much up to the point that I know all my newer plants are growing well ( I still have a chunk of cabomba in my tank atm that I will very soon be relpacing with Eriocaulon setaceum and Lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea', the later is creeping jenny which is a fairly good nutrient sponge as well). Basically I save one small clump of one of them as my new plants establish then, dumb the soaker plant for my final plant of choice. And as far ferts, I am basically doing exactly what you are talking about at the moment fish bio ferts, but I do micros are the one thing that seems to lack in that method, so I do still dose seachem trace bi weekly to add my micro nutrients. And I also still dose iron once a week as my tap water has a very low iron count, and I am in a high light environment so my plants suck up the iron pretty fast. And that is about all I dose at the moment.

But as you know in a low light tank your plants metabolism is much slower so there need for nutrients is much lower and if they don't use them and there is excess amounts of them its basically a algae buffet. I have kinda approached my ferts in two different ways in the past, one was to dose strong and do a large weekly water change to reset the fert balance in the tank, the other was to dose very low and watch my plants for deficiency's (yellow on old leaves or new leaves etc) and up my doses accordingly. So far my fish are providing adequate macros but I am overstocked in fish at the moment too though, but Iron and micros have defiantly been needed.

Isabella

Is Cabomba as easy to grow as Hornwort? I thought it was a difficult plant. Do you think it would act as well as Hornwort does (in terms of removing excess nutrients) in a low-light tank?

Doesn't Flourish already contain iron? (I use Flourish.)

Yup, I know. That's why I have an algae eater in the tank

As for the water changes in my planted tank, I do 30% weekly. I probably should perform smaller water changes, but I really like to keep my water clean. Sometimes, I do 50% weekly. In my non-planted tanks, I usually do 40% weekly water changes, and 50% as needed. (Just for the record, none of my tanks are overstocked.)

Overstocking means too much fish waste, which is excellent source for algal growth too. But I guess if you perform large water changes, you're better off this way

MrWaxhead

Hey hey again.

1- yes Cabomba is a is a excellent nutrient soaker, and its defiantly close to hornwort for ease of care. It can yellow and melt a bit easier though but its pretty hardy stuff. I basically let my stems grow quite long, and then prune them about a inch above a major Y in the stem and take the long prune that has white roots break of about a inch of leaves at the bottom. I do this to several stems and then take the cluster of stems and very lightly wrap a lead plant weight on the cluster of them and drop it to the bottom and let the roots find the substrate on their own. Has always worked very well for me, I found that trying to stick them in the substrate I risked breaking them and found the roots were not mature enough and failed on my part of the time.

2- Yes flourish does have iron it, along with many other macros, that is the only reason I am currently not using it as I am trying to see how effective bio ferts will be for macros for me, so I don't really want the extra nutrients it provides. That being said its a excellent fert, but I would tend to try using seachem trace along side it for your micros. But both in light amounts, unless you are doing substantial water changes weekly to reset the balance. Which you already do, so you are golden either way.

3- kinda falls back to number 2 with nutrients, dose light and watch for signs of plants in need of a certain nutrient and up that nutrient (this is harder to do with flourish as its basically a multi, so in order to up one you have to up them all. When I was doing a sensible stock and full ferts, I did flourish in very low amounts and used seachems individual macros, iron, potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus each on their own as needed. I personally liked that route as I am not a big fan of large water changes, I think its just to much change to quickly. Method 2, dose harder then you will need to make sure your plants get what they need and do a large change weekly to reset the nutrient load, before algae gets a chance to feed. As far as algae eaters, I have my crew of SAE and shrimp and they are very good, but I also do my best to avoid outbreaks in the first place.

And as far as overstocking, that is a great thing that your not, I am in no way advocating overstocking as a means to a healthy planted tank. In fact quite the opposite I am basically just testing things out for a greater understanding of my aquariums needs as far as plant and fish health. And at the moment as my fish are still quite juvenile i am really not that far out of spec, but they defiantly will be as they mature. I am watching my fish plants and water parameters extremely close as I do care for my fish allot and in no way would want them to have a unhealthy life.

4- Yes overstocking does mean to much fish waste and very much can and a lot of times is a key source for algae growth and or outbreaks, very minimal spikes in ammonia can trigger algae and is horrid for your fish and beneficial bacteria (they can only work so hard at there job before getting overloaded, but that is where I am hoping my plant base will aid them as plants are also a excellent feeder of ammonia. And as far as waterchanges I do very minimal changes weekly 5g out of my 50g, but I have yet to see any signs of toxins in my water at all. I also tend to not feed alot as well, I do two small feeds a day, one is always a quality flake/dry type feed the other is always a live or frozen feed, I tend to rotate latter around they get a few days of frozen bloodworms, a few days of frozen brine shrimp then a couple days of live brine shrimp.

So basically I am trying to only leave enough in my tank after my plants filter them up for my filters to bring into their beneficial bacteria to feed them and keep them going. My plan is to watch my water, adjust filters as needed, (as right now I sit with two filters that could each run this tank on there own running at about 70% flowrate, and a fair sized plan base to absorb toxins as well) and watch carefully over my maturing fish colony and slowly start removing stock as needed if it comes to that, and there is a good chance it may.

Again, I don't want anyone to get the idea I am treating this as a way to grow plants, as Isabella is right, overstocking is one of many triggers, and there are many. I am solely running a test for a better understanding of my tank fish and plants, as I want to find a balance between ferts and stocking in my aquarium.

Isabella

All righty, thanks for all the useful info Mr. Waxhead I think I will try Cabomba with my order of plants I actually wanted to buy it long ago (I like the way it looks) but I thought it would be too demanding for my type of tank. I'm glad to hear it's not

P.S. The name "Cabomba" sounds funny to me, lol. I wonder where that name came from / who made it up and why "Cabomba" heh.