Stradius011

Which plants do you guys suggest for a tropical fish aquarium?

MrWaxhead

Really depends a ton on what your tank can provide for them, IE lighting and substrate, ferts and c02 etc.

Isabella has posted a excellent low light non co2 link for starting out.
General Guide to Low-Light Planted Tanks

If you plan on higher light and c02, I can help you out the best I can or point you in the direction of some execellent links on fert methods and lighting etc.

pistorta

MrWaxhead: Do you have any experience in dealing with algae growing primarily on the plants?

Isabella

Mr. Waxhead, I am thinking of getting some CO2 system for my tank as a "backup" plan in case my plants start dying (just placed an order for a lot of new plants and don't know if all of them will do well, but nevetheless I'm giving it a try). I have no slightest idea about CO2 systems (as of now), so I'll need some help with that. I think I'll have to ask you some questions soon (if you don't mind). You seem very knowledgeable about planted tanks (and CO2) and your tank pictures attest to that fact. I'd like to hear your opinion on my setup as well

(Stradius, sorry to have hijacked your thread.)

Gozer_1

In my search for the same question I came across this site.
http://www.aquariumplants.com/category_s/127.htm
They offer an Aquascape Design for 20 bucks. You give them all your details (size, lights, co2, etc) and they plan appropriate plants and even draw you a planting guide for where to plant them in your tank. You give them a budget on plants and 20 extra dollars and you get your budgets worth of plants and a nice design blueprint. I'm going to give it a try when I get my 45 going. You might look into it.

sirdarksol

My initial suggestions are pretty much always as follows:
Anacharis is an excellent plant for a beginning tank. It can survive nearly everything. About the only thing that can kill it, as far as I can tell, is (ironically) an additive for planted tanks. I believe the offending substance is Flourish Excel, or something like that. Anyway, it's a floating plant, and provides a good place at the top of the tank for upper level fish to hide.
Java Fern is also really difficult to kill. It just needs to be tied to a piece of driftwood or to a rock.
Java Moss shares Java Fern's traits.
MicroSword has been doing pretty well in my beginning tank, as well.

MrWaxhead

Hey hey, pistorta basically if algae is growing on your plants or tank in general, a level of some sort is out of balance. If your tank is cycled and has healthy plants and proper nutrients and no ammonia spikes you should not get algae at all. About the only time I ever get algae is if my c02 runs out and I don't notice for a couple days. If that happens I get it up and running and dose a bit of excel on the problem areas directly with a syringe and I stop putting in sinking food for my bottom feeders, and my SAE, shromp and ottos whipe it out real fast and the c02 stops more from coming back.

And Isabella by all means send me a pm or I can post you a link to a irc channel to talk things over real time.

MrWaxhead

And ya sirdarksol, excel can and does kill certain plants, it sends my riccia into a downward spiral very fast. I only treat with excel like in my earlier post, and directly onto the plants I want it on with the filters slowed down to slow the spread, at times I will even put a tupperware container weighted down over the plant I want to treat and inject the excel under it. Its also brutal for shrimp when you dose high enough to kill algae. I try to use it as little as possible, I have only used it once so far this year. And it was a spot treatment for 3 days.

Isabella

OK, thank you Mr. Waxhead

P.S. Stradius, I like your avatar a lot

pistorta

MrWaxhead - I inject CO2 to the point that I am bringing the pH to 7.5 from ~7.9. Alkalinity (carbonate hardness) factored in with the high initial pH, makes increasing CO2 levels difficult.

I am using both metal halides (2 x 150W) and Power Compact Bulbs (2 x 96W) on a 4' x 2' x 2' tank - 120G. The lights are on less than 10 hrs./day. The algae seems a lot worse on the plants than anywhere else in the tank (ie rocks, driftwood, gravel). It appears to be a green hair algae of some sort and/or a beard algae. I use Tetra FloraPride and monitor iron levels in the water to assure overdosing does not occur.

Do you think RO/DI water might be one way to solve the algae problem? If you still feel a deficiency is the cause, do you have any suggestions on what I should look for?

I appreciate any help you can offer.

Isabella

Pistorta, you're still getting algae with CO2 injections? How is your plant growth? I thought CO2 was supposed to aid the speed with which the plants grow. That is, the faster the plants grow - with the aid of CO2 injections - and the faster they consume the nutrients, the less nutrients are left for algae, and therefore you get less algae (or none at all if you're that lucky, lol). Anyway, I'd love to see some pictures of your tank You've very high lighting, which means you must be using beautiful high-light plants

pistorta

Isabella, everything you mentioned in your post is true but you have to keep in mind that CO2 concentrations are based on the relationship between kH and pH. I remember you mentioning an interest in injecting CO2. This may not be necessary based on your current water chemistry, as you do not want to exceed ~20 ppm CO2. Your water may naturally already have this concentration. What is your pH and kH now or what would be the best way for me to get you a .pdf graph of this relationship?

I know I promised you pictures and will take them shortly.

pistorta

I posted pictures in the "Aquarium Fish Pictures" section.