id like some plants in my aquarium...whats the best way to go about it?

Question

ive had a few plants in my aquarium with what i thought was sufficient light but they usually slowly die...what am i doing wrong...at the moment its a tank with cycled water, fish, and lights. mostly im wondering what the Co2 is for.

Answer 1

you can use a co2 system to regularly add co2 for the plants in the water. basically i was under the impression that a 6500K flrocent bulb will be good for plants. But look into changing your lighting strip, you wont need to change the hood but the light in there.

Along with try and adding a plant substrate. Itcan be used like a fertilizer, it is iron enriched so it is good for the plants. You can mix it with your substrate now.

Along with this you can go with dry chemicals like plant tabs which is a fert that you can add once aweek for the plants.

I havent found those to work all of the time.

Alot of co2 systems are expensive, but their are a few like the turbo co2 system on drsfostersmith.com which is around 30 dollars.

Answer 2

With the amount of light you had along with the size of your tank, I'm sure we could solve the problem. Plants are generally grouped by their lighting requirements.

High Light =4+ watts per gallon
Medium Light= 2-3 watts per gallon
Low light= less than 2 watts per gallon

CO2 is the equivalent of oxygen is for animals. Plants need CO2 to photosynthesize properly and at a reasonable rate. Many plants (Java Moss, Java Fern, Dwarf Sag, and Anacharis/Elodea) will grow fine with low light and no CO2, but others like certain Ludwigias and Swords will require high lighting and CO2 to survive. Fish produce CO2 when they breath, so a small amount of CO2 is already available to your plants. Depending on the type of plants, you may need more CO2, but in most cases, no CO2 or a do it yourself CO2 is perfectly suitable. Check out this article on CO2 and also how to construct a CO2 module with a soda bottle, yeast, and sugar...http://www.fishlesscycling.com/articles/co2_discussion.html

Soop Nazi

Answer 3

different plants have very different requirements. there are lots of low maintenance plants you can keep in just about any aquarium without much special care. it helps a lot to research before you buy.

plants that require extra co2 usually require additional light and other fertilizers. heavier fertilizers will actually "melt" low maintenance plants.

here is a great site to research plants --

http://plantgeek.net/