Most aquarists look through the pictures in magazines and books and see fabulous plants practically pushing the lids off of the tanks that they are in. In some cases the plants are reared with CO2, expensive lights, special fertilizers, or simply on the window sill with very little maintenance. Like everyone else, I see these photos and want to try to setup a tank that’s just as successful.
I started a new plant tank about five months ago. After seeing plant tanks put together by my fellow club members I felt that with some helpful advice and guidance I could successfully get a nice plant tank up and running.
Taking my usual approach I studied plant tanks thoroughly. Finally I set up my 60 Gallon tank with CO2, four 4-foot fluorescent lights, a overflow sump filter system, etc. Needless to say, things have not worked out as I had hoped. My algae started to grow like crazy. Actually I expected that to happen from the articles I have been reading; I introduced 5 black Mollies which started to eat algae immediately. Unfortunately I grew algae faster than the mollies could eat it.
I originally started the tank with a potting soil mixture under a layer of sand. Some people on the Internet have been experimenting with the potting soil idea so I gave it a try. After 3 months the algae was killing off my plants and some strange gas was bubbling out of the sand so I decided that the potting soil experiment was a failure and stripped the tank of all of its potting soil (a full day job, by the way).
Within 3 weeks the algae (most of which I had cleaned out of the tank along with the rebuild) was back in force along with the mysterious gas. So I guess I can’t blame the potting soil anymore. My light level and exposure times were long (12 hours with 4 fluorescent tubes) so the next plan of attack was to cut back on the light. Right now I am running with only 2 fluorescent tubes lit for 7 hours a day. The algae slowed down enough that the mollies are getting things under control again.
The plants are starting to grow again but not nearly as fast as they did before the algae kicked in to high gear. My hope is to increase the light level pretty soon but to still keep the algae under control. Right now I am increasing my water changes to get the nitrates down as low as possible. From what I’ve read the goal is to get the plants growing fast enough that they consume all of the nutrients in the tank, leaving nothing for the algae to get started with.
Currently my plant tank is not as alive an healthy as I want it to be. My kribs are breeding up a frenzy though. The kribs seem to eat almost as much algae as the mollies do, so I am considering pulling the mollies out to reduce the load on the tank. That would put me at 6 fish plus 20 krib babies.
One of the things with any aspect of this hobby is that you can only
get a certain amount of knowledge from reading. At some point you have
to just go for it
and learn by the school of hard knocks. I am
currently trying to discover the magic recipe for my tank.
Kevin Ord is vice president of GSAS. In addition to his newfound plant exploits, Kevin has also written about his discus-raising experiences.