Planted Triangle, the Beginning..

[tigermath]

Hi all,

I'm stepping into the planted world with a small 16gallon triangular shaped tank height being 15". It's now almost 3months old. Please check the picture and give suggestions to improve.

Substrate: laterite topped up with river sand
Co2: diy east sugar method, now planning of moving to pressurized system
Light: one 36wt pll, one 18wt T8(1015Lumen) [dont know how to be sure about the spectrum range, both the bulbs are of PHILIPS]
Fert: as of now dosing nitrate and sulphate [one 500ml bottle 1tblsp kno3, another 500ml bottle 1tbsp k2so4 alternate day one cap of each bottle], have got ADA's "be green" 250ml [someone pls help how to get its composition, everything written in Japanese],but after first day using a cap of it I found algae, most probably staghorn [this is the first time I found algae]. I'll post pic soon.
Plants: E. tennulus, star grass, spiral vallisneria, rotala rottundifolia, cardamine lyrata, najas indica, bacopa, marselia, needle leaf java fern, anubias petite, tiger lily, hygrophila difformis, hygrophila polysperma and flame moss[sorry if there r spelling mistakes in the sc names, hope you understand what plant I'm talking of ].

Kindly give suggestions. Thanks in advance.

one green shrimp of my tank:

 

[VaughnH]

I think one of the best things you can do is buy some dry chemicals, potassium nitrate and mono potassium phosphate, from: (for example)
Planted Aquarium Fertilizer - Home
Aquarium Plant Fertilizer | Green Leaf Aquariums
and start dosing them, with a trace element mix, like Flourish, per the Estimative Index method described here: http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/2819-ei-light-those-less-techy-folks.html

This will remove nutrients as a possible problem, and let you concentrate on CO2 and light instead. You can also use Seachem Flourish Excel to supplement the CO2, providing another steady source of carbon for the plants.

 

[tigermath]

Thanks, need more suggestions like that .

I've extra dry nitrate,sulphate and phosphate. I'll surely read out the EI method, and dose accordingly. Will I continue the solutions along with?

 

[VaughnH]

Oops! I just noticed that you are in India. Sorry I missed that first time. I know it is possible to get those agricultural grade chemicals there too, but obviously you won't want to have them shipped from here.

You need only provide the plants with non-limiting amounts of niitrates, potassium and phosphorous, as well as the trace elements. That can be done with commercial liquid fertilizers made for aquariums, but at a high cost, or with regular agricultural grade chemicals, very cheaply. Seachem Excel is probably not available there, but Easy Carb might be, and it is equivalent. You don't need to use that, but if you use yeast based CO2 generators it is hard to maintain a stable amount of CO2 in the water, and having some of the Excel/Easy Carb in the water can help avoid the algae problems that unstable CO2 might cause.

 

[tirtha1979]

Oops! I just noticed that you are in India. Sorry I missed that first time. I know it is possible to get those agricultural grade chemicals there too, but obviously you won't want to have them shipped from here.

You need only provide the plants with non-limiting amounts of niitrates, potassium and phosphorous, as well as the trace elements. That can be done with commercial liquid fertilizers made for aquariums, but at a high cost, or with regular agricultural grade chemicals, very cheaply. Seachem Excel is probably not available there, but Easy Carb might be, and it is equivalent. You don't need to use that, but if you use yeast based CO2 generators it is hard to maintain a stable amount of CO2 in the water, and having some of the Excel/Easy Carb in the water can help avoid the algae problems that unstable CO2 might cause.

Hoppy, here in India we are getting Lab grade chemical (KNO3,K2SO4 and KH2PO4). Getting the trace mix is a pain. But I was able to ship CSM +B out from Julia without any problem.

Finding Excel is next to impossible here unless anyone is carrying a bottle back for you from USA. But for last couple of months, I saw Azoo started promoting Easy Carbo here though never tried that yet.

 

[VaughnH]

There is nothing wrong with using lab grade chemicals as fertilizers, but if agricultural grade chemicals are available in small quantities at a much lower cost, that is just as good. We are spoiled here by having a few hobbyists go into business, buying 50 pound bags of agricultural chemicals and selling them to us in one pound quantities for a very low cost.

 

[tigermath]

I got the lab grade chemicals for free

Anyone kindly tell me the composition of the ADA fert I got, it's "BE GREEN". Thanks in advance.