# Plant ID and Help



## Luiiizy (Aug 11, 2012)

So basicly im not going to lie i got a saltwater tank and my time has been mainly dedicated to that and with moving and everything i havent had much to any time to take care of my small 10 gallon freshwate tank  its sad but im going to give it a go.

first see if you guys can ID these plants because for the life of me i cant remember what there called (also i dont know much on plants)

Also would be nice to know how much light i should be giving them because right now i believe its 12hours .. been running that for a while mostly because it was all fish and i liked to look at them. Im guessing this is why i have alot of algae on the older leaves and stuff.

I want to add more plants.. so im just wondering should i got get flourish excel ? or tabs? and then just do water changes to ensure water quality.

Just want my plants to stay green (no algae) and grow. (the substrate isnt the best but i dont want to change it so for now were going to have to deal with what i have.

Thank you for all the help

taken with my iphone so quality is whatever

http://i46.tinypic.com/2yjvx9f.jpg #1

http://i46.tinypic.com/vmpwjp.jpg #2


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## GaryC (Apr 2, 2012)

Looks like Sunset Hygrophila for pic one, I think I have the one in pic #2 as well and I was told it was just Hygrophila.

Hmm I think they are both pretty undemanding because I grow it in my 55 gallon low light tank. It grows slower and the lower leaves have algae on them and stuff. I does Excel once in a while also. 

What kind of lights are you running might I ask.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

12 hours of lighting is pretty much just a waste of electricity. Most plants need no more than 8 - 10 hours at most. If you want to grow more demanding plants, what you need is the right light, with 6500-6700 K bulbs of one kind or another. If you have only low light available, you are a bit more limited to what plants you can grow, but there are still plenty to choose from. Less time with lights on will also help cut down the algae growth.
Plants do need to be fed. There are liquid or powder fertilizers, or you can try the tabs you place in the gravel. Seachem makes them, API does too. Depending which ones you get, they last weeks to months. And while Flourish Excel is not cheap, it sure does help keep plants looking their best. Water has very little carbon dioxide in it, and plants need carbon.. so water plants get theirs via C02 in the water. If you don't have that, Excel is one type of carbon supplement that helps make up for the shortage of carbon in water. You can also try DIY yeast/sugar to produce C02 gas, or pressurized C02, there is a great sticky about using C02 here by Darkblade.
Check the Planted Tank forum too, for a lot of specific info on various plants, it will help give you a good idea what you can grow with what you have, or what you might want to change to grow what you want to grow.

Mosses, ferns and anubias are all good low light candidates, and grow quite slowly with less light, but they grow. Pretty reliable. They require less trimming too. With stem plants that can get by in lower light, growth is also slowed, and there's less trimming to do with them.

But more light [ stronger, better quality, not just more time lighted ] means faster growth,more feeding, more C02 and more trimming to keep things in check and looking nice. Somewhere you'll find a balance that works for you, but better lights are usually a good investment, even if you don't want to go really high tech.


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## Luiiizy (Aug 11, 2012)

hey thanks for the reply!!

so basicly i have 2 mini compact fluorescent bulbs they are 10000k 6" 10 watts each.. so 20 watts for a 10gallon that isnt low is it?

i will cut down the lighting for sure then and see how it goes.

i was looking at those flourish tabs and just wondering it wont do any negative damage to the fish will it? as i heard it has iron and some fish react badly to it.

Also i just bought flourish excel like yesterday and i dosed it .. only thing about that is my water has turned somewhat foggy.. and i followed the dosing instructing did not overdose.

honestly ive always wanted grass type plants too to cover the gravel ... but i heard does i quite demanding in light and c02.

in terms of water change how does that affect dosing of flourish excel????


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 28, 2008)

Luiiizy said:


> so basicly i have 2 mini compact fluorescent bulbs they are 10000k 6" 10 watts each.. so 20 watts for a 10gallon that isnt low is it?


It is a decent amount of light. You should be able to grow a decent variety of plants.

As already mentioned, 12 hours is a bit long for photoperiod.



Luiiizy said:


> i was looking at those flourish tabs and just wondering it wont do any negative damage to the fish will it? as i heard it has iron and some fish react badly to it.


As long as used properly, you don't need to worry about the tablets harming the fish. They do, however, release nutrients, so you want to make sure that the tablets are well buried and not disturbed (either by a gravel vacuum or fish that like to dig around). If they release their nutrients into the water column, you may have an algae outbreak.



Luiiizy said:


> Also i just bought flourish excel like yesterday and i dosed it .. only thing about that is my water has turned somewhat foggy.. and i followed the dosing instructing did not overdose.


The fogginess might be something else. How long has your aquarium been set up for? I ask because I am not sure if your aquarium has been established (cycled) or not. If not, it could be a bacterial bloom.



Luiiizy said:


> in terms of water change how does that affect dosing of flourish excel????


There are instructions on the bottle of Excel regarding how to deal with water changes, see below.



> On initial use or after a major (> 40%) water change, use 1 capful (5 mL) for every 40 L (10 gallons*). Thereafter use 1 capful for every 200 L (50 gallons*) daily or every other day.


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## Luiiizy (Aug 11, 2012)

Darkblade48 said:


> It is a decent amount of light. You should be able to grow a decent variety of plants.
> 
> As already mentioned, 12 hours is a bit long for photoperiod.
> 
> ...


im going to cut down the lights to 10 hours.

im going to look into getting those tabs and see how my plants do.

well the only thing i did differently since the cloudyness has come was replace a lightbulb and dose excel.. so im assuming its the excel possibly. my tank has been set up for a year so it has already cycled a long time ago.

i know the bottle talks about major 40% water changes but i was wondering about the 10-15% water change ?


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Just reduce the amount of Excel you add to the new water.. it can be useful to get a small syringe so you can measure more accurately than with the threads in the cap of the bottle - just do a little math to figure out just how much to add to the amount of new water you are putting in.
I've never noticed Excel causing cloudy water.
And you're right, most of the small 'carpeting' plants are quite demanding, of light, feeding and especially C02. Things like Glossostigma, for example, require all three in the right amounts to do well and give you the carpet effect you want. There are also some others, such as Lilaeopsis, that can give a nice grasslike effect, but are also fairly demanding, though maybe not quite so much as Glosso's are.


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