lukep77

I was just wondering, has any one ever used a "actinic" light over their cichlid tank. I use a actinic light over my salt tank, when the main lights go out the blue light brings out all the nice bright colors out of every thing. So I was thinking, that it would work the same way with cichlids, right? If any one has any experience with this or any ideas let me know. Thanks L

That is true HOSStile, As long as they don't destroy all my plants I will be ok with them. Besides they will be going in to a 90g. So they should be ok, I have sent you a PM back HOSStile, just let me know if that works for you. Thanks L

Sure I will pick them up. Pm me with contact info.

I have 2 rope fish, a spiny eal, Platys, a common pleco, chery barbs, khuli loaches, 3 clown loaches and a horse faced loache and 3 glass cats. There some ghost shrimp in there some where, but the rope fish usualy get at them. I might try the highlite Rosy barbs.

How does everyone control there hair algae if you have some. I have been picking it out so far, but it just keeps coming back. Is there a fish that likes this stuff? The snails do a slow job at eating it and I would like to keep it under control with out having to keep putting my hands in there. Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks L

I use 2 300 watt lights over my 90 galon, and every thing seems to be doing great. If you post this in the planted section you will get lots of info on the topic, or just take a look at my halogen topic in the planted section. I realy like the lights. I have mine on 2 timers, one turns on about 45 min before the other and off the same way. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=3830 or just put this in your address box and hit enter.

Ok so after a few weeks of the new lights the plants seem to be doing better. I just added a small CO2 unit to my system. So I will see how things look in a few weeks. Here is a up dated shot of some new plants I added and some plants that I got from a AA member.

Ok so thoese little CO2 kits at the store are out, only up to 20 g like you said Milan. So its going to be a DIY. Now any one have any pointers. I dont think I can aford a NOS type set up with a presureized bottle. So all pics and diagrams are welcome.

Ok so I will try and pick up a CO2 kit today at petland or Big Als. I will also pull up the plants and tie them to a piece of rock or some thing. A few of them are already tied to drift wood. I just tosed the plant gro stuff. It was about 6 months old and there was about a inch at the bottom of the bottle. Alot of it evaperated, so I didint want to risk it. I will take a look for some nutrient test today also.

Sorry this took so long. KH 60mg/L GH 400 This means that my water is very hard right. Ph is 7.4 So I need to soften the water, right. I do have some drift wood in there for the pleco, but isn't drift wood supposed to soften water? I haven't used any buffer in the water for about 2 months now. I was told it was too soft, and to use the same water buffer that I use to harden my water in my nano reef. I also found some Plant gro Iron Enriched plant food. That I had picked up a while back would any one suggest using this stuff? There isn't alot of it left I think it evaporated. I think I will just toss this stuff.

From my reserch and looking at the stores what they call their plants, I always came up with Amazon swords and bannana plants. I will post a close up pic and my be you guys can tell me for sure what they are. What I always thought to be amazon swords. These are planted in the sand. Banana plant. These are tied to either rock or to drift wood. And I have no idea what these. I will test the water for GH, and KH later this afternoon. I have to go put a sink in now.

Cycled for over a year now, It also helped that I used water from a my 45 hex that I stored when we moved. :thumbs: Cycle took a whole of 3 days if I remmember. The plants went in right away and then the fish about a week later. I will try to post pic'c about every week or every other week and keep the thread up dated. Iam hopeing to pick up a CO2 set up some time within the next 2 weeks. What test should I be picking up? I already have a master kick for all peramiters. Amonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH, GH, KH.

no flash left side left side that I want to be heavly planted. full tank shot

Every thing that he had in the tank other then the fish is the same, same light, same plants, same gravel up in till June. In June I switched to sand that I had brought back from Vancouver island. I have the halogen's hanging above the tank. They are suspended about 6 to 8 inches above the top. The whole tank gets a lot of light now. A nice even distribution I will take a pic and post it. Then let me know what you all think. Thanks again for all the input. L

I was using the standered 40 watt light that came with the tank. The orignal hood also. I switched out the top of the tank for a glass top and more light. The plants were all dying and every one I spoke with told me to incress the light to about 300 watts. So I did and now even after just a few days I have noticed the pants looking better. They looked like they were all limp and almost a brown/green definatly not healthy.

So I jsut read the article and now Iam a little confused. Do you mean that I would only have about 160 watts of light coming from the 2 300 watt halogens? I have notice a small improvment in the plants them selfs they seem to be standing straighter, and they look greener. Even my fish seem to be accting a little diferant. I have 5 glass cats that never used to school and now they are always together.

He lives out in Applewood, the plants would not stop growing in his set up. He only had 1 fish in there it was a silver arowana, it was over a foot long. Very nice fish, but it died and his wife told him to get rid of the tank. Iam going to give it a week, with the new lights and see what happens. After that I will pick up a CO2 set up and some fertilizer.

I should also let you all know that I got my set up from my brother in law. He had the tank for a few years. He never had any touble growing the plants. I on the other hand, lost over half of them as soon as the system was set up. He never added any thing to the set up and he was useing the standered 40 watt bulb that came with the sest up. Nothing special. So when I got the set up I figured that I wouldint have trouble either. Boy was I wrong. So Iam hoping that I will be able to save the remaining plants. They are amazon swords, and 2 bannana plants from what I have been told. Thanks again, L

Looks like I have a lot to read and learn. I started to read the plants 101 posts and I will print them off, and have a good sit down and read. Thanks for all you input, I will also have to go back and see what fish I can keep. Thanks Again Lukas

OK where can I get Plants 101? I would most likley get comercial products, unless it is easy to make. Let me know what water perameterd you need to know and I will email you every thing. Thanks for your help. L

I haven't thought about any fertilizer yet. Is there some thing that you would suggest? I am running the lights on the low setting of the fixtures so its only about half as bright as it would be on full. Iam using T3 bulbs. I have thought about running CO2. I was going to wait and see what would happen with the lights first to see if the plants responded to them. Would you suggest running CO2 right away or just going with fertilizer or both? Thanks for your input, Lukas

Has any one every used halogen bulbs to grow plants with any success? I started a little experiment on my 90 gallon with 2 300watt halogen lights, I was just wondering if any one has done this before and if they had any good results. So if any one has any input or thoughts let me know. Thanks L

Hey I wasint sure where to post this, so I thought this would be a good spot. Does any one know how to make snails breed. Iam looking to have a food supply for my loaches. I used to have a huge population of snails in my lizard tank but they have stoped laying eggs. The same with my Rams horns they are about the size of a childs hand now but wont lay any more eggs. So if any one has any ideas let me know. Thanks L