# New to plants



## george1702 (Dec 5, 2007)

I have my plants (they are begginer plants - not sure exactly what they are) on a 6-7 hour ON period. I have a coralife t-5 dual bulb fixture pumping 42 watts total. I would add an hour to my timer once a week until I noticed some algea growth on the leaves. This is how I figured I should leave the lights on for 6-7 hours. Is this a good method to check how much light I should use, or is this algea growth caused more by water conditions, etc? Also, a few leaves are browning and I was wondering if this is caused by a lack of nutrients (i dont use any). What is a decent quality nutrient I can purchase by the bottle at petsmart or petco to help with health. I can add pictures in the morning if necessary. Thanks


----------



## Ibanez247 (Nov 9, 2006)

I run 4x40 watt bulbs on 125 gallon tank. Lights are on 11hrs a day and I have little algae problems. Only places it pops up is where a few beams of sun poke through. Im no plant expert but I think my tank speaks for itself. I seem to be doing pretty well. I feed my plants flourish supplement once a week after everywater change. Seems to do the trick. No CO2. Do you have some type of sword plants or more like a grass? Swords seem to do well no matter what the light. Ive had better luck after switching to a sand substrate as well. What size tank do you have? If you have a large tank thats not going to be enough light. If you havnt already read the post about plants in the forum a lot of good info there.


----------



## george1702 (Dec 5, 2007)

I have a 40gal breeder tank. The guys at the store (theyre some serious fish enthousiasts) said my coralife t-5 will be good enough. Im guessing ive got some sword-ish plans although i remember the lfs guy telling my its a kind of grass. Theyre long, broad (about half inch), bright green blades whos rhizomes (horizontal stems - my plant sciences class came in handy) allow it to grow across my tank. Ive also got a dark green plant that can be rooted in gravel or tied to a piece of driftwood. Is "flourish" the brand that you use? I will add some pics when i finish this final exam I am about to take - thanks for the help.


----------



## ryanimpreza (Jul 19, 2006)

george1702 said:


> I have a 40gal breeder tank. The guys at the store (theyre some serious fish enthousiasts) said my coralife t-5 will be good enough. Im guessing ive got some sword-ish plans although i remember the lfs guy telling my its a kind of grass. Theyre long, broad (about half inch), bright green blades whos rhizomes (horizontal stems - my plant sciences class came in handy) allow it to grow across my tank. Ive also got a dark green plant that can be rooted in gravel or tied to a piece of driftwood. Is "flourish" the brand that you use? I will add some pics when i finish this final exam I am about to take - thanks for the help.


sounds like a java fern. Very easy plant to grow. You have then 1 wpg. I thinks thats good enough for low light plants w/o co2. I would try to get your wpg alittle higher you can go to around 1.5 wpg w/o having to use co2. Any high you would need to go with it. I always say get the co2 anyways it helps a lot.


----------



## george1702 (Dec 5, 2007)

ryanimpreza said:


> sounds like a java fern. Very easy plant to grow. You have then 1 wpg. I thinks thats good enough for low light plants w/o co2. I would try to get your wpg alittle higher you can go to around 1.5 wpg w/o having to use co2. Any high you would need to go with it. I always say get the co2 anyways it helps a lot.


based on my tank size, plants, and wattage, how many hours should i have my lights on. Right now they are only on for 6 hours.


----------

