# Balancing Act



## Aquaman55g (Oct 5, 2010)

I have redone my 55 gallon planted tank several weeks ago as I try for a second time to set up a lush and healthy aqua scape for plants and fish NOT a planted jungle with algae.
For substrate I have a mixture of Flora Max as well as the Eco Complete and gravel from my prior set up, for filtration I have a Cascade canister filter running only floss and bio - rings, for lighting I have one Hagen GLO T5 HO fixture with 2 - 54 watt bulbs - currently one Zoo Med Ultra Sun (6500K) and one Zoo Med Flora Sun (5000K) sitting on the top level of the bracket - some 4" above the tank. I also have a semi-automatic CO2 system (20 lb tank) with the air stone feeding directly into the filter intake (went back to 2 bubbles a second) and a 200 watt heater. The lights and CO2 are on from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM daily.
The tank scaping consists of 3 medium pieces of Malaysian driftwood, 2 large ceramic stones and a mixture of plants both stem and driftwood varieties. For fish I have a large angel, a red tailed shark, 3- danios, 8 - harlequin rasporas, 5 plattys, 6 - Otos, 5 - Corys and a small clown pleco.

I recently was advised to filter my high / intense lighting through at least one layer of fiberglass screening which I have done and for a couple of weeks now I have been dosing the plant nutrients Seachem Flourish brand via EI method alternating macro and micro nutrients for 6 days and on Sundays I do not dose and do a 50% water change. I also recently added a small Aqueon circulation pump as I felt that my canister does not adequately stir the entire tank and now I have more water movement.

Maybe it is too soon to see results but I feel that I am still not getting the lush plant growth I assumed that I would with all I am doing. I still see both bba on driftwood plants, and green spot algae on the tank glass and some other plants with the water having a slight green tinge when it is changed. I have had to trim some plants already so I know I am getting growth but the plants could certainly look better. Should I just continue doing what I am doing and wait? I was told that the plants would be healthy once they were receiving NPK nutrients?
Thanks for your time and assistance.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

i think what you have will work, but your lighting is actually a little low for use with CO2. i dont know if you can double it or not, but if you could, you would get faster growth. i got my best growth from a DIY yeast reactor and a few cheap shop lights. very little fert dosing, if any. 
Aquarium Gallery - IMG_0323

i also used play sand from home depot, about 3.50 for 50lbs of sand.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

running the pressurized co2 through an airstone isn't going to cut it for co2 either. If you want to do ei dosing I would look into dry ferts. Using seachem ei will get pretty costly.


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## Aquaman55g (Oct 5, 2010)

Thank you Auban and Susankat for your responses but I must say that this is all getting quite confusing as I continue to receive conflicting answers to my inquiries concerning my planted aquarium from this and other forums.
I have already been told that my lighting was too intense, then I was advised that my lighting set up was perfect so I could grow any type of plant and now I hear it could be doubled for faster growth. I had also learned that sending the co2 bubbles through the canister filter intake was one of the best methods to dose the tank but your response indicates that this method is not sufficient. I used to have the tube from the co2 output inserted into the filter intake with no diffusor then I purchased a new ceramic diffusor which was high pressure and produced tiny bubbles and at present I am back to an air stone under the filter intake. It does seem to make sense that if the bubbles (no matter what their size) reach the surface then at least some of the co2 is lost into the air and is not getting into the water and to the plants.
Regarding co2 I also used to use a DIY yeast set up but I went to a semi-automatic dosing system with a pressurized tank on the same timer as my lights so that I could shut off the co2 dosing at night. In addition, for 3 - 4 hours a night on another timer I have bubbles going into the tank via a buried 48" flexible bubble wand. I wanted to avoid an over load of co2 and balance some oxygen into the aquarium before the co2 system started up each morning.
Just to let you know I do plan to go the dry fertilizer route dosing the EI method once my Flourish supplies are exhausted.


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