The Puffer Forum

Firs of all like to thank everyone who give me suggestions on the plants. I went out and got Amazon swords for background,dwarf tears and dwarf Sagittaria for my 10 gal dwarf puffer tank which house 2 dwarf puffer only. Im using riverbed sand as gravel and there's a piece of driftwood in there. The tank is not fully cycled yet but another week should be done. To my understanding. Doesnt this plants need florite or C02???? Can anyone give me suggestion of the easiest way to keep this plants healthy?what kinda product i need to care for this plants? and more suggestions of what kinda easy care plant for my other tank will be appreciated. thx all!!!!

I know this isn't the best answer, but there is plant fert/food you can buy (as I do).
I have a fully planted 55 with gravel, cheap lighting, and no CO2. they grow like weeds.

CO2 is really not necessary (but helpful) from what I've heard, but the substrate is a pretty big deal. do you have an UGF?

I wouldn't use CO2, I've heard many stories about dosing too much and killing fish. I don't know if it would affect puffers more than other fish or not but I wouldn't use it, easier to just do it the low tech way.

Jase wrote:I know this isn't the best answer, but there is plant fert/food you can buy (as I do).
I have a fully planted 55 with gravel, cheap lighting, and no CO2. they grow like weeds.

CO2 is really not necessary (but helpful) from what I've heard, but the substrate is a pretty big deal. do you have an UGF?

Whats UGF? Is it flourite?Dont think i wanna put flourite in there because already have riverbed sand as gravel/substrate. Whats kinda plant food u use? Whats plant fert?

UGF = Under Gravel Filter

Nope dont have one in any of my tanks.

plurmaster wrote:

Jase wrote:I know this isn't the best answer, but there is plant fert/food you can buy (as I do).
I have a fully planted 55 with gravel, cheap lighting, and no CO2. they grow like weeds.

CO2 is really not necessary (but helpful) from what I've heard, but the substrate is a pretty big deal. do you have an UGF?

Whats UGF? Is it flourite?Dont think i wanna put flourite in there because already have riverbed sand as gravel/substrate. Whats kinda plant food u use? Whats plant fert?

I use either Tetra brand FloraPride, or Hagen PLANT GRO

fert= fertilizer

PufferPunk recommends Yamato Green.
I use CO2

Well, the plants you bought are pretty demanding... they like a lot of light and their nutrients. The sword, depending on the type, will grow way too big for a 10 gallon tank.

The biggest thing any plant needs is light. How many watts of light do you have over that tank? For those, you'd probably want 2.5-3 watts per gallon.

For fertilizer, I also recommend Yamato Green (and their dechlor is perfect!). And for tanks with 2.5 or more watts per gallon, I add Flourish Excel (its a liquid CO2 source, works great for smaller tanks, not for big tanks over 55 gallons really). For tanks with less lighting, lower needs plants, I don't bother with CO2.

If you want plants that don't really need a lot of care, look for crypts, java ferns, anubias, etc. They are lower light plants and don't need a ton of nutrients, but they also won't grow too fast. That sounds like a bad thing, but in a 10 gallon tank with a puffer, you don't want to have to prune every 4 days either!

If 1-3 watts per gal The lighting i have for 20 gal tank is only 20 watts and i cant find any bulbs thats 24" with over 20 watts. Seems like thats max for size 24".

the best fertiliser for sword plants I have used is rabbit pooh, yes rabbit pooh. Just plug one pellet at the base of any root feeding plant and it will go crazy, very good for swords, lillies, vallis, crypts etc. Another very cheap thing to use is John Innes #2 compost, this is what a lot of my planted tank freinds swear by. Ideally you would have a layer under the gravel but as your gravel is in you need to make little compost nuggets. You can do this by filling an old ice cube tray with a damp soil mix and then leaving out to dry for a few days, you can then pull the nuggets out and plug them in the gravel near the plants and it will hydrate under the gravel and the plants will draw their nutrients from there.

As for CO2 its not as important as light, you have to consider that the depth of the tank and clarity of the water also affect the amount of light that reach the plants as well as how strong the bulbs are. you could have 200W bulbs but if the water's like soup then the plants won't get enough light.

As for UGF they are appalling for plant growth as they pull water and oxygen past the roots which stops the plants drawing is own nutrients

You have to use multiple bulbs to get higher watts per gallon. If you can get a dual bulb incandescent fixture(usually under 20$) for your 20 gallon, you should be able to put two 27 watt thread in type home use compact florescent bulbs(sold as "bright as 100 watt bulbs" typically), just make sure you get 5000k to 6700k temperature range bulbs, usually described as "bright day light" or similar, never "soft white" or "bright white", which are too yellow to look any good.

spot on Nick, its red lightwaves that the plants want

Is what why? I never got into plants enough to look up why those bulbs worked well...

Yes, Yamato Green is great stuff! I also stick pieces of Jobe's Plant Spikes by the plant's roots every 6 months. I have 4 bulbs over my 90g tank & stick to low-light plants:

Tha Amazon sword outgrew this tank!