# newbie to plants, doing a 120 gallon help!



## jbjack (Jun 11, 2010)

first post!!!

im gonna try to give as much info as possible, to get the best answers

I have a 120 gallon tank, from the glas top (where the light will be) to the bottom is 20 inches, i want to pot the plants for now, the pots are 4 inches high, and i will be filling with substrate about 3 inches, so i gues from light to substrate will be 17 inches the tank is 5 feet long and 25 inches deep minus a couple inches each way for water volume (its a wood tank.)

i believe I ordered all fairly easy low - medium low light plants (i hope) they are  amazon sword, microsword, giant hairgrass, java fern, monosolenium terenum (its a moss, any one know the common name?) jungle vall, wisteria, four leaf clover.

the tank is bare bottom (thus potting) and is home to 2 pairs of breeding angels and a bunch of young abn plecos.

the filtration is 2 sponge filters, each rated for up to 125 gallon tanks (i dunno if this matters in plants)

there is no reason i cant fert this tank - no shrimp or inverts.

there is a very large drift wood oin the tanks as well.

my lights right now are low and probly not going to grow anything (from what i have read) i have i pure white strip light with 2, 32 watt T8 bulbs, each 6500k tank looks very bright but i know that doesnt matter. they are directly sitting on the glass tops. but this equals about 0.55 watts per gallon, a far cry from 3 watts per gallon. 

i was thinking the pots will be something along the lines of shultz aqua soil, topped off with play sand, and use some root tabs to get the aqua soil going. (cause thats how that stuff works right? absorbs the nutrients and then the roots get it from the soil?) 

I need to stress I am on an EXTREMELY TIGHT BUDGET lol - the cheaper the better. I am not looking to grow these plants like wild fire to sell or anything, just would like them to live and grow moderately (but fast would be great to!) point is i just dont want them to die. they will be in next week.

help , hints, tips, tricks, etc in all aspects of keeping these plants healthy would be FANTASTIC

oh and i have a diy co2 difuser if i need.......

i have lots of knowledge in aquarium / fish keeping (15 years) but very little to no knowledge on plants - so feel free to explain the plant growing lingo in lamens terms, i wont be insulted lol - i am already very confused reading stuff on the net.

thanks!!!!


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## jjp2 (May 24, 2008)

I would go with the shultz as it has a good ECE to capture nutrients which the roots would absorb. This will allow you add dry ferts to the water column which are cheap. 

For lighting, I would add 2 more T-8's.

CO2 will give you better growth. DYI on a tank this size is going to be a losing battle with the sponge filters. I would not use the sponges and use powers or koralia types to provide water movement and only slight turbulence on the surface to maintain as much CO2 as possible. With the small bioload, the plants and weekly water change will keep ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in check.


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## Byron (Aug 20, 2009)

Assuming your two tubes are 48-inch, you will be fine for the plants you mention. The clover may require more light, I've never tried it myself and substrate plants sometimes do, but I would not recommend increasing the light just for this. Wisteria can sometimes be borderline, I have it in my 70g SE Asian aquascape with the same light (two 48-inch 6700K tubes). But the swords (Echinodorus sp) will be fine.

From your PM I know you've seen my 115g, that is comparable to your 120g, and I only have two 48-inch tubes over it, on for 11 hours a day (I get algae starting with any longer duration). I have one 6700K Live-Gro 2 tube and one 11,000K Lightning Rod Ultra Daylight tube to add a tad more blue. Plants have been shown to grow best under a combo of full spectrum and cool blue, and my aquaria certainly bear this out.

The wattage is not that important; most 48-inch tubes have always been 40w but some manufacturers now make them in 32w and they are (allegedly) the same intensity for less power. Zoo Med do this, I have their Coral Sun as the "extra blue" tube with a Life-Glo 2 6700K over my 90g now.

The fish are my first consideration with light; angels, like all the forest fish I have, come from very dimly-lit waters and they will always be more "relaxed" in less light. Floating plants are good, I use them in all my tanks as without them I find even my light "too bright" for the fish (and me frankly).

Sponge filters are good with planted aquaria; the flow is minimal (which again the fish prefer, angels occur in very slow-moving water and flooded forest) which assists the plants to assimilate nutrients, and the gaseous exchange is not increased which is significant.

On substrate, I have always used regular small-grain gravel. I use root sticks for the swords, but only during the past year; the growth increased considerably, but aside from this the swords grew just as healthy without. Be careful with sand on top, your pleco may have this everywhere. I'm not familiar with your particular aqua soil, but I see no need for root ferts; the nutrients in the soil should dissipate into the water column via the bacteria and processes with the plant roots and thus be assimilated by the plants. That at any rate is how Flourite and Eco-Complete work.

You don't need CO2 diffusion to grow the plants you name. I assume the "pots" are due to the breeding angels. Normally I would not recommend plants in pots, especially Echinodorus that have very extensive root systems. So three E. bleherae in my 115g have roots that extend out about 20 inches (total) and down through 5-6 inches of gravel. I haven't updated my photos for quite a while, so I'm attaching one that I took a week or so ago to show the appearance of those plants now; they sent out 2 inflorescences each this Spring, and they are double stemmed; I have dozens of daughter plants and nowhere to plant them, so I'm leaving them for the effect. The first photo is the 115g Amazonian riverscape, the second the present state of the 90g flooded Amazon forest.

Hope I've covered what you asked, if not, let me know. Thanks for the PM.

Byron.


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