Dear Gabriel: Don’t waste money, on root tabs or liquid fertilizer. If you can’t get “compost” (i.e. horse manure that has been chopped and baked) get “all natural potting soil, from Walmart; wrap it in brown paper, from a paper bag or packing material (ensuring you don’t include glue, from a seam or toner, from writing, on the bag) and shove a few handfuls, into the substrate, near the plants. It will be necessary to avoid adding too much fertilizer, as you already put fish, in the tank. The beneficial bacteria will have to deal with the nitrates, exuded by the decomposing compost, so just add two or three packets, of it. It doesn’t have to be right on the plants. The plants will send out roots, to get the nutrients. Your light is fine. Pretty much any light will do, but your light has a full spectrum and will grow plants, very well, as long as they have enough nutrition. The flame gourami (Colisa lalia) is usually peaceful and can be kept with other species that are not too large or aggressive. I had a dwarf gourami (Trichogaster lalius) and don’t recommend them, for community tanks. The addition of gaudy species, such as guppies can cause some, male, dwarf gouramis, to become very aggressive. I had this experience and had to return my, aggressive specimen, to the pet store. I hope your Colisa lalia doesn’t harm your, other fauna. Keep up your, terrific, aquarist hobby and YouTubing. All my best, Sincerely, E. J. Brinegar
Hey Gabriel Back to back is ok... I use to keep blue Moscow.. I love a big school of neons ..the bigger the better... I really like a big school of small fish in a big tank. As I seem to kill Val I can't help lol
You dont need liquid ferts unless you're growing something that gets its nutrients from the water column. Id recommend root tabs for sure because youve got a very light bioload and even when my tank was fully stocked i still used root tabs for my vallisneria and crypts. My anubias and mosses didn't really need liquid ferts, but i used some occasionally. But definitely root tabs...i used aquarium coop easy green tabs. They're priced well and work very well. Plant them as deep as you can as close to the base of the plant as possible. You only need 1 for about each 20 square inches of space, but roots will grow towards them even if you plant them a bit too far away. The lighting looks fine, but when using ferts you may need to cut down on the amount of time the lights are to prevent algae. Best of luck to you
Brother i wish i could get some of your old plants and even some of your old fish, you had a BEATUTIFUL setup. how many hours a day should i leave my lights on?
@GCaquatics ah thank you. I wouldn't go more than 9 hours a day, and watch for hair algae growing on the leaves of the plants. It'll look like green peach fuzz at first. If you see that cut down to around 6 hours for a couple of weeks. Then as your plants start growing more they'll be able to soak up more nitrates to control that algae, so you can start adding back more light time. It's a balance that can take a bit to find, but it's essential, and you'll find it 😉
😊
Thank you for stopping by brother.
Dear Gabriel:
Don’t waste money, on root tabs or liquid fertilizer. If you can’t get “compost” (i.e. horse manure that has been chopped and baked) get “all natural potting soil, from Walmart; wrap it in brown paper, from a paper bag or packing material (ensuring you don’t include glue, from a seam or toner, from writing, on the bag) and shove a few handfuls, into the substrate, near the plants. It will be necessary to avoid adding too much fertilizer, as you already put fish, in the tank. The beneficial bacteria will have to deal with the nitrates, exuded by the decomposing compost, so just add two or three packets, of it. It doesn’t have to be right on the plants. The plants will send out roots, to get the nutrients.
Your light is fine. Pretty much any light will do, but your light has a full spectrum and will grow plants, very well, as long as they have enough nutrition.
The flame gourami (Colisa lalia) is usually peaceful and can be kept with other species that are not too large or aggressive. I had a dwarf gourami (Trichogaster lalius) and don’t recommend them, for community tanks. The addition of gaudy species, such as guppies can cause some, male, dwarf gouramis, to become very aggressive. I had this experience and had to return my, aggressive specimen, to the pet store. I hope your Colisa lalia doesn’t harm your, other fauna.
Keep up your, terrific, aquarist hobby and YouTubing.
All my best,
Sincerely,
E. J. Brinegar
Thank you brother.
Hey Gabriel
Back to back is ok...
I use to keep blue Moscow.. I love a big school of neons ..the bigger the better...
I really like a big school of small fish in a big tank.
As I seem to kill Val I can't help lol
Yes I wanted like 13 neons but at 2.79 a piece I stopped at 7 😛 I’m excited to see how this tank comes out. Thanks for stopping by.
Nice. Got two flame recently. Had some before , they color up very nicely
Oh ya he has gotten REALLY colorfule a few times when he has gotten mad. i got 17 fish in there now. thanks for stopping by.
You dont need liquid ferts unless you're growing something that gets its nutrients from the water column. Id recommend root tabs for sure because youve got a very light bioload and even when my tank was fully stocked i still used root tabs for my vallisneria and crypts. My anubias and mosses didn't really need liquid ferts, but i used some occasionally. But definitely root tabs...i used aquarium coop easy green tabs. They're priced well and work very well. Plant them as deep as you can as close to the base of the plant as possible. You only need 1 for about each 20 square inches of space, but roots will grow towards them even if you plant them a bit too far away. The lighting looks fine, but when using ferts you may need to cut down on the amount of time the lights are to prevent algae. Best of luck to you
Brother i wish i could get some of your old plants and even some of your old fish, you had a BEATUTIFUL setup. how many hours a day should i leave my lights on?
@GCaquatics ah thank you. I wouldn't go more than 9 hours a day, and watch for hair algae growing on the leaves of the plants. It'll look like green peach fuzz at first. If you see that cut down to around 6 hours for a couple of weeks. Then as your plants start growing more they'll be able to soak up more nitrates to control that algae, so you can start adding back more light time. It's a balance that can take a bit to find, but it's essential, and you'll find it 😉
@@FishRfun Thank you buddy, oh by the way what were your blue angels called if i wanted to find one?
@GCaquatics ya know they were just sold as "fancy", but they were blue zebra angelfish
@@FishRfun thank you.