Basic of planted tank

Read from a forum about the basic of a planted tank, found it very interesting so i decided to share it here in my blog.

It describe a planted tank as a car.

Low tech tank = Gokart,
Normal tank = a saloon car,
High tech tank = Race car.

All cars need engine, fuel and accessories. In a planted tank concept, engine refers to lightings, fuel refers to CO2 and accessories refers to fertilizers.

Light is 1 of the 3 main factors that determine plants growth. It allows plants to carry out a chemical process called photosynthesis whereby plants take in CO2 (fuel) and fertilizers (accessories) and give out oxygen as by product.

CO2 is 1 of the thing needed for a plant to grow. Plants "breathe" in CO2 during photosynthesis and give out oxygen. This process stop when light is not available and plants start to give out a small amount of CO2. Amount of CO2 needed will be depending on the amount of lights received, the stronger the lights in terms of watts per gallon (WPG) the more CO2 is needed.

Fertilizers needed by a plant are Nitrates, Potassium, Iron, Phosphates, Calcium and many more which we term as trace elements. 1 very important benefit of having plants in a tank is they will consume nitrate in the water which is what we are trying to keep check for healthy livestock via water change and careful monitoring. So with higher lights (WPG) and more CO2, fertilizers will be used up at a faster rate and hence dosing will be required.

Gokart needs a small engine with little fuel and accessories. Meaning to say, in a planted tank concept. A low tech tank requires little lights with hardly any CO2 except those that's dissolved as air in the water and those given out by livestocks in the tank. There's no need for fertilizers dosing as it requires very little of it, a main source of it's fertilizers are fish food and waste produce by livestocks.

Race car requires a very powerful engine with premium graded fuel and fanciful accessories. Powerful lightings, alot of CO2 produced by a pressuirsed tank and a wide range of elements.

Saloon car will be in between Gokart and Race car.

Algae in Freshwater Planted Aquariums

This is what creates algae sweet spot: Plants require all three of their needs to be met. If one of the needs is not met, then the plants slow growth. Algae, however, are able to pick up one or two of those 3 needed items – light, co2, fertilizers - and grow without needing the balance of the 3.

Hair algae, Thread Algae, Black Brush Algae, Staghorn, Cladophora, and many, many others, will grow very well in a tank that has a lot of light and doesn’t balance the other needs. They will grow because their needs are being met with the “excess” of light, co2, nutrients, whatever the plants cannot use if the tank is out of balance.

The point is to understand that balance is important.