Hello from NEOhio

[Blaha]

Hello, I'm from North East Ohio.
I have a 29 gallon full of Nano fish, and it's my first planted aquarium setup. I used to have a single Lace Catfish, but he passed in August this year at 4 years 11 months old, so I'm redoing everything.
I've had tanks for a while and am pretty confident in balancing and maintaining the slightly overstocked tank I have, but plants... I'm struggling a bit. That's why I've come here!

My current Setup:
29 gallons with a sponge filter and a powerhead facing the short wall for different flow on different sections of the tank. 
7 Neons, 6 Black Neons, 6 Black Kuhlis, and 2 Emerald Corys (I wanted more corys but it was all I could get) and 1 baby Hillstream Loach
I'm doing well with a Vallisneris, but it's not growing taller than a couple inches, just going out.
Crypt Luscens is doing amazing
I got some Scarlet Temple about a week ago and it's only dying. turning white and decaying about an inch above the gravel. I'm losing about 1-3 stems per day, and there's about 10 left (I bought 3 pots from the site)
I got a Dwarf Lilly bulb and that one is just confusing. It won't sink no matter what I try. I'm hoping it starts to sprout while floating so I can bury it halfway. It's been about 5 days since getting it and it's still floating.

I'm currently still running the tube light that came with the tank kit, but will be getting a Fluval in a week or two.
PS The little video about the powerhead says with zipties it will hold a Large prefilter sponge, but I had a Medium prefilter laying around from my old hang on back and it fits like a glove.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Blaha
Accidentally submitted before finishing

[Colu]

Welcome to the forum vallisneria can take a while to get going

[Griznatch]

Welcome to the forum!

[GameCzar]

Welcome!  

That is certainly odd behavior with your lily.  Maybe you got a dud?    
Keeping a tank balanced is certainly easier with plants, do you have any floaters?

[Atitagain]

Welcome to the forum, good luck with the plants. You’ll find all the help you need here.

[Patrick_G]

Welcome! 

[Blaha]

Thanks everyone!

I do not have any floaters. The idea is that the lilly pads will be the top plant

[lefty o]

welcome to the forum.

[CalmedByFish]

Welcome!

Val seems to take a few months before it does much, regardless of environment. I recently had my established vals grow about 50% more plants shortly after giving them root tabs, so substrate fertilizer is something to think about.

[Odd Duck]

Welcome!  Your Val is just getting settled in.  If it’s spreading it’s happy and it will likely shoot up soon (soon for a plant, anyway).

Your dwarf lily bulb may be a dud since it’s floating but don’t give up until it’s squishy.  If it’s firm there’s still hope.

I have no suggestions for you on the Scarlet Temple since I’ve completely failed at growing it submerged myself.  I’m trying to grow the last of mine emerse now, but it’s too soon to say if it’s going to work.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Odd Duck
Fix typos and a dropped word.

[Torrey]

On 9/26/2021 at 6:44 PM, Blaha said:

Thanks everyone!

I do not have any floaters. The idea is that the lilly pads will be the top plant

For short term, a few floaters will help stabilize water parameters and let you know when plants are hungry, until the lilly gets established  (or replaced if it's a dud). Doesn't happen often, but just in case it's a dud I would reach out now and let them know it's floating (if you bought from the Co-Op, Candi is great!)

Do you have a picture of your tank?

Typically, pictures + water parameters + light schedule information + substrate information will yield enough information to streamline suggestions closer to what you need. 

Ideally, check out the tags on people's signatures, and look for someone who has water parameters similar to yours, and is using a similar substrate, and learn from their journey. 

I've been doing this aquatic vivarium thing (thank you @Guppysnail and @Atitagain) since the mid 70's.... in 3 different states and 2 different countries. 

There are as many variables in a single tank, as there are aquarists, so there really is no hard and fast rule beyond a seasoned tank and stable water parameters make the hobby easier (as you already established with your fish🐡), adding plants successfully is about learning to listen to our plants as well as we listen to our fish.

Welcome to the forum!

[Blaha]

The Val is doing well. It's been strong for a while and sent a couple runners. I had just originally thought It grew quicker up than out. Since August I've been re-adding to the tank in a plant-fish-plant-fish pattern. The Val and Luscens was on batch 1, the Lily and Scarlet Temple were just this week. The water is on the harder side.
I have reached out to Candi and she said it sounds like a dud. They are sold out right now so she sent a refund, and I'll just watch and wait for my next chance to get one. If the scarlet doesn't make it I'll probably choose something else, but I want the lily
It's currently a low light set up, using the kit light until I get a Fluval, but it's on for 10 hours a day right now.
Here is a picture taken a couple days ago, and I've lost a bit of the Scarlet Temple, but I haven't lost any more stems in a couple days. 
Here's a pic!

[RadMax8]

Hi @Blaha, nice to see a fellow NEOhioan here! I'm in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. 

Your water seems to be a bit cloudy, is it always like that?

As far as the plants go, what do you do for fertilization? Root tabs will help your plants, with the val and crypt enjoying light of a lower intensity. The Scarlett Temple (also called AR, Alternanthera Reineckii) will need some higher intensity light to thrive.

Just some helpful tips! I'd be interested to hear which aquarium stores you like to go to!

Welcome to the forum.

[Blaha]

Nice! I'm in Lake County. There isn't much in the way of stores out there so I'm glad I found the Co-op. The closest to me are a couple just west of Mayfield Hts, and that's like an hour on the highway. I cant remember the names right away but one is a play on Jurassic park. So my fish are all petco. 

I had just cleaned the sponge on the power head intake and it was catching up. Though it has been cloudy with the amount of plant matter from my struggles.

I use the easy trio for my ferts. The luscens are my favorite. I had one for a while and got a couple more recently to help fill out the area quicker. It's a nice small plant and it just keeps popping up leaves 

[RadMax8]

Ah you must be far east Lake County, I'm in western Lake County. The two you're thinking of is Jurassic Aquatics over by the Costco and Blue Fish Aquariums a little bit further down the street. Two other really good ones I've seen are Something Fishy in Parma and Aquatica Aquarium Gallery WAY over in Valley View. That's like an hour for me so if you want to head over there you'd better make a day of it!

If you'd be interested, I have a ton of Jungle Val and some anubias that I don't need any more that I could let you have. Let me know, maybe we could meet up or something.

[amr427]

Welcome! I am new today too! I just recently got a dwarf aquarium lily too and it wanted to float so I really had to nestle it into my substrate, which is eco-complete.

My bulb now is it is covered in white fuzz, which I read elsewhere on the forum is normal because it was packed in peat moss.

Still waiting to see anything actual growth, it has been in the tank about 2 weeks and I decide to turn it on its side yesterday to see if that helps.

Jealous of your hillstream loach, some day hope to have one!

[Blaha]

Yeah @RadMax8 I'm East Lake County. Those were the stores I was thinking of.  Next time I go to Microcenter I'm going to have to make a day of it and explore these shops more. As a gamer/Artist as well it would be a good test of self control, and a stressful day for my fiancee preventing me from buying everything. If I cant save the Scarlet Temple, which seems likely, I would probably be interested in some anubias.

@amr427 I never thought I'd find one. The one I found was barely over fry sized and mostly translucent still, and probably was sent to the store by accident along side some bigger ones. It's been cool to see it grow, and turn black and start to get spots. No color on it's fins yet, but it's still only like 0.5-0.75 inches so it's still baby.

[RadMax8]

@Blaha I've got some good news for you, I stopped in at Jurassic Aquatics yesterday and the place was a little out of sorts and empty. Many of the tanks were either empty or dry, the store was in a greater amount of disarray than usual. So on my way out I asked the guy if they were moving, and he said they've secured a store in Willoughby, OH and will be opening up there at the end of October. So that should cut your travel time in half!

I'm hoping they're able to keep that store in a tidier condition, the other location really didn't have any storage and I think it was always going to be a stop-gap. I'm looking forward to seeing how things end up, it will be really nice to have a LFS out this way!

[Blaha]

@RadMax8 that is interesting to hear. I look forward to checking it out. 

I miss the little store that use to be near Great Lakes Mall if you remember that one or knew the story.

Also I am down to just a couple remaining Scarlets so if the offer for some anubias is still valid what kinds are you trying to get rid of? So that I could do some research

[RadMax8]

I remember there being a salt water shop over that way, but I only ever went in there once.

I mostly have anubias nana in my stockpile. I can check later to see exactly what I have. Care on those is pretty basic... attach it to some hardscape with either thread, a zip tie (my personal favorite), or some superglue (for when a zip tie is not practical). Then after some time, the roots will anchor to the hardscape and new leaves will form. Slow growth, but looks nice in the tank.

[Blaha]

Yeah. That little store was a bit of a tragic tale. It was a husband and wife, and they began a divorce. Idk if it was going clean or messy, but at one point the wife went to the store in the middle of the night because she still had keys and codes and dumped bleach in every tank. Killed everything, destroyed most of the equipment. There's no recovery from that. He ended up getting a lot out of her after that, and she may have gone to jail, but for destruction of property instead of animal cruelty because Ohio. It was a mess in courts after that though.

Hardscape would be needed for sure, but I've been thinking about that anyways. A little network of tunnels out of pipe for my Kuhlis covered in rocks, or some terracotta piled up.

[Blaha]

@RadMax8 I think my hardscape designing went well