What would you do?

[badpotato39]

 

The 40 breeder pictured is about a month old. The idea behind it was to grow a variety of plants to help out my LFS. Substrate is an inch of golden pearl/activ flora / eco complete followed by 2 inches of stratum with another inch or so of the base mix. It’s running two ACO lights, fluval 407, large sponge filter and inline co2 injection. Most of the plants were from ACO plus a few trimmings from other tanks. Growth has been mediocre at best. Co2 is at 2-3bps and lights are running 40% for 9 hours. Dosing easy green and potassium twice a week. 

Here is the thing…I managed to talk the wife into letting me set up another 40 breeder to do the same thing. Knowing my goal is to simply grow plants to help out my LFS (and eventually sell myself), how would YOU set this up(not including plants)? Here is what you have on hand- 2 30 inch 3.0 stingray lights, fluval 207 and sponge filters, co2 injection, 34lbs of stratum and a budget of $150.

I want to do this right so any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Short video of not a black square tank

 

Edited March 20 by badpotato39
removal of black square. addition of actual images and a video.

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/20/2024 at 3:01 PM, badpotato39 said:

The 40 breeder pictured is about a month old. The idea behind it was to grow a variety of plants to help out my LFS. Substrate is an inch of golden pearl/activ flora / eco complete followed by 2 inches of stratum with another inch or so of the base mix. It’s running two ACO lights, fluval 407, large sponge filter and inline co2 injection. Most of the plants were from ACO plus a few trimmings from other tanks. Growth has been mediocre at best. Co2 is at 2-3bps and lights are running 40% for 9 hours. Dosing easy green and potassium twice a week. 

Here is the thing…I managed to talk the wife into letting me set up another 40 breeder to do the same thing. Knowing my goal is to simply grow plants to help out my LFS (and eventually sell myself), how would YOU set this up(not including plants)? Here is what you have on hand- 2 30 inch 3.0 stingray lights, fluval 207 and sponge filters, co2 injection, 34lbs of stratum and a budget of $150.

I want to do this right so any input would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

The picture just shows up as black on my screen. That said, that all seems like it should be growing plants better than mediocre. Hopefully some of our plants experts have some good ideas for you.

My outside the box idea (assuming tou have no animals in the tank): could you do what would essentially be a dry-start method? Lower the water to the substrate level, wrap the tank in plastic wrap, and absolutely blast it with light? Or would it defeat the purpose to have emersed growth that would then have to convert?

Or, if you definitely want to grow them immersed, could you lower the water level to just at or slightly above the plants' height? That would mean less water for the light to have to penetrate through.

[lefty o]

well that big black square needs some water, and some plants in it to start with.

[badpotato39]

By popular demand I have replaced the giant black square.

[JoeQ]

On 3/20/2024 at 7:23 PM, badpotato39 said:

By popular demand I have replaced the giant black square.

Rip giant black square

3/20/2024 - 3/21/2024

Gone but not forgotten!

 

 

Edited March 21 by JoeQ

[Bsquared]

It seems like you have all the necessary ingredients to get some great plant growth. I would use both those stingrays, hook up the 207 with inline co2 diffusion plant some more plants and then wait. I think time is the only thing you need. Once the plants settle in you should start to see some solid growth. Even as you trim and sell, your plants will be well established and should grow back quickly. 

[badpotato39]

Appreciate the reply. Do you think I’m good with just the stratum or should I layer/mix it?

[Bsquared]

I would just do the stratum and add root tabs around any heavy root feeders if you want to grow those. Otherwise, stratum with regular dosing of a liquid fert like easy green will work great for water column feeding plants

Also, thinking about your first tank, if it is only a month old you probably haven't hit peak plant growth yet. They are likely still settling in but any day now they should start to put on significant growth. I usually start to see consistent growth begin to occur at about the 1.5-2month mark.