First Time Planted Tank - What to watch

[Dierianrigg]

Hello all,

I just started my first planted tank. It has been running for 3 days now. It's little more than 10G. I have 6w power led, combination of 6500k white and 660nm deep red. Also, 3w led support. No co2, no fertilizer and no fish so far. I let the lights on for 6-8 hours a day.

And for the cycling, I already had a mbuna chichlid tank running for 2 years now. I used the water from that aquarium. I got a new external filter for the planted tank and let it run for a day or two on the old aquarium. Also, I dosed/dosing daily some bacteria culture/fast start supplement.

For the water values, the test kits are not widely available in my country 🙁 or too expensive so not sure about all. I know my ph is around 7-7.5 and temperature is between 24.5-25d celsius.

At the moment I am not sure how my tank is doing 🙁 Not sure what to check/watch or do other then waiting? I think some of my plants does not look so healthy. I am not sure if I should be concerned and make any changes. Am I doing (or did) something wrong? Here are the some photos, please let me know your suggestions.

Echinodorus Quadricostatus

View image: IMG 20151220 000651
View image: IMG 20151220 000720

Myriophyllum Mattogrossense and Limnophila Aromatica

View image: IMG 20151221 212005

Marsilea hirsuta

View image: IMG 20151221 212039

Sp Japan

View image: IMG 20151221 212157

I made my search but could not find a situation that matches with mine. Sorry if a similar thing asked before.

Thanks,

 

[EnderUK]

Sorry can't see the images at work so some of this is guess work.
Don't worry to much about test kits, I haven't used any for two years now. A quick way to cycle the filter would simply take some media or substrate from you cichlid tank and stick it into the new filter or leave it in your new tank to seed the substrate. You're filter isn't really important in a planted tank as you want your plants to do all the work. Using old water won't really do any so just use water as the bacteria is not in the water it's stuck to surfaces.

Why aren't you using fertilizer? There's nothing in your tank for the plants to feed on, not even fish waste. If you're going low tech then you can dose 1/3 EI or use root tabs or whatever you can get your hands on.

Don't know about your lights, can't see them, it might be to much for a low tech tank.

If you bought your plants with emerged growth they will need time to adapt to the new conditions going from atmospheric CO2 access to 5ppm is a big shock to the plants, most of the old leaves will shed, as long as you're getting new growth the plants will recover, 3 days is usually not enough time to see this new growth.

 

[Dierianrigg]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I did not start with fertilizer because I do not have co2 supplement. So I was not sure if plants would be able to use all nutrients w/o co2 and if they cannot that will cause algea. I will be adding fish soon. I thought waste from fish would be enough. Would you still suggest adding fertilizers after adding the fish?

No, the plants were submerged growth. However, I read that plants will have adaptation after transplanting anyways. How long is enough time to see if they are coming back or dying completely?