Hello Dawn, Thank you for sharing and I am sorry to read that you have had problems with planting your aquariums. One of the easiest plants I have had is Anacharis. It truly is prolific. I have java fern and java moss in my fish tanks as well. I do not use any fertilizers on my plants and I have gravel substrates in both of my tanks. I did some searching and found a couple of links that might be helpful for you. The link attached is a picture of Anacharis. The website itself is for a supplier in your state. Steve's Aquatic Plant Resource Page is comprehensive and interesting. Here is the link for you to copy and paste: http://home.infinet.net/teban/ I hope that you enjoy the links and I hope that the pothos cuttings work out for you. Just try and be patient as they take a long time to root. But even just floating the leaves provides a pretty effect and something interesting for the fish to play with. *smiles* Please keep me posted. Always, Denise Here is a link that might be useful: Anacharis

Octoganl tanks are usualy hard to light because of their depth and small surface area. Try to getat least 30Watts flourescent, 6500K 40watts may be better cause of depth factor. Any red or purple plants need at least 3.5-4 watts per gallon. If you have an incadescent fixture exchange the bulbs for the compact florescent spiral type. Walmart has 2-packs 15-35 watt per bulb for about $8. They are marked "Daylight",and are made by "Lights of America". On the package and base of the bulb itself it says 6500K. Soft White, Cool White are no good as they are to yellow and green. Plants need mostly Red and Blue so the daylight bulbs are full spectrum. Java ferns and java moss are very good lowlight "beginner" plants. Use "Florite" by seachem as your gravel/substrate. Use "Flourish Excel" along with "Flourish Comprehensive Plant Supplement" for fertilizer. I prefer planted aquariums for there natural ability to "nitrify" the water but mostly because of the beauty and compliment to your fish.If you want live plants then a UGF is out of the question. As far as efficiency if you go planted start the tank with tap water and plants from the begining. When the plants start to thrive stock fish slowly. Do a 35% water change every week, nice thing is gravel vacuum not necessary, just hover to clean the fish crap. Every 6 months pull the plants and thorough gravel vac. Non-live plant tank, find a freind who has an established tank. Plead with him to give you his filter media or let your filter run in his tank for 2 weeks.Then add a free and clear type cleaning ammonia. This is call a "Fishless Cycle" search it on the web for a better detailed description. As far as filtration the "Whisper" is a fine model. About $10-15 and easy to maintain. They just changed design and I bought one for a 10 gal QT tank. It is very quick and simple to use. Best advise is take time and do it right. If you slap it together and hope for the best it will bite you in the arse. Also a 20L tank is better for planted and about $25 the other equiptment is the same as you would use for the 15 gal. You can always use the 15 for a QT tank. Some will argue that a small tank like the 15 planted with no mechanical filtration is OK. My opinion is different.

I agree with shrubs_n_bulbs and dcarch. While it is useful to study the aquarium community, because they are very obsessed and very knowledgeable, you do definitely learn a lot. Unfortunately there are just not too many people participating in this forum and some of the people just seem to be here to sell lamps and spread misinformation. Our local lamp salesman should have banned long time ago. (New lamps for old! New lamps for old!) FWIW in my other life, I'm a senior pathologist, who is rather obsessed with perfection himself. In my professional life and in my hobby life, I like to go all the way, understand it all to the maximum that I am able to, and apply my knowledge to the utmost. My most inspiring person is Henry Kuska, who is a member of this forum, and who applies theory, scientific method, painstaking dedication, sweat, and generosity, all tempered with what is practical, and how can resources be applied most efficiently. Henry got me started on indoor gardening, and I have been going strong ever since. I think I started out with germination of rugosa achenes about 6 years ago. For that reason I commend shrub's comments most highly, please take 100% heed of them, because I completely endorse them. My viewpoint is also a very practical one, and although I am blessed that I can afford just about any gizmo or setup my heart would desire, I restrict myself however, I don't just go out and get the "newest and the best", don't play into manufacturer's hype, learn how to recognize real data from bogus. My holy grail is "most bang for the buck". I work hard for my money, and I try to spend it as wisely as I am able. The aquarium community is very good at evaluating reflectors, that's why I bought myself some lumenmax reflectors, although they're bent metal, the bends to the first approximation if a full parabola. I recommend them. Choice of lamps: Pulse start metal halide, blows away conventional halide by a country mile, there is absolutely no reason why anyone should use probe start for growing on land. Venture lamps sold by businesslights.com have a perfect spectrum for vegetative, can be run continuously, and in that mode last up to 30,000 hours. For general growing, a ratio of 2 x HPS : 1 x MH maximizes the terrific growing power of the sodium lamp and adds the blue spectrum that is critical for synthesis of chlorophyll and to discourage stem elongation. Try to design your garden so that it has at least 3 "sides", and cover the sides with mylar. A garden illuminated by 2 lamps, and surrounded by mylar, due to reflection, is equivalent of a garden out in the open illuminated with 3 lamps. For example I built a grow-closet, and lined all 4 sides by mylar, but my next project is to have a garden across the short dimension of a room that has kind of a 8' alcove. The back and sides of the "alcove" are covered in mylar, and the front is open, for general viewing, and access to work on it. Practical things and attention to detail is always critically important. The aquarium community must grapple with very high scattering losses of water. Scattering is proportional to wavelength (why the sky is blue), and for any useful light to reach the bottom of the aquarium, it must be top heavy with very short wavelength (blue violet). Aquarium owners also grow beautiful ?coral or other vegetation, they have colorful fish, and the extremely high color lamps are essential for the esthetics. Remember, the aquarium owner is buying it for pleasure to look at, we are buying for maximum size of crop for us to eat (vegetables and fruits), admire (various ornamental plant), or smoke, as the case may be. So while I am grateful to the aquarium community, and like yourself have read over extensively the forum discussions, the bottom line is I adapt what I learn there and apply it to land farming. Also why I study the cannabis growing forum, but due to LEO, the best forum overgrow.com was shut down. If you visit plantlightinghydroponics.com you will even notice that under their horticultural lamp selection, they superimpose the photosynthesis activity spectrum with the spectal output of the lamps they sell. However, the regular horizontal 400W pulse start Venture metal halide lamp sold in the sister company businesslights.com has the exact same spectral output as a SunMaster "horticultural vegetative" lamp, but has higher lumen output and longer lumen maintenance.Paul Mozarowski.

Haha, sorry about the confusion, yeah that would make alot more sense using MG fertiliser and not the substrate. I think its the blue crystal one you have? If it is I grew great plants, tomatoes and a pepper plant with it, it was great. I did end up adding more N in vegetative growth,and foliar fed throughout veg with seaweed and such but as a base it works great. Just in your water front, as a heads up, using R.O. water is a good way to go,based off your water supply(i assume)but keep an eye out for Mg and Ca deficiencies when you start to get going. And if you do see either You know the score though so shouldnt be an issue. Shall we talk about lights ay, well on your LED lights, ideally you will want anything in the 400-700nm range for each diode. I have freinds who use LEDs and they even use infra red leds in the mix to get a full spectrum, I may one day try to grow with them, but for now they just dont have the penetration, or lumen/watt to justify the expense. But if its blue and white it will be great for lettuce as that dosnt need much more light to do great in hydro.I use a big 125w cfl (4200k) for lettuce. And depending on what other lights im running i may add another 125w cfl at 6600k, Now, your Metal Halide runs in at 1000k, or is it 10,000k,, as its for coral and such, cause there is a huge difference, but i will assume you mean 1000k and 1400k bulbs. For comparison I use a 400watt HPS with a bulb in 2700k, And thats the power house of my indoor garden. Its for fruiting and flowering So maybe use your higher rated bulb, Im going to look into your 'aquatic' lights, as im sure if you bought one and put a different bulb in you could get more inital lumens/watt from you bulb. Thats For a different time.. Yeah , so ideally you want as many lumens as possible to grow great plants under lights. Using your MH and supplementing should help to get a more full spectrum. other advice would be to pH the rockwool way before use and make sure your clay pebbles are clean, as they will, repeat will, clogg your drip lines if they are not. Canna make the best drip clear stuff,, it basically stops mineral deposits in small feed tubes and drip lines. And as a warning, when you get it tuned in, you may end up running the pump all day and a few times at night when in clay pebbles as they can really grow.. Take it easy.. Keep us posted. P.s. Save the foil and space blankets for other uses,like stopping aliens reading your mind and cooking, white paint is abit more relfective and dose not produce hot spots and uneven light reflection.. Matt white, not the shiny stuff. Or go whole hog with some mylar. This post was edited by bunnyface on Mon, Feb 2, 15 at 19:41