hi
i am newbie to planted tank i have quite a lot of plants in my juwel rio 400
5foot long 20"wide 24"deep.i also have 6 decent size discus&corys.i am wanting advice as to best way to keep plants healthy.i have put a sera co2 on which uses tablets put tabs in every other day.also got some tea bag type fert that came with plants.the plants are in grvel substrate in planters so i can keep bare bott.
i am haveing a problem with nitrate i use hma filter nitrate from hma is 12.5 test water day after nitrate is 25.is this the norm in planted tank.will be adding more fish later.any advice please.
thank you lindy

If you're using the standard lighting that comes with the Rio then you don't really have enough light to grow healthy plants...

hi
i am using arcadia overtank luminaire 4fresh water tropical tubes i think they are 36watt will take one out tomorrow to have a look.up to now plants look good
but advice on how long to leave lites on also anything else you reccomend to do i will be gratefull.
thank you lindy

Was your tank established prior to the plants? I imagine it is was because of the discuss but High Nitrate in a planted tank is definitely not the norm rather we usually have to add it to keep the plants happy.

I am guessing your method of CO2 probably isn't the most effective so unless you want to invest some money I would start by reading the "Non CO2 methods" article. That will let you know the ferts you need.

As for lighting period I believe 10 hours a day is pretty standard but peoples opinions vary. I have no idea if you have adequate lighting though with the info given.

If you are having issues with nitrate you could try throwing some Hornwort in there as it eats nitrate pretty quickly and is undemanding. It's a floating plant so you can keep the bare bottom without anymore pots.

What plants do you have now?