Someone that is good at Freshwater help me.

[shawnaus17]

So I have a 55 gallon I donated to our local airport. I am wanting to do a planted tank. I am going with 260 watts of pc and a Under gravel filter with two powerheads one with the reverse filter. I also am doing that subtrate that is rich for live plants and got a CO2 system as well. Can anyone direct me in what is the do and don't of a planted tank. It has been along since I keep these and I am a novice at that not really understanding the full take of freshwater. If anyone can offer some advice please do. I need all I can ;)

Shawn

[KingDiamond]

It looks like you have plenty of light! My main suggestion is to plan what plant you want and where they will go and get them all at once. This will help minimize algae problems from the start. My only other suggestion would be to monitor your Hardness and your CO2 and make sure you feed the roots of any root feeding plants you might get (Val., Swords ect..). I always used fertilizer tab from this place in Ohio (http://www.williamtricker.safeshopper.com ).

Brad

P.S. aquaticplantdepot.com has really good stuff for good prices and they ship plants so they arrive is great condition.

[jpfelix]

there are many schools of thought on plants (kinda like reefs!;) ). i like using seachem onyx under a thick layer of eco-complete. plants don't need much flow. temps will vary with the plants you get. light cycle will typically run 8-12hrs.

some easy plants: water sprite, val. sp., java fern, java moss, hornwort

this (http://www.plantgeek.net/) may help you also.

azgardens is also a good place to look around.

[surfnvb7]

well, first of all, you are blasting that tank with light at 4.7wpg. and yes, the wpg rule holds true for planted tanks.

with that much light, you GOTA balance out the growing conditions with alot of CO2, or you will have massive algae out breaks you cant control.

also, with that much light, and plus CO2, you will need to get a UV sterilizer or your water will turn green (been there done that).

but even by doing all of this, battling hair algae could become a very big headache.

i eventually had to turn to the Barr Method (i think thats what it was called). which, is when you dose macro and micro nutrients daily (such as NO3, as plants need alot of NO3 to grow), and then do a 75% water change at the end of the week to get rid of all the access nutrients in the water column. what you are trying to do, is stimulate the plants into growing as fast as possible, so they can suck up all available nutrients and out compete the algae.

this is ALOT of work, which is why i got out of the planted tank stuff. i wanted to be able to sit back and watch it, instead of spending 6hrs a weekend trimming plants b/c they were growing so fast.

so, besides adding a UV sterilizer to the system, since this will not be a high maintenance tank (b/c its at your airport), i'd suggest getting some PC lights that put it around the 3.3-3.7wpg range for the given tank. anything more than that, and you are looking at a high maintenance tank that needs to be constantly looked after to prevent algae problems.

also, with the CO2, get a pH meter that will shut off the pH when it gets to about 6.5 (yes, that seems low but the fish have plenty of O2 b/c you can literally see it bubbling out of the plant leaves)

also, you need a great team of algae eating fish in the tank, besides just the fish in there for show. several plecos and some drift wood, a TON of little otto's, and if you can get ahold of them, look for siamese algae eaters (SAE's), SAE's exclusively eat any kinds of hair algae. but alot of LFS stores sell flying fox's as SAE's, b/c they almost look identicle, but flying foxes of course wont eat any algae.

this is what mine used to look like, reef keeping is sooooooooooo much easier :lol:
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/ayoung/Pictures/Aquariums/30g%20planted%20tank/30g%20planted%20tank.jpg

[shawnaus17]

So a planted tank is harder. If I do have to much light can I just cut back the lighting to 8hrs aday. So what should I put down underneath the eco stuff. Also is the undergravel filter the best beside hang on

[surfnvb7]

I personally wouldnt do an undergravel filter on a planted tank. That used to be the "old school" way of doing planted tanks though.

Honestly, the eco complete is all you really need. I used flourite, but that was before the black eco complete had come out.

HOB's are kinda a pain, and an eye sore. I've only used Eheim canister filters, and only ran the regular media in them with lots of filter floss (no carbon). The reason why you dont want to run carbon in a planted tank, is b/c carbon will suck up NO3, and you want that NO3 available for the plants to use up.

As for the lighting, cutting back on the time the lights are on, may or may not help. My gut reaction would be that it wouldn't help much. But it may. I'd rather see the lights on for a longer period of time, but not as strong, even 3.0wpg would be fine for keeping just about all plants.

Just gota remember, in a planted tank, more light isn't necessarily a good thing. You also gota make sure the bulbs are rated for 6700k, or some type of plant bulb.

UV sterilizer is a big thing ya gotta get. it will go a LONG way to defeating algae problems. best way to run one is in-line with a canister filter.

[andycook]

If you donated it to the local airport are you responsible for water changes, topping off, scraping algae, etc? Seems like a large pain.

I would cut back on the light even more and stick to some low to medium light level plants. Then you don't have to mess with CO2, etc.

[shawnaus17]

Actually no I am not responsible my mom runs the airport and she would take over duties and I would help her

[surfnvb7]

go for very low maintenance, which means less than 3wpg, and no CO2. a fish tank full of algae would be a huge eye sore at an airport, and wouldn't last very long for sure.

maybe even consider going with a freshwater cichlid tank, with mostly rocks are large boulders. put some algae eating fish in there with them, and thats about as low maintenance as it gets.

[Hobster]

You mean no one has tried to sell you on a BB with starboard fresh water with plastic plants only tank??:)

A full blown planted tank is a lot of work! I like the idea of some Africans, nice large deco rocks. canister filter.

[Jeffrey Porter]

i would'nt bother with an under gravel filter. my 26g bow front is the onl successful planted tank i've ever kept. it has about 3 inches of what i think is the eco complete ( the black stuff, 3 bags) . also its crammed full of tetras, khuli loaches (fun for the kids) and others so i deceided not to use co2. There are only 2 15 watt flourescents on it. so you probably could use less light. also i noticed a big difference in the growth of the plants when i redid the tank a few months ago with an under gravel heating cable. plants do better with warm feet. also for a filter if the fish load is going to be low do not use a powerful filter. turning the tank over a couple times an hour is good enough. but whatever filter you use get one that does not make a lot of surface disturbance. .

[shawnaus17]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7559173#post7559173 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by surfnvb7
go for very low maintenance, which means less than 3wpg, and no CO2. a fish tank full of algae would be a huge eye sore at an airport, and wouldn't last very long for sure.

maybe even consider going with a freshwater cichlid tank, with mostly rocks are large boulders. put some algae eating fish in there with them, and thats about as low maintenance as it gets.

UMMMM............. We're doing a planted tank

[ENGINEERgoby]

Here's the big don't...don't do a planted tank with CO2 and high light unless someone is willing to put in 2 hrs a week doing water changes and pruning and cleaning up algae. You will probably need an RO/DI unit for water to keep the phosphates (=hair algae) down. Use RO/DI water + electrolytes + buffer but be careful that the buffer you add is not a phosphate salt. Water changed every week without fail. We used fluorite substrate, you don't need an undergravel filter. Our SAEs were not very good about eating algae but they ate just about everything else and were huge by the time we sold them. If you add driftwood be sure to boil the heck out of it before putting it in the tank to get rid of the tannins.

We also had a planted tank..with discus..so I agree with surfnvb7. Planted tanks are a lot of work. :::gasp::: in my opinion, it's harder to keep a planted tank "looking good" than a saltwater tank.

[surfnvb7]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7563041#post7563041 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ENGINEERgoby
Here's the big don't...don't do a planted tank with CO2 and high light unless someone is willing to put in 2 hrs a week doing water changes and pruning and cleaning up algae. You will probably need an RO/DI unit for water to keep the phosphates (=hair algae) down. Use RO/DI water + electrolytes + buffer but be careful that the buffer you add is not a phosphate salt. Water changed every week without fail. We used fluorite substrate, you don't need an undergravel filter. Our SAEs were not very good about eating algae but they ate just about everything else and were huge by the time we sold them. If you add driftwood be sure to boil the heck out of it before putting it in the tank to get rid of the tannins.

We also had a planted tank..with discus..so I agree with surfnvb7. Planted tanks are a lot of work. :::gasp::: in my opinion, it's harder to keep a planted tank "looking good" than a saltwater tank.

absolutely! reef tanks are soooooooooooooooooooo much easier, but ultimately more expensive.