A Couple Of Questions

[haich]

ok things i want to know

ok i have a 48"x15"x18" tank on the volume calculator on this site it works out as 39 gallons is that uk or us

now i have started on a planted tank i am running 2 38 watt fluros with reflectors (not sure how much of a difference it makes) but i think i worked it out to be about 1.9 wpg is this right? if not what is it if anyone wouldn't mind clearing the air for me

finally (i think)i have some algae growing on my back wall and on some plants have read the ei thread but not sure if this is for me as i am only running the nutrafin co2 system which you probably all know is not sufficient for that size tank cant afford a pressurized one but thought that might help a little

if i think of anything else i shall post again

thank you for taking the time to read this and hopefully putting my mind to rest

much appreciated cheers howard

 

[Themuleous]

ok i have a 48"x15"x18" tank on the volume calculator on this site it works out as 39 gallons is that uk or us

I make it 47 UK gal or 56 US gal according to the PFK website

i worked it out to be about 1.9 wpg is this right?

You have 2x38w lights, which gives 76w total, which is 1.35WPG, you always use the US gal of the tank to work out the WPG And definitely use reflectors they drastically increase the amount of light that gets to the tank. The WPG thing also assumes you've got them too.

finally (i think)i have some algae growing on my back wall and on some plants have read the ei thread but not sure if this is for me as i am only running the nutrafin co2 system which you probably all know is not sufficient for that size tank cant afford a pressurized one but thought that might help a little

EI only really works in high light tanks, and if you've got high-light lots of CO2 is a must. If you can't afford the right CO2 kit then I wouldn't go the EI route as the extra light will cause a huge algae problem if you do

Sam

 

[haich]

cheers for that sam so its bigger than i thought so do the reflectors add to the wpg?or do do you just go off the tubes and if i wanted more wpg what tubes would you suggest?

cheers howard

 

[Themuleous]

The only way to increase WPG is to add more light tubes, its that simple. The boxes they come in will say 'double the light output but adding a reflector' but that's a complete lie. All a reflector does it to 'reflector' the light that goes out the top of the tube, into the aquarium, that's all. It just means that you waste less.

 

[Bloo]

EI only really works in high light tanks, and if you've got high-light lots of CO2 is a must.

Added to that - it will only work if your water parameters allow this.
I cannot use EI even if I wanted to - my tap nitrate and phosphates are way too high and even when it was very heavily planted those levels never really reached a level for me to start dosing.

 

[Themuleous]

Good point Bloo but that said high tap water PO4 and NO3 just mean you probably don't have to add them, the rest of the EI, the lighting, trace ferts, CO2, water changes, plant density all still count. So in theory EI should be possible in most situations. Hardness can be a problem thou, especially if you've no way of lowering it, i.e. thought RO water.

Sam

 

[Ginge]

EI only really works in high light tanks, and if you've got high-light lots of CO2 is a must.

Added to that - it will only work if your water parameters allow this.
I cannot use EI even if I wanted to - my tap nitrate and phosphates are way too high and even when it was very heavily planted those levels never really reached a level for me to start dosing.

This is a good thing surley as it means you dont have to pay to dose EI ferts. Sam why is a high GH bad?

 

[Bloo]

Ginge sadly it's not a good thing It means my water is so disgusting that plants struggle to thrive - even with liquid ferts and root tabs. Plus I sit with very hard water - which is another down side as most plants love and thrive in softer acidic water.

 

[McMurray]

spitfire i have a few questions for you.

1. what is the Glass wall thickness of the glass on the aquarium (inches or Milieters)

2. what is your room ambiant tempature where you will be keeping your aquarium?

3. what type of sustrate you will be using ?

4. How deep will you sebstrate be (inches / milimeters)?

5. What is the water tempature you will be keeping you tank at?

If you give me this information i can build you a report that will look like this

This is one of my aquariums In CM's

Water Type..............................Freshwater
Material................................Glass
Tank Overhead Shape.....................Rectangular
Length..................................150.00 cm
Width...................................60.00 cm
Height..................................60.00 cm
Wall-thickness..........................1.00 cm
Volume..................................540.00 L < This is how many liters the aquarium holds
Tank Material Weight....................90.65 kgf
Water Volume............................505.76 L
Water Weight............................504.30 kgf
Substrate Type..........................Small Diameter Rocks
Average Substrate Depth.................6.00 cm
Substrate Weight........................79.61 kgf
Approximate Total Weight................674.55 kgf < This is the weight or the water, Substrate, and Glass
Room Air Temperature....................20.00 °C
Water Temperature.......................26.70 °C
Heating Capability Required.............203.96 W < this shows me i need a 300w heater
Approx. Total Fish Length...............295.28 cm < this is the total fish length that i can have in the tank
Mass Required for 1 PPM.................0.00 ft.

I can also do this in Imperial measurements

This is your tank specification with a guess of the temp and glas thickness

Water Type..............................Freshwater
Material................................Glass
Tank Overhead Shape.....................Rectangular
Length..................................48.00 in.
Width...................................15.00 in.
Height..................................18.00 in.
Wall-thickness..........................0.39 in.
Volume..................................46.72 gal (UK)
Tank Material Weight....................112.31 lbf
Water Volume............................42.83 gal (UK)
Water Weight............................428.01 lbf
Substrate Type..........................Small Diameter Rocks
Average Substrate Depth.................2.36 in.
Substrate Weight........................90.58 lbf
Approximate Total Weight................630.90 lbf <your total weight of the aquarium
Room Air Temperature....................20.00 °C
Water Temperature.......................26.70 °C
Heating Capability Required.............115.08 W < so you need a 150w heater
Approx. Total Fish Length...............60.00 in.
Mass Required for 1 PPM.................0.00 m
Low light plants.............................. 115.2 watts
Low-medium light plants: ................172.8 watts
Medium-bright light plants: ..............259.2 watts
Bright light plants: ..........................388.8 watts

I have added how much light you plants will need

 

[Themuleous]

Ginge sadly it's not a good thing It means my water is so disgusting that plants struggle to thrive - even with liquid ferts and root tabs. Plus I sit with very hard water - which is another down side as most plants love and thrive in softer acidic water.

Im not with you here Bloo? Apart from the PO4 and NO3 are there other things that you have in excess? Plants do fine in high PO4/NO3 dont they? I got told of APC to increase PO4 addition to 3ppm 3x per week!

I think I really mean the KH Ginge, as Bloo says high water hardness generally means high pH and getting it down to aroudn the 7 mark can be difficult. That said some plants do fine in higher pH water, nt sure which ones thou.

Sam

 

[Bloo]

Absolutely everything in London water is far in excess - not just the nitrate and phosphate - which in excess is really not good at all, but nothing to be done there. My pH from tap is somewhere around 8.4 on a bad day and gH 19. Saving grace is kH of 11 which means I can pump in loads of CO2 to steadily bring down my pH to somewhere around the 6.9 or so. But it takes a lot of CO2. But that still leaves an excess of all the nasty dissolved solids in the water (which is what I think you call all that).
It's a struggle

 

[McMurray]

Good point Bloo but that said high tap water PO4 and NO3 just mean you probably don't have to add them, the rest of the EI, the lighting, trace ferts, CO2, water changes, plant density all still count. So in theory EI should be possible in most situations. Hardness can be a problem thou, especially if you've no way of lowering it, i.e. thought RO water.

Sam

If you add JBL Peat balls to your water filter (has to be external as it comes in 1ltr bags) this will bring down the hardness of the water.
with my tank i am finding because I have made the background from cement it shot the Ph, KH and Gh Levels sky high.

Since adding this it has lowered the reading to kh=3.5, PH 6.8, and Gh to 4 and this was before i have started the RO and CO2 system the CO2 level then works out to be 25.
So the peat has really helped to lower the hardness of the water

Absolutely everything in London water is far in excess - not just the nitrate and phosphate - which in excess is really not good at all, but nothing to be done there. My pH from tap is somewhere around 8.4 on a bad day and gH 19. Saving grace is kH of 11 which means I can pump in loads of CO2 to steadily bring down my pH to somewhere arounte the 6.9 or so. But it takes a lot of CO2. But that still leaves an excess of all the nasty disolved solids in the water (which is what I think you call all that).
It's a struggle

how much CO2 do you go through per month?

 

[Bloo]

Sounds like a thought - but does that discolour the water in any way whatsoever ?

 

[McMurray]

Sounds like a thought - but does that discolour the water in any way whatsoever ?

Yea it gives off a brown tannen but i curred this with active carbon. I know people say carbon is bad for planted aquariums but if you use ferts then you dont get the problems. as my tank is really green, red and the coulours are a deep colour

 

[alanchown]

Absolutely everything in London water is far in excess - not just the nitrate and phosphate - which in excess is really not good at all, but nothing to be done there. My pH from tap is somewhere around 8.4 on a bad day and gH 19. Saving grace is kH of 11 which means I can pump in loads of CO2 to steadily bring down my pH to somewhere around the 6.9 or so. But it takes a lot of CO2. But that still leaves an excess of all the nasty dissolved solids in the water (which is what I think you call all that).
It's a struggle

My plants seem to grow OK in London tap water-in fact I chuck handfulls out every week. I havent cracked the algae problem yet. Get lots of green hair algae, but the horrible black stuff has disappeared. I've been adding Nitrate some weeks and not others-I havent noticed any obvious difference so far, but it's early days. I can't make my mind up wether to add stuff or not add stuff-this weeks a not add stuff week (except for trace). Getting plenty of green algae-so maybe I'll add some NO3-who knows! Phosphate always measures off the scale.


Alan

how much CO2 do you go through per month?

I got through a 500g bottle in six weeks-on for about 12 hrs a day. London tap water-KH/GH/PH all high, try to keep around PH 7.0.

Alan