Bonus Time!

[Ebbo]

Hi,

I have always been a believer of keeping steady, well maintained water without adding any extra nutrients and allowing the fish & plants to thrive which are suited for my local water (plus my budget never allowed for extra kit that could be deemed unnessacery by my fiance).

However, after getting in to plants around 2 years ago and being extremely chuffed when my anubias flowered and took over the tank, & the java fern covered an entire huge piece of bogwood and carries on trying to spread it's planlets all over the tank - I'm ready to upgrade.

For some reason my boss has decided to give me a bonus, I thought it may be time to invest in something a little more special and attempt to grow plants that wouldn't necessarily enjoy my currently non-fertilised, hardy planted tank.

This is the tank in question, it's 40g and houses a fair stock - however it's over-filtered and has been running like this for many years, the only problem I've encountered is an over-feeding of protein to my angels resulting in one of their bums hanging out (Wilder has been helping me resolve the situation in the emergency help thread).

There's currently a huge anubias which I take cuttings from the rhizome every 4 months or so and move to a smaller tank, as it will take over every last inch of bogwood if given the oppurtunity. There's also java fern & vallis which is thriving too, and a new introduction which is HP - as I wanted something bushy to come out from behind the lumps of bogwood to show them up a bit more.

My budget now allows for a decent Co2 kit, under substrate heating, new substrate, ferts, new lighting rig, and a healthy load of plants + anything else required.

I have done a little research and have some experience with low to medium tech planted tanks, however I think I'm ready for a high-tech planted tank and may even fork out for a slightly bigger tank that allows for better lighting.

If anyone can help by suggesting equipment from experience then I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Paul

 

[Schmill]

Must just say that I am still MEGA impressed with the level & quality of plants in that tank without using any 'special' additives (liquids, or equipment).
It is an inspiration to us all that are starting out basic and can't afford to go 'the whole hog' just yet
Lovely mate!

 

[SuperColey1]

Even though your budget allows for all these things I wouldn't necessarily buy them just because I could afford them. The money you save you can spend on more plants, different fish etc. or save for another tank after this one. lol

I wouldn't buy a 'decent' CO2 kit. They are overpriced and you rarely get the best of each component within the kit. It is cheaper to source the items yourself and also you can then get better quality of each component. Then go with a BOC rent and pay for refills bottle or fire extinguishers.

Under substrate heating is a very old school thing and noone uses them these days apart from the old schoolers. The top aquascapers or plat gurus berate any suggestion that they even benefit the setup in any way!!!

I would go for dry powders and mix your own ferts. Allows you to adapt the fert to your tank rather than an off the shelf 'generalised' fert for the 'average' tank. These cost money over time whereas 1 purchase of ferts will last for an eon.

New lighting rig!!! On a bigger tank aim for 2WPG and a suspended luminaire which will let you raise it slightly andspread the light through the tank rather than having a huge amount of light directly under the tubes and darker rear and back.

For plants I would find a Tropica or Aquafleur dealer and order them in specially. Don't go for what is in the shop unless it looks darned good. Order the whole lot and you will get a decent price whilst knowing the plant is fresh.

Decent substrate is expensive. Take a look around some of the scapes in the journals section. ADA AS is popular but very expensive. I personally use Tropica.

Finally look for some good wood and/or rocks for your hardscape.

All in all you have a lot to research here. lol

There is a huge difference between not adding ferts, using lower intensity light, inert substrate, no CO2 etc. The difference in the rate of growth will surprise you. Most high light/CO2 tanks can grow 10x quicker or more than a low light/non CO2 tank!!!

However from looking at your tank I can see you know how to use this low light/nonCO2 method and it seems to be working well IMO. Congrats because it is quite hard to do

On the bigger tank to allow for better lighting. You'll find that most tanks from 2ft upwards allow for better lighting. The advances in lighting these days compared to just 5-10 years back are huge. Also with the popularity for Nano tanks a lot of the manufacturers want to provide for this market too.

So if you want a bigger tank go for it. Don't go for it just to get better lighting because you will find they are all as good these days.

AC

 

[piper]

I spent £££££s on my set up.

3 WPG Lighting (150W MH Arcadia Series 4)
Pressurised C02
Black Fluorite Sand Substrate

I've been dosin EI, have a well filtered tank, do weekly 50% WC and spent loads on plants.

End result nothing as good as your tank and loads of nasty algae! My advice would be stick with what you have got.

 

[SuperColey1]

I spent £££££s on my set up.

3 WPG Lighting (150W MH Arcadia Series 4)
Pressurised C02
Black Fluorite Sand Substrate

I've been dosin EI, have a well filtered tank, do weekly 50% WC and spent loads on plants.

End result nothing as good as your tank and loads of nasty algae! My advice would be stick with what you have got.

Very hard to keep the ferts, circulation and CO2 up the higher you go with lighting. MH is intense too. Where most tanks will have fluoros within 6" of the water line MH needs to be much higher up.

Check out this thread for an idea of what I mean:
http/www.bcaquaria.com/forum/shawns-25-r...picsaug-31.html

AC

 

[Ebbo]

Must just say that I am still MEGA impressed with the level & quality of plants in that tank without using any 'special' additives (liquids, or equipment).
It is an inspiration to us all that are starting out basic and can't afford to go 'the whole hog' just yet
Lovely mate!

Thanks Phil, I wish I could run through everything I've attempted and used over the years to get it to this standard - but that would take me forever! The only tip I can really give anyone (and I really didn't think I would be the one giving out tips when I joined this forum) is patience, and more of it - it really does pay off in my experience.

Even though your budget allows for all these things I wouldn't necessarily buy them just because I could afford them. The money you save you can spend on more plants, different fish etc. or save for another tank after this one......

So if you want a bigger tank go for it. Don't go for it just to get better lighting because you will find they are all as good these days.

AC

Thanks for the advice SuperColey, after deliberating over what you and others have said, I've decided to spend all my new budget solely on a larger Rena aquarium! I will just transfer everything from this tank (with possible a huge bit of bogwood for the centre piece, with a few expensive different varieties of anubias me thinks) and have an extra 20 gallons to play with.

I'm going to upgrade from this 40g to a Rena 300, adding just enough space for another shoal of 20 somethings (any ideas welcome, I was thinking something blue.. but no neons/cardinals please!!), and as I said before, a massive piece of wood to go in the middle (I've always wanted a big centre-piece bit of bogwood, and a tank big enough to house it!).

I was looking at the 350, which I believe is actually around 390 litres! But my fiance unfortunately is not as 'in to' aquatic plant & fishkeeping as myself.

I currently have 100watts of accumalite light from 4x T8 tubes, 2 Flora Glo's and 2 Power Glo's, but with the Rena 300 there is space for up to 6 of these I believe - do you think it will be necessary as the volume of water will be a little larger?

I spent £££££s on my set up.

3 WPG Lighting (150W MH Arcadia Series 4)
Pressurised C02
Black Fluorite Sand Substrate

I've been dosin EI, have a well filtered tank, do weekly 50% WC and spent loads on plants.

End result nothing as good as your tank and loads of nasty algae! My advice would be stick with what you have got.

I really do feel for you, in a way I'm glad I put this question up to a few forums as I'm shocked by the response people have given me over the tank so far - I mean I know the plants are growing and the way it has taken over the bogwood makes it look good, but it's no where near as good as some I have seen, especially might I add within this planted section of the forum. My aim I suppose is to get my plants to pearl, as this to me is a beautiful site - making obvious just how well the plants are doing.

I used to diffuse Co2 using home made kits, I tried using microwaved top soil as substrate (recommended by a friend), I tried using foil to cover the whole top wood section of the tank looking down in to the water in an attempt to add to the light effeciency, I tried adding tetra's Plantamin (sp) to boost the nutrients - I tried all these 'cheaper' options but to no avail, which is why I wanted to spend some money on decent kits to help aid the plants, but after you sharing your woes - I think I'll just spend the extra money on a better tank!


Thanks for your replies, if anyone has any recommendations with a new aquarium then my budget is roughly £600.

Kind regards,
Paul

 

[piper]

Paul,

Have you considered getting a second hand one. You can get great bargins this way and they are normally under a year old.

Andy