Checking What Ive Learned

[markandhisfish]

done so much reading over the last few weeks tha ti think im suffering information overload

having had a moment of common sense and decicidng to shelve plans for the big planted tank until i have mastered a small planted tank i am going to start ordering stuff for the 112L in the coming week .

1st thing id like assuring on , ive been told by people i trust that i dont need as much light as id be led to beilieve . and co2/flow/nutrients is more important

2 18w t8 tubes with reflectors ............. whilst im happy that it will be enough for a lot of plants ,im getting a bit hung up on wether or not it will be enough to do a dwarf hairgrass lawn in the foreground , and to grow a red plant ( specificly alternanthera reineckii )

also ive been advised ( admittedly on for the bigger higher light tank i had planned) to cut back on the light for the 1st few weeks after planting. as my light levels would be technic;y considered low , would that still be neccessary? should i be dosing straight away or wait a few weeks as well?

ive become a bit obsessed with getting flow/circulation as near perfect as possible for co2/nutrient distribution. .,as the budget dictates that i will have to order a lot of the stuff to start with , then wait a couple of weeks for the rest i figured id go about things like this .

fill the tank , get the internal filter in , along with the circulation pump. hook up the co2 and the drop checker and play around with flow , positioning of the diffuser etc using my drop checker moving it around the tank , with the logic that if im getting spot on co2 distribution then it will be the same for the ferts. worthwhile exercise or a tad over obsessive? also any tips for optimum positioning of the internal filter? im hoping to have it in 1 of the rear corners to make hiding it easier .

im sure il have more qusetions over the coming weeks , but thats it for now .

 

[JoshuaA]

I had the same dilemma with my Rio 125.

I had 2 x 18w T8 bulbs and I had dwarf hairgrass, it didn't grow anywhere near what I had anticipated, I upgraded to T5 expecting to see it flourish... it didn't all the plants did but they ended up shading the dwarf hair grass and I felt like it would be a waste of effort to trim all the plants just to see the dwarf hairgrass grow into a carpet. CO2 is majorly important though if you were to upgrade your lighting. What I would advise though see how you get on with the bulbs you have no and if you are satisfied in say 2/3 months when things start to really start to shine then think about it but it's probably a waste of money at the moment.

A corner is normally a good place to put an internal filter, what you can do though is have your internal filter output going from one corner to another length ways on the tank and using a powerhead on the other corner pumping water the opposite direction get some real good circulation going.

With the lighting regime what I would advise is having a smaller photo period to begin with and then slowly phase into a higher one. Some people go for the full whack out the bat but I have found slowly advancing my photoperiod has caused in minimal algae formation. I put that down to the plants being more established once the photo period I want has been achieved.

 

[JenCliBee]

done so much reading over the last few weeks tha ti think im suffering information overload

having had a moment of common sense and decicidng to shelve plans for the big planted tank until i have mastered a small planted tank i am going to start ordering stuff for the 112L in the coming week .

1st thing id like assuring on , ive been told by people i trust that i dont need as much light as id be led to beilieve . and co2/flow/nutrients is more important

It's more that a nice balance is important rather than one is more important than another, low light is usually fine to grow plants (most of infact) but they will grow slower due to the uptake of co2 and nutrients been lower.

2 18w t8 tubes with reflectors ............. whilst im happy that it will be enough for a lot of plants ,im getting a bit hung up on wether or not it will be enough to do a dwarf hairgrass lawn in the foreground , and to grow a red plant ( specificly alternanthera reineckii )

Ive grown a dwarf hairgrass lawn/carpet with 1wpg with only carbon and ferts... albeit it wasn't so lush and vibrantly green as other with high light and proper co2 but it was still very healthy. I doubt you will have much of a problem..again as long as the tank is well balanced .

also ive been advised ( admittedly on for the bigger higher light tank i had planned) to cut back on the light for the 1st few weeks after planting. as my light levels would be technic;y considered low , would that still be neccessary? should i be dosing straight away or wait a few weeks as well?

Daily waters changes and increase the photoperiod slowly, on yours on would probably start with 5-6 hrs per day and eventually it can be increased to may 10 hrs but 8 i would say is average (well for me average on a co2 injected tank).

ive become a bit obsessed with getting flow/circulation as near perfect as possible for co2/nutrient distribution. .,as the budget dictates that i will have to order a lot of the stuff to start with , then wait a couple of weeks for the rest i figured id go about things like this .

Not sure what you mean by some to start with and then the rest later?... what stuff now and what stuff has to wait till later?

fill the tank , get the internal filter in , along with the circulation pump. hook up the co2 and the drop checker and play around with flow , positioning of the diffuser etc using my drop checker moving it around the tank , with the logic that if im getting spot on co2 distribution then it will be the same for the ferts. worthwhile exercise or a tad over obsessive?

I would probably be more inclined to just move the circulation pumps and the drop checker to monitor... moving the diffuser aswell just makes life even harder... put the diffuser where you actually want it and then adjust all the other stuff in order for the positioned diffuser to work optimally .

also any tips for optimum positioning of the internal filter? im hoping to have it in 1 of the rear corners to make hiding it easier .

Hard to say, plant positioning will determine flow round certain area's... it will be just a case of try and move if need be... i usually have a powerhead/wavemaker on the opposite side to the filter outlet with the outlet on the filter controlling the upper flow and the powerhead pointing more downwards controlling flow around the ground/lower half of the tank.

im sure il have more qusetions over the coming weeks , but thats it for now .

Hope that helps mark, this is pretty much the basis i go on but other will always have there own little tweaks here and there .

 

[markandhisfish]

cheers . i meant moving the powerhead aroiund jake lol not the diffuser , it was stupid o clock when i typed the questions by ordering some stuff now and the rest later i mean il be able to get the hardware all in 1 job lot ,, but then id probably have to wait a couple of weeks before i could get substrate / plants etc . so i figured id use that time to get optimal flow/co2 distribution , get my co2 levels spot on etc.

 

[JenCliBee]

cheers . i meant moving the powerhead aroiund jake lol not the diffuser , it was stupid o clock when i typed the questions by ordering some stuff now and the rest later i mean il be able to get the hardware all in 1 job lot ,, but then id probably have to wait a couple of weeks before i could get substrate / plants etc . so i figured id use that time to get optimal flow/co2 distribution , get my co2 levels spot on etc.

Haha... the only problem with getting optimal flow and co2 distribution with having the tank bare is theres nothing restricting it, once plants are in there it will flow differently and maybe disrupt the level you have optimise it at(hope that made sense lol).

The other problem is the drop checker will show the correct colour (lime green/yellow) at much lower levels of co2 because there isn't any plant's within the tank to use it up. Once plants are added and using whats in the water, the level shown on the DP with more than likely drop and you are back to square one on getting the balance right (again hope that made sense lol).