Couple Of Questions

[tenohfive]

Two questions regarding my Rio 180 (with T5):

I've got a Red Sea CO2 kit (yeast mix type of thing) which I vaguely understand how to use, but I think it needs filling up with the right mix. Rather than go out and buy the Red Sea stuff, I gather theres a cheaper DIY mix option - anyone able to tell me what it is?

Second question is regarding floating plants. I've got a few plants in the tank as it is, there to break up lines of sight between territories (CA cichlid tank) and partly for the aesthetic's. I've just added some pim pictus which aren't overly keen on the bright lighting, so I was planning on adding some floating plants to reduce the effects a bit. I know very little about plants, much less floating ones. Can someone suggest a few that are easily available online? I'm not planning on going over the top, just a few.

Thanks
Chris

 

[three-fingers]

Red Sea kit is essentially the same as the Nutrafin one: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271066"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271066[/URL].

Floating plants are very easy, frogbit or Salvinia natans would be good starters. They have much greater access to CO2 from the air, and are right up beside the light, so will grow very fast and suck up a lot of nutrients. So make sure they don't starve your other plants.

Pipoodle is selling frogbit here: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271066"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=271066[/URL].

 

[tenohfive]

Thanks for the advice re floating plants. Is there a DIY version of the CO2 refill though? The link posted was to pippoodles sales thread.

 

[three-fingers]

Haha, yes there is, mixed the links up .

Pinned topic: [URL="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=164548"]http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=164548[/URL] .

 

[tenohfive]

Just thought I'd post a quick update: I popped on plants alive and the closest they had was Salvinia Auriculata which seemed to tick the right boxes. Ordered some which turned up yesterday...didn't order enough it would seem, but they are lovely plants - so much so I'm planning on ordering a load more for one of my open topped tanks because I like the aesthetics of it.

One more question though: I'm thinking of converting a 90L tank into a river tank, which will mostly be smooth rocks and slate etc - but I'd like to have a couple of hardy plants which don't need CO2 or T5 and will survive quite happily in a south facing room (so plenty of natural light coming in.)

Any suggestions?

 

[tenohfive]

One more question though: I'm thinking of converting a 90L tank into a river tank, which will mostly be smooth rocks and slate etc - but I'd like to have a couple of hardy plants which don't need CO2 or T5 and will survive quite happily in a south facing room (so plenty of natural light coming in.)

Any suggestions?

Bump.