Going from Plastic to Live

[jmelnek]

I have a 46 gal bowfront tank with the original 25w fluorescent bulb. The tank also has just regular gravel (bought in 25lb bags). Only 6 Zebra Danios reside in it as of now.
I am planning on adding a Pleco (bristlenose or some other smaller species), 6-8 corys, and 6-8 tiger barbs. My questions are as followed:

1. What kind of plants would work with these current conditions.

2. What type of new light bulb would I need to be able to plant moderate to high lighting plants?

3. What about substrate/ferts?

4. What plants will make my fish happy and not get eaten.

Thanks,

Josh

 

[Dubby]

1. What kind of plants would work with these current conditions.

You need about 2W/gal for decent growth from most plants. At your lighting level you could try Anubias & Java fern.

2. What type of new light bulb would I need to be able to plant moderate to high lighting plants?

A good triphosphor Daylight bulb will do wonders. If there isnt enough space under the hood then you could go for compact fluorescents

3. What about substrate/ferts?

You can use ferts like Leaf zone but these wont do any good if your lighting is insufficient.

4. What plants will make my fish happy and not get eaten.

Vallis, Anubias, Java fern, Crypts, Java moss, Hornwort....

 

[tsr770]

Hello again!

I snapped a couple pictures of my hood/cover for my 46 gallon bowfront tank like yours. I cut the old one apart and purchased some 1/4" optical grade PETG sheeting and made the whole rear part able to hold 2 strip lights, I use the origional 30 watt light, and a Coralife 6700k Compact Flourescent that is 96 watts.

Looks normal from the front, still has the lid to fit the curved glass.

Full shot of the back, with the holes cut out close to the filter inlet and outlet, I have very little evaporation, never gets below the front edge between water changes (every 2 weeks)

Closeups of both ends.

And this is where my 36" CF light is for now, finishing up a battle with cyanobacteria in the bowfront so my plants are living in here untill I get a 160 watt canopy made up for the 40L, then half the plants go upstairs, and half are staying in the new tank, which is a platy/endler's livebearer tank.

Any more questions or anything feel free to PM me, I am more than willing to give a hand, and maybe pawn some excess plants off on you.


EDIT: If you plan on going fully planted put Florite or whatever in there now, it is way easier to take the gravel out now and put in a layer of it than to do it once you have the plants, I wish I had done that when I started. My new 40 gallon tank has a 2" layer of flourite under some cheapo (3.99 for 40lbs at Lowes) pea gravel.
I am liking the pea gravel, I think it is the most natural looking gravel for a tank that I have ever seen.

 

[jmelnek]

It looks identical to mine. I really want to do some live plants but I really do not want to tear down my tank. What are the live plants that you have? I am really confused on what to do, tommorrow I will try and take some pics of my tank and let you look at them (if i figure out how to post them). I am more than willing to releave you of some of your plants ...

 

[tsr770]

I have a bunch of different plants, to the point that I don't remember them all!

XL Amazon Sword... 16" wide and 14" tall when it gets nice and filled out between prunings

Small Amazon Sword... 6"x6"

Hornwort... Throwing 75% of it out every other week and it keeps going....

Crypt Wendtii Red... Just starting to throw out runners with 3 little plants ATM

Crypt Lingua... Small bright green roundish leaves

Anubias Barteri.... Flowers for me just about monthly

Bacopa Monnieri... Been hit or miss on this one, one week it grows 4" the next it drops its leaves and grows them back again.

Various Aponogeton... which are constantly sending up flower stalks.

Java Fern... Slow growing, but looks very nice when you get a clump established.

Java Moss... The only way to decorate your driftwood! Responded well to 3 wpg and CO2.

Pygmy Chain Sword... grows quickly, but did not take the tank changeover well.

Corkscrew Vals... Currently trying to over run my new tank, obviously likes the florite.

Jungle Vals... My favorite background plant!

Miniture Vals... Just sorta set there, 8 months and still no new ones coming off of them

Water Wisteria... Tried to get rid of it because it grows so wildly, and it keeps coming back from a piece of a leaf left in the tank.

And there is probably one that I am missing, but I can't think of it now.....

 

[jmelnek]

Thats alot of plants, sorry forgot to grab a camera from work to take some pics... Will try to remember next time. I did buy some Hornwort and it looked like it fell apart when I put it in my tank, a bunch of little stem like leaves started floating all around my tank and it looked really bad so I took them out. Maybe I am just paranoid about it...

 

[tsr770]

Hornwort will do that, it probably went from higher light at the store to your very low light tank and dropped all it leaves so that it can grow thinner and sparser leaves. For what you have now, I would stick to Java Moss, Java Fern, Anubias barteri var. nana , and Cryptocoryne varietys. Take a look at Tropica and browse thru the plants taking notice of their light and water needs to get an idea what you like, and what you may want to do for lighting.

 

[jmelnek]

How much did your lighting cost? I am trying to make a fish allowance for myself... Thanks for the info.

 

[tsr770]

Hmmm... My lighting.... Well of course the 30W came with the tank, I got the CF light off of ebay for 90 shipped, and the clear sheeting cost about 20 bucks for the piece that is on there. I will have to measure, but I think I have a piece thats big enough to do another tank like ours.