My Planted Adventure Journal

[cuprajake]

hey guys,


after having my smaller tank for nearly a yr now, i decided to be aventerous.

i bought a tank off this forum,

its size is 42.5" x 20.5" x 14"

a very good size,

i need to construct a lid/hood but that will be easy.

this is the tank

i will be placing the tank into a studed partiation wall, that is actually the kitchen cubby/lounge wall. a simple platerboard, non weight baring wall.

this is the wall in question

the fitering in the tank will comprise of a penn-plax cascade 1000 external filter and a flu-val 2 internal filter out of my current set-up.

heres the filter

now i've read co2 is very important to plants as is a good substrate.

i have a home made co2 kit in my current little tank(just installed) but i dont think this would cut it for a big tank, so i remebered that i once owned an ambulance (long story) and in the back it had oxygen tanks with regulators(see where this is going)

these are the tanks

will they be suitable for my needs and where could i get a suitable diffuser?

i have java and ricca moss on order aswell as a good ammount of bog wood, i will be getting slate and what not for the general aquascape.

now here come a barade of questions:

how can i mature the tank?
do i need to start a fresh or can i use water from my small tank to help?

the cascade filter is used and has healthy bacteria in it now, can i just run it in a small ammount of water, in say a container to keep the bacteria going till i need to use it? or do i start afresh?

when planting how do you make sure the substrate doesn't mix with the water above?

finally what sort of lighting am i going to need to get the plants enough light?


cheers jake

 

[cuprajake]

the tank has now been cleaned

jake

 

[Dave Spencer]

i have a home made co2 kit in my current little tank(just installed) but i dont think this would cut it for a big tank, so i remebered that i once owned an ambulance (long story) and in the back it had oxygen tanks with regulators(see where this is going)
will they be suitable for my needs and where could i get a suitable diffuser?

To be honest Jake, nobody worth their salt will fill O2 bottles with CO2. Different types of seals etc......

The answer to a lot lot of the questions you ask are dependent on how far you want to go with this tank. The deciding factor is what light levels you want. Do you want to go down the high light, CO2, rich substrate, water column ferts road for rampant growth of any plant you desire, or something lower tech for slower growth and a more limited plant choice.

Have a read of the pinned Estimative Index article on this forum and see what you think, but you will have to decide how much light you want.

Cheers, Dave.

 

[cuprajake]

i have been looking a jimboo's setups and really like the effect, im thinking that to do that i will need high light setups?

what would be the best option for the co2 then

also while you did replay, what is the best way to get the new tank setup and sort the litres of tap water in it for healthy fish im a little worried of the change over

cheers jake

 

[cuprajake]

well today i bought some tetraplant complete substrate and some tetra aqua water treatment, i also enquired about lighting,

i can get growlux f30t8-grow 30 watt tubes 3ft for £7.90 and there fixings for £7.50 so i think i may make a hood from these and either fit it to the tank or make a suspended canopy simular to a snooker table set-up.


would these tubes be ok?

im thinking 5 @30wtt = 150wtts giving me around 3-3.2 wpg


jake

 

[fishnterrapins]

As far as the bacteria in the filter go, unless you've had water and oxygen going through it since it was taken off its last tank I would say that there isn't much life left in it and so you'll be better off starting again

 

[cuprajake]

as soon as i got the filter i put it into my tank, a space of it being unplugged for about 4 hrs max, seems ok in my tank anywho's

only thing is i dont have instructions for it for when i want to change the filters so i guess its hit and hope.

my lighting plans have also changed, i ordered two of the grolux tubes which i found out are 5k lights and then went to my lfs walker aquatics to have a look/chat about lighting,

in the end my set up will now be :

two t8 grolux 30" 30wtt tubes
two t5 ?? 36" 39wtt tubes

as for the suspended canopy that has gone by the wayside to, im going to adopt the lfs way

he usese white plastir trough/guttering with end caps turned upside down to create reflectors, very clever i thought, and a dam site easier to make/move about.


my next thing is to buy the stuff i need for the ei dosing, which are:

Potassium Nitrate
Potassium Phosphate (monobasic)
Traces - these can either chelated trace mix (CSM+ or a commercial product such as Tropica Plant Nutrition or Seachem Flourish.

Also possibly required depending on your water supply.

Potassium Sulphate (Sulphate of Potash)
Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts)
GH Booster or Seachem Equilibrium

would these be correct ??

jake

 

[cuprajake]

just ordered my ei dosing stuff from aqua esentials


i got

Mono Potassium Phosphate - 500g
Potassium Nitrate - 250g
Trace Elements mix - 250g

came to £26.00 not to bad, but its not cheap this fish lark is it


hopefully i wont need anything else, how do i test my tap water? is it just like the tank water???


cos if it is this is what it is:

no3= 0-1
no2= 0
gh-= 3
kh=0
ph=6

do i need anything else

 

[Dave Spencer]

Mono Potassium Phosphate - 500g
Potassium Nitrate - 250g
Trace Elements mix - 250g

came to £26.00 not to bad, but its not cheap this fish lark is it

No, it most definitely isn`t cheap, but with these three you should be sorted for ferts for a few years. Don`t worry about any of the other salts you listed just yet.

no3= 0-1
no2= 0
gh-= 3
kh=0
ph=6

You have a few questionable results here. Your pH should definitely be in the alkaline range as specified by all the water utilities. What test kit are you using?

If your nitrates are less than 1(ppm?), then you obviously live miles from anywhere with a notable degree of agriculture ie farmers fertilising the fields with nitrates.

You have very soft water, it would appear, but there will be a KH value to your tap water.

Questions:

What test kits are you using?

What is the spec of your T5 lights?

What filter and media are you using?

Cheers, Dave.

 

[cuprajake]

the test kit is a tetratest for the fish tank, only thing i had haha so probably not the best.

the spec on the t5 i cant remember its a 39wt 36" i think he said it what he uses to also grow coral, but obviously i'll check spec before i buy. he didn't have the fittings in stock so i didn't take much note on the tube.

the filter(s) are a fluval 2 with fine filter and then the corse sponge(i suppose you'd call it)

and the external is a penn-plax cascade 1000, app it has carbon media in there with corse and fine filter again, but i may update the fine filter as it doesnt look much cop

 

[cuprajake]

this is my filter

http/www.pennplax.com/Pages/Aqua.pages.....6;/Aqua19F.html

jake

 

[Dave Spencer]

It looks like that filter will do a good job. I was mainly interested in the filter media.

Whilst the bioligical filtration is still important, in a high tech set up I tend to look to the filter for mechanical filtration. You may want to remove the Carbon because it will absorb additives beneficial to plants. Varoius grades of sponge will provide the mechanical filtration, and provide surface area for your bacteria colony. You can leave in any ceramic media as well, as this will give good biological filtration.

The point to remember in a high tech tank is that your plant mass will provide a lot of biological filtration. A high tech tank filter media will have a smaller bacteria colony in comparison to a similar sized tank with few plants and a high stock of fish. That is not to say that you shoudn`t care for the bacteria in your filter media (dechlorinate tap water etc).

Dave.

 

[cuprajake]

thanks for the tip on the carbon tbh it came with the filter, so it can be taken out when i move it over to the propper set up. next is deciding what plants i want i know i need heavy planting from the get go, but how long do you wait till you start ei dosing? on a new tank?

ordering my co2 aswell today.

jake

 

[Dave Spencer]

but how long do you wait till you start ei dosing? on a new tank?

ordering my co2 aswell today.

jake

When and how to start dosing is a good question. When you first come to plant the tank the plants will not be 100% and, therefore, their nutrient uptake will not be 100% either. As soon as you see the plants start to pick up, growth accelerates and pearling becomes greater, start dosing to about half target. Your plants should initially have enough stored nutrients for them to manage at the start.

EI is a lot to do with observing what is happening with your plants. By the time they are shooting to the top you should be pretty much at full dosing. Most of what I do with my EI tank is based on feel. It recently had a major prune and replant, which caused a drop in growth and pearling for a day or two, resulting in a small amount of thread algae appearing. I just dropped the dosing rate until the plants showed signs of being back to normal growth, and now the threads have stopped appearing.

Don`t make the mistake that I did a while back of carrying out the first prune too early. You need your stems to be at the top before you consider it, meaning you have to put up with a messy jungle for a while. This was mine from a month or two ago:

Dave.

 

[cuprajake]

i thought as much, so does that mean to cool it with the co2 also(which is now ordered) instead of 1bps should i go for 1 bubble every two or even three seconds?

this also arrived in the post

£4.00 off ebay, will do for the time being .

my main concern is the plants and veriety, we dont have too much choice in our lfs, but i've been told that there is a very good shop in bolton.