My Tank Plan

[loachman]

I saw an article posted on Tom Barr's page that suggested that Flourish excel works pretty good for a carbon source, when added in with some other ferts/EI. Plants don't grow as fast as on CO2, but I don't care that much as long as they live and do well.

To me, I really like the idea of not having the extra trouble of CO2, especially since I've got a decent flow in the tank. I've been worried that the CO2 won't last and the cost isn't really attractive.

At any rate, I've got a 75gal. Probably put in lots of swords, ferns, vals, and some other, higher light stem plants. Right now, I've got about 1.25 WPG but found a nice compact flouresent hood in my price range that would give 260 watts. Is this going to be too much light w/o CO2?
Substrate is sand with root tabs. I didnt' want to put in layered substrates since I'd get mixed by the digging loaches, and potentially make a mess. They seem to leave plants alone for the most part though.

current stock:

~6 val spiralis
~4 amazon swords
corner full of elodea (which I'll probably change to some stem plant w/ Excel)
4 windolev java ferns
2 male platies
4 botia kubotai
2 bristlenose
1 oto (lone survivor of the heater meltdown)
2 Yoyo loaches
4 botia striata
4 dwarf neon rainbows
2-3 Turquoise rainbows (eventually)

The plant list is ever expanding...I started with fish and am making sure I don't kill off the plants before putting more in.

 

[lljdma06]

With 260W, you're going to need a pressurized CO2 system of some sorts. If all you want is a pretty tank that is low-maintenance, then keep the 1.25WPG. Maybe change the bulbs to better quality bulbs with a good Kelvin temperature (6700k, 7100k works well), or add better reflectors. Continue to use rootabs. It is entirely possible to have a lovely scape with non-CO2 systems. 1.25WPG, is a goodly amount of light actually in a 75g. It takes less light to adaquately light a larger tank and WPG begins to break down with tanks at your size. In my signature, is a varied list of plants that would do well in your setup. They provide a nice contrast in leaf shape and do well with minimal effort. There are even plants with color there.

Not that 3.4WPG isn't a bad thing, neither is CO2, but I get the impression that you don't really want the maintenance involved with such a system. You would have to adopt a dosing regimen, and if you chose EI, that would be about 37g a water change. For me, that would be too much water.

Watch for sand compaction around your crypts. They don't like it, it deprives the roots of much needed circulation. Just stir it around a bit and make sure your loaches are doing their job. Another good burrower for sand are Malaysian trumpet snails. They are excellent at circulating the substrate, though they may become a snack for the loaches.

I'd also up some of your loach numbers. They really do well in groups of at least six.

CO2 is an option for you. I inject CO2 to some of my low-light tanks, but not to others. Depends really on how things look. The growth isn't rampant, but I do trim once a week in some tanks.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Love to see pictures of your system.

llj

 

[loachman]

With 260W, you're going to need a pressurized CO2 system of some sorts. If all you want is a pretty tank that is low-maintenance, then keep the 1.25WPG. Maybe change the bulbs to better quality bulbs with a good Kelvin temperature (6700k, 7100k works well), or add better reflectors. Continue to use rootabs. It is entirely possible to have a lovely scape with non-CO2 systems. 1.25WPG, is a goodly amount of light actually in a 75g. It takes less light to adaquately light a larger tank and WPG begins to break down with tanks at your size. In my signature, is a varied list of plants that would do well in your setup. They provide a nice contrast in leaf shape and do well with minimal effort. There are even plants with color there.

Not that 3.4WPG isn't a bad thing, neither is CO2, but I get the impression that you don't really want the maintenance involved with such a system. You would have to adopt a dosing regimen, and if you chose EI, that would be about 37g a water change. For me, that would be too much water.

Watch for sand compaction around your crypts. They don't like it, it deprives the roots of much needed circulation. Just stir it around a bit and make sure your loaches are doing their job. Another good burrower for sand are Malaysian trumpet snails. They are excellent at circulating the substrate, though they may become a snack for the loaches.

I'd also up some of your loach numbers. They really do well in groups of at least six.

CO2 is an option for you. I inject CO2 to some of my low-light tanks, but not to others. Depends really on how things look. The growth isn't rampant, but I do trim once a week in some tanks.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. Love to see pictures of your system.

llj

Thanks for the advise. The next step up in size for hood (in my price range) looked like it would be overkill to me too. I've thought about the CO2, but it's just going to be too much capital and I've got alot of flow to keep the water clean.

I'll see about getting a photo up. I like how it's coming so far, but I've been adding things slowly since I've upgraded recently from a small tank. The plants haven't grown in at all yet, so I'm not really happy with the look yet. Some of the fish aren't in there yet either, I've got some in Q-tanks and the like still (bristlenoses and zebras this week, rainbows are on the way after them). My goal would be to add some more loaches, but so far they've been doing pretty well. Alot of the yoyos locally are really small and skinny, so I'm waiting on some healthier ones to show up.

I'd like another few more ottos, but probably be the last thing I add. The tank has zero algae since the lone one keeps it cleaned out, so I don't want to starve them and they've been VERY apprehensive about eating prep'd foods/algae wafers.

My sand is actually a non-traditional, 3M colorquartz. I love the look of it. It doesn't seem like it can compact either since it has a very tight size distribution (like miniature marbels). I'm going to continue to stir it up, but I'm not sure THIS sand needs it.