New Planted Tank Advice Please

[rhian]

Hello All

I have yet to cycle my inherited tank, and as I love plants as much as I love fish, I have been trawling this forum for great advice! I was about to begin a fishless cycle, then I found the section on the low-tech, non-CO2 Walstad planted aquarium approach, and I thought that sounds exactly what I'd like to try. So I've opted to change the large, rough gravel that came with my tank, and found something called eco-complete to cover the bottom. I'd like someone to check if my setup is ok please!!!

I live in the UK, so most of my measurements are in metric:
My tank:
75cm long x 30cm wide x 38cm height glass tank, which an online calculator suggests holds 86L of water, or 18 imperial gallons? (without gravel) I am confused if the 1 watt per gallon rule for lighting is US or Imperial gallons. I have a light, heater, and external rena xp1 filter to complete the setup.

Lighting:
I have one old style Aqua Glo fluorescent light, 24"/61cm long, and 20W - I think this must be a T8 light. It's maybe 4 or 5 years old.

So do I have low lighting? that is about 1W per gallon? or will I need a bit more light?

Plants:

I thought maybe a depth of 2" ecocomplete substrate, and add more gravel if needed.
I have found these stores with quite cheap plants, but if anyone has any recommendations please? I thought if I bought a hardy collection for beginners, I could plant up as much as possible, then maybe replace with some specimen plants later on?

Plants Alive

Aquamania

Where I live we have quite hard water, because there is a lot of limescale. I don't know if I need to treat the tap water for this as well before I add it to the tank. I would be prepared to add nutrients or carbon as required.

The Fish:
Assuming my planting will be ok, when do you start adding the fish?
Do you use airstones in one of these style tanks?


Sorry there's loads of questions!

Thanks in advance

 

[mtv8dmarine]

Hello Rhian and welcome to the forum.

I can answer some of your questions but don't want to mislead you on others as I'm unsure.

To my knowledge if your tank is 18 Gallons (I'm in the U.S. so it's what I'm most familiar with) than a 20W bulb is close enough to 1 watt/gal. I would however change the bulb since it is 4 - 5 years old. They should be changed every year because they lose their power over time. Some say every 6 months. I've read 1 year is fine too. Either way, a new bulb is the way to go if you can. 1 watt/gal is perfect for a low light/low tech tank.

When running a planted tank you will not want to use airstones. The plants should provide enough oxygen to the water. You will want to ensure that you are moving 10 times the amount of water your tank holds and make sure there are no stagnant areas within the tank. The plants need circulation. There are many options for moving water. Your filter already takes care of some of this. Powerheads also help. It's best to install power heads so they ripple the top of the water which introduces oxygen into the system too...thus eliminating the need for airstones. In a planted tank airstones tend to do more harm than good.

I'm not familiar with the fishless cycle but you can get more information on that up on the Tropical Discussion area back in the main forum selection. I'm assuming the fishless cycle allows introduction when the ammonia level drops to 0 ppm. In a fish cycle we accept some loss and our tanks are cycled when ammonia levels read 0, nitrites read 0, and the nitrates are at a low level.

 

[rhian]

Hello & thanks for your help

I will definitely look into a powerhead, buy a new bulb & avoid airstones, thanks! I'll look for low-light plant species. All my equipment is from a friend who can no longer keep fish, so I had to work out what it all is, and what I need to buy for a new setup that includes plants. It's a minefield with so much equipment for sale.

I am deciding whether to start the fishless cycle or get started on planting
Being a keen gardener, the planting is much more tempting

I was hoping to let a planted tank develop for a while, add plant nutrients, and then once my plants are (hopefully) thriving it might be OK to add a few danios or invertebrates slowly - I hope the fish would be OK with that, I hope there would be bacteria by then, and that the plants would process the ammonia from the fish. I hope

 

[mtv8dmarine]

There are a few low light plant species you can choose from. Vals, anubias nana, java fern, several crypto varieties, amazon swords, etc. A quick goole search for low light aquarium plants will get you pointed in the right direction for information gathering. There's a plethora of information on this website but I found it more concise to do some google searching first. =)

 

[rhian]

Thanks, I can see I would need to get a lot of plants to begin with, but I will look for the low light ones. It might be more expensive than a buying a 'collection' of plants, but at least they would all be suitable for the light levels in my tank.

Out of interest, what fish would you recommend for a planted aquarium?

I wouldn't mind a bit of grazing, but I wouldn't want to buy fish that would decimate the planting - some of my books aren't very clear, as I imagine some of the herbivores would prefer the real thing instead of the fish food?!

I haven't started my tank yet, I have just checked my equipment and changed the gravel

 

[mtv8dmarine]

I think it depends largely on what type of aquarium you want. I have a community tank so all of my fish get along with each other. Other people enjoy more aggressive fish like cichlids and pacus and stuff. While the more aggressive fish do get along with others I think you have a tendency for more personality conflicts at times as it were. That's why I elected for my tank as a community of peaceful fish with very little if any issues between them.

I have angelfish, platies, swordtails, corydoras, and otocincluses? (not sure of the plurality on that one =P). I haven't kept mollies, danios, or any more exotic freshwater community fish.

Anubias nanas, vals, amazon swords are hardy leafed plants and are generally left alone by herbavore fish. There are other types of these plants that generally aren't interesting to these types of fish too. My chain swords are a lot more delicate than the aforementioned but they don't seem to catch they hungry eye of the fish. Tropica.com is one website that will give you good information on types of plants and how big they get etc. aquariumplants.com is another if your just wanting to see what's out there.

When I looked around for plants I used multiple websites to see pictures of what I liked and then searched from there to find ones that met my lighting requirements, etc.

Considering your tank capacity, the community type fish would do better because they stay small.

 

[rhian]

Thanks - I'd really like peaceful community fish too - I would love Angelfish one day, would they get too big for my tank?
I saw some beautiful ones today, I think I would have an aquarium in every room if I could

Some corydoras would be ideal. I'd also like a shoaling fish in the main part of the tank, they all look tiny in the shop, but I imagine they are all young. I'm quite taken with the dwarf frogs as well, though I think it would mean stocking less fish if I had some.

It's good to know that the fish won't eat all the plants, I'll go for some of the tough ones you mentioned.

 

[mtv8dmarine]

The general rule of thumb when stocking is 1" of fish per gallon of water. I take into consideration the fully grown size when estimating just to be safe and stock with a ratio of 2" of fish per gallon. Angelfish will max out around 6" - 8". I tend to believe around 6" but I've never managed to keep them healthy enough beyond 4 to 5.

Corydoras are great shoaling fish. They are such peaceful little guys. I had 3 at first and then decided to have 6. Boy did they become so much more active with each other having 6. The Otocinclus catfish is another great shoaling fish. I have 2 right now (started with 4) but will be adding 8 more to my 55 gal. They help keep your tank algae free as best they can but they are very sensitive so you may be lucky if 50% survive after a couple days after introduction. I had one dead by the next morning and another the day after that. Otherwise, the remaining two interact with some of the corys taking turns swimming around the tank being goofy and social.

Most community fish you will find to be shoaling fish. They like being in groups of 6 or so. A planted tank offers refuge but having 6 or so seems to give them more confidence when in the tank with other species.

If you decide to keep platies, swordtails, and most of the other common fish keep in mind that generally the male to female ratio is 1 male to 3 female. This keeps aggression down among the males as they compete for mates.