New Setup

[sharbel]

Hi guys....

well the first post or thread i put up here was to save my angels. but their gone now after many many years.
Its now time i have to Redo completely the tank i have.

The previous stones, plants have been thrown the trash. the tank alone runs with a filter now with six neon tetra's, a cleaner and a clown loach who isnt eating.

My idea for a next setup would be A well planted tank with just diff types of little chicklids or any type of small well active fish. Any reccomendations will be much appreciated.

My few questions for now is,
1. What type of Plant soil is the best to grown plants and keep them healthy ?
2. Whats else is needed to keep them growing ?

any ideas, reccomendations , suggestions to help me for my new setup would be great. I hope u guys would help every step of the way.

Thankyou ....
start to a new beginning ,


SD -

 

[arobinson1984]

Hi Sharbel.

What size is the tank? This will help us with suggestions

Andy

 

[sharbel]

Hi Sharbel.

What size is the tank? This will help us with suggestions

Andy

hey arobin.
sorry as i have been a little bit busy with work.
i coudnt for sure say whts my size but i will give the measurements in detail here.

Length : 80cm
Breadth : 35cm
Height: 45cm (tank topped with water till 38cm)

I have just started a new setup at the moment and dont know how its goin to turn out. just 2 weeks ago i purchased FloraDepot soil and normal stones for the tank with a few bog wood peices. I run a TetraTec internal filter with a normal/good heater.im trying at the moment to grow a few plants without CO2 and a triton tube. Need Help with this from anyone and everyone.
THANKYOU


I would love to grow a well planted tank. thats my aim and would love to accomplish it. here are a few pics of what it looks like now:









i just purchased two more plants and a pair of Siamese algae eaters. will put them in after a few days ,when the quarantine is done.



sharbel -

 

[waterdrop]

I'm not anywhere near being even good at plants yet, much less an expert but I've been quite interested in them and have been attending conferences and doing a lot of reading and little experiments in my tank to try and learn more.

One of the intersting things that I found rather odd is that -substrate- really seems to play a rather minor role in the world of planted tanks. Not only are the "high-tech" substrates that you can buy (some pretty expensive) -not- one of the things that will play a major role in bringing about a beautiful planted tank, they actually are usually used to play a "backup" role to nutrients. If you have a special gravel for plants, like EcoComplete or Flourite or such, it can supposedly help to bridge a day or two of missed fertilizer. Dosing of the water column with a correct nutrient plan, including timing, is much more major in mainstream planted tank.

The vast majority of community tanks with a nice display of live plants or "planted tanks" that follow either "low-light" approach or "high-tech" approach fall into this normal world of aquarium substrates that are either plain gravel, plain sand or a high-tech gravel. There is, though, also a small niche area called the Walstad or NPT (natural planted tank) approach which actually uses potting soil (dirt!) underneath a cap of sand or gravel. In this case the potting soil plays an important role in adding additional carbon (C) nutrient to the tank.

Anyway, since you asked about gravel and since there are so very many things one needs to gather information on to begin having good plants in the aquarium, I thought I'd just give you that little summary. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[sharbel]

I'm not anywhere near being even good at plants yet, much less an expert but I've been quite interested in them and have been attending conferences and doing a lot of reading and little experiments in my tank to try and learn more.

One of the intersting things that I found rather odd is that -substrate- really seems to play a rather minor role in the world of planted tanks. Not only are the "high-tech" substrates that you can buy (some pretty expensive) -not- one of the things that will play a major role in bringing about a beautiful planted tank, they actually are usually used to play a "backup" role to nutrients. If you have a special gravel for plants, like EcoComplete or Flourite or such, it can supposedly help to bridge a day or two of missed fertilizer. Dosing of the water column with a correct nutrient plan, including timing, is much more major in mainstream planted tank.

The vast majority of community tanks with a nice display of live plants or "planted tanks" that follow either "low-light" approach or "high-tech" approach fall into this normal world of aquarium substrates that are either plain gravel, plain sand or a high-tech gravel. There is, though, also a small niche area called the Walstad or NPT (natural planted tank) approach which actually uses potting soil (dirt!) underneath a cap of sand or gravel. In this case the potting soil plays an important role in adding additional carbon (C) nutrient to the tank.

Anyway, since you asked about gravel and since there are so very many things one needs to gather information on to begin having good plants in the aquarium, I thought I'd just give you that little summary. Good luck!

~~waterdrop~~

thankyou waterdrop.
ill keep this in mind. im just experimenting as well right now if it is growing with what iv done. if not im gonna have to take more help.
what suggestions would you give me to get it growing and natural ?

thanks.
sharbel -

 

[waterdrop]

Well, it looks like you have a 125L/33G tank and the lighting in the pictures looks pretty good. If the total wattage of the tube(s) is a little less than 33 then the w/g will be less than one, if more wattage than 33 then more than 1 w/g. Anything in the range of 0.7 to 1.5 or so w/g will be a good range for "low-light" techniques where you choose "easy" slow-growing plants and then decide how they are doing with nutrition. Lighting can start as short as a single 4 hour period (or 6) and then can be increased based on algae indicating too much light and poor plant growth indicating too little. Of course, problems with plants can usually be related to gaps in nutrients the plant is seeking. Some tanks can provide enough nutrients simply from the nitrogenous organic waste of fish. Other tanks may need some supplementation with added fertilizers. Of all the elements a plant needs, carbon ends up needing focused attention. Many plants in the wild will push their leaves up out of the water part or all of the time. This allows them to extract a larger amount of CO2 more easily from the air. When plants are fully submerged, they often struggle to get enough CO2. Aquarium plant keepers sometimes turn to expensive (at startup) pressurized CO2 systems (they look like scuba equipment) or the try less expensive systems with fermentation, which take more maintenance effort (we call these DIY.) A DIY system or a different method where you give daily doses of a "liquid carbon" chemical are ways that carbon is often supplied in "low-light" aquariums. In the UK, EasyCarbo, and in the USA, Flourish Excel are liquid carbon products.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[sharbel]

Well, it looks like you have a 125L/33G tank and the lighting in the pictures looks pretty good. If the total wattage of the tube(s) is a little less than 33 then the w/g will be less than one, if more wattage than 33 then more than 1 w/g. Anything in the range of 0.7 to 1.5 or so w/g will be a good range for "low-light" techniques where you choose "easy" slow-growing plants and then decide how they are doing with nutrition. Lighting can start as short as a single 4 hour period (or 6) and then can be increased based on algae indicating too much light and poor plant growth indicating too little. Of course, problems with plants can usually be related to gaps in nutrients the plant is seeking. Some tanks can provide enough nutrients simply from the nitrogenous organic waste of fish. Other tanks may need some supplementation with added fertilizers. Of all the elements a plant needs, carbon ends up needing focused attention. Many plants in the wild will push their leaves up out of the water part or all of the time. This allows them to extract a larger amount of CO2 more easily from the air. When plants are fully submerged, they often struggle to get enough CO2. Aquarium plant keepers sometimes turn to expensive (at startup) pressurized CO2 systems (they look like scuba equipment) or the try less expensive systems with fermentation, which take more maintenance effort (we call these DIY.) A DIY system or a different method where you give daily doses of a "liquid carbon" chemical are ways that carbon is often supplied in "low-light" aquariums. In the UK, EasyCarbo, and in the USA, Flourish Excel are liquid carbon products.

~~waterdrop~~

thanks waterdrop.
i understand what uv said. i just planted two - three more plants today.i hope they survive. what DIY could i do for CO2 for the plants ?

i also bought two algae eaters. they looked like siamese algae eaters. i put them in and the pair is irritating my neon tetras. leaving them overnight would of certainly killed one neon the next day. i just removed one of them n seperated the algae eaters.
i searched up on the net and i could be wrong if this is a Siamese or a Flying Fox fish. i am confused, i will try to take out a pic n put it up here.

waterdrop, have you grown plants in your tank? where i live its very hard to find products which you easily get in UK or the US. we dont have much of a choice here.

well get some pics. thanks

sd -

 

[OldMan47]

DIY CO2 is done by using a sugar and water mix then you add in some yeast. The yeast converts the simple sugars to alcohol until the alcohol kills the yeast. In the process, CO2 is released. A typical DIY system consists of a plastic soda bottle filled with sugar, water and a bit of yeast. A tube is led from the bottle to a place below the water line in your tank and is released using some kind of dispersal system like an air stone. The specific mixes vary a bit depending on how big the bottle is that you are using and also varying a bit with the water chemistry. If you have soft or low pH water, the most common thing to do is add a bit of baking soda so that the mix doesn't go acidic before the sugar gets used up. When the alcohol in the solution reaches a value that is still less than 10%, the yeast is killed by the alcohol and the whole mess needs to be tossed and replaced with a new batch of sugar/water/yeast. If you use brewer's yeast, you can stretch the CO2 production a bit longer but the brewer's yeast cost offsets the improved performance. If you fill your mix bottle too full you end up having some of the mix get into the aquarium which makes one big mess of your water. It is far better not to try to get all that you can possibly get from the mix and keep the tank's water clean.
If you drop by the planted tank section, I am sure the members there would be thrilled to help you get a DIY system all set up.

 

[waterdrop]

Extremely informative and well-written post there on DIY CO2 OM47! Thank you for that one! WD

 

[sharbel]

thanks guys.... i think i will open a new topic at the planted aquarium area.

 

[sharbel]

i just put my seperated flying fox fish back into the tank, and it seems the other partner has become territorial or uncomfortable since he is back into the tank...

anyone have any ideas what must i do ?

thanks