New Tank Setup

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dsg23n

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Greetings from downunder!

I've just joined the site and (being a novice) I feel pretty overwhelmed by all the information - it's great :drool:

I'm not COMPLETELY new to the hobby though. I've had 2 smaller tanks in the past. The first one had a couple of goldfish and the second one had a male betta with a school of white minnows. I had tried to grow aquatic plants in both tanks, however it wasn't until probably my tenth plant in my second tank that I got one growing. Funnily enough once it was growing my betta got pretty attached to it, and I think it may have made a bubble nest on the leaves. Anyway, most of this was done by chance as I had no idea what plants to choose or how to grow them properly.

So this brings me to my current situation. I have just unpacked a 75L tank (55x38.8x59.5cm) which my family gave me a few christmas' ago. I am still planning the setup of this tank but have so far decided to try and grow some plants in it before adding any fish. I am just a bit unsure how long I should wait after running the tank before adding the plants? My local aquarium store said 1 week, but after reading a couple of threads here I'm starting to think a month or so would be more like it? Also, I have heard CO2 is good for plants however am worried about the change it can have to the pH of the water. Previously I had just used chemicals to manage pH, should I use CO2 instead/aswell?

Finally if someone could tell me about nitrate filters I would be very grateful. I read they can almost eliminate water changes but this sounds too good to be true. Well, thanks for listening and congrats on a very interesting and informative site.

Cheers.
 
Welcome to the forum. :good: I've moved this to the planted section where I'm sure you'll get some excellent advice. :nod:
 
Hi, not a great expert but I'd suggest you read this, it should you understand the plants and filter bacteria situation.

[URL="http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=299827"]http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=299827[/URL]

Unless you want to keep a particularly difficult or demanding fish, the general advice is not to try and adjust you pH using chemicals, it should be fine as long as it is constant which is the main thing, it does depend a bit on your tap water pH, but usually they are fine for most fish.

CO2 will lower you pH, but this shouldn't be a big worry, but again it does depend on your current water pH and fish demands among many other things.

If you want a planted tank you don't want to be removing nitrates, plants will use these.

If you want a high tech planted tank then weekly 50% water changes are required. I'd suggest you read the pinned topics at the top of this section, they will help you a lot and help you choose what level of planted tank you want.
 
Greetings from downunder!

I've just joined the site and (being a novice) I feel pretty overwhelmed by all the information - it's great :drool:

I'm not COMPLETELY new to the hobby though. I've had 2 smaller tanks in the past. The first one had a couple of goldfish and the second one had a male betta with a school of white minnows. I had tried to grow aquatic plants in both tanks, however it wasn't until probably my tenth plant in my second tank that I got one growing. Funnily enough once it was growing my betta got pretty attached to it, and I think it may have made a bubble nest on the leaves. Anyway, most of this was done by chance as I had no idea what plants to choose or how to grow them properly.

So this brings me to my current situation. I have just unpacked a 75L tank (55x38.8x59.5cm) which my family gave me a few christmas' ago. I am still planning the setup of this tank but have so far decided to try and grow some plants in it before adding any fish. I am just a bit unsure how long I should wait after running the tank before adding the plants? My local aquarium store said 1 week, but after reading a couple of threads here I'm starting to think a month or so would be more like it? Also, I have heard CO2 is good for plants however am worried about the change it can have to the pH of the water. Previously I had just used chemicals to manage pH, should I use CO2 instead/aswell?

Finally if someone could tell me about nitrate filters I would be very grateful. I read they can almost eliminate water changes but this sounds too good to be true. Well, thanks for listening and congrats on a very interesting and informative site.

Cheers.
Best to Plant right from the start, no need to wait.
Plants are pretty much the best nitrate remover you could get, you dont wanna use anything to remove nitrate in a planted tank.

Water changes are pretty much needed in a tank with co2 supplementation. If you want to avoid those read up on low tech tanks.

Co2 injection will lower the ph, unless your water is stupidly low its not a problem, it'll only be around 1ph to 1.3ph drop.
This is harmless to the fish, if the ph drop is caused by a kh change however, then you need to worry!

If your co2 source is liquid carbon however no ph change will result.

Why were you altering the ph before dude?
 
Thanks very much for the help.
The article you attached was spot on. I have a bit more planning to do but should hopefully have the tank planted within the next month or so.
Will keep you posted.
Cheers
 

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