New To Fish Keeping

[Crow]

G'day all

I saw this Cool looking tropical fish tank at my lfs and some even cooler pict of tanks on the net and it made me want one of my own

SO i have got a few questions of my own.

As a little kid i had a small tank but every died all the time and the plants died all the time. so i wanna get the balance rite now.

Size of the tank im i wanna get is 4 foot or bigger (Over 50 Gallons)

so here are my questions:

Firstly for the plants.

What kinda substate is best for them and is there any secret of good tips to have nice and heathly plants

Also how deep should the substrate be 5 cm? thick enough?

Filter systems, Is there any thing i should stay away from. At this stage im thinking of a power filter or maybe some under gravel jets.

I have done some research and i think i can handle the cycling part and the nitrates and water chem, seems pretty basic. Ive tested my water that id use the tank and its ph is 7 which i think is good.

 

[tttnjfttt]

With plants, you are going to want to have a power filter, and avoid the under gravel filters. Largely because of roots and also needing thicker substrate.

As for the plant info, have you looked at the pinned topics in the plant forum? They are really good. Also, you need to pay attention to the lighting in your tank. It is important to have so many watts per gallon.

 

[rdd1952]

For tanks of 4' or larger, I would suggest a pair (one on each end) of canister filters and a pair of heaters. The general rule of thumb on filters is that you want them to process the water at least 5 times per hour so for a 50 gallon you would need a filter that's rated at least 250 gallons per hour or 2 rated at least 125 each. Keep in mind that over filtration is always good (as long as the current/flow isn't too much for your fish). The reason for dual filters on a tank that large is for better circulation.

For heaters, the general rule there is 5 watts per gallon. So once again for a 50 gallon, you would need at minimum a 250w heater or 2 125w heaters. You don't necessarily need extra there but it will help if you ever have a heater go down. As with filters, 2 heaters gives better heating over a large tank.

On my 75 gallon, I am running 2 Fluval 304 filters (giving 520pgh) and 2 200w Hydor Inline heaters and it works great.

On your tap water, you say your pH is 7. I would also suggest you test the KH also. That will tell you if you have any buffering capacity and whether things like CO2 injection or bogwood would have a big effect on your tank water pH.