Plant Only Tank (Was Supposed To Be Fishless!)

[Livewire88]

Hi everyone,

I have just set up a planted tank in my garage, (just waiting for T5 bulbs to finish lighting beofre putting plants and moss in) I am doing this to try and grow a lot of different types of moss, and other plants/stems and various floating plants. I wanted to ask if anyone else has a tank in their garage? and if so do you take any other measures in the winter months to help the tank hold its heat?

I am using a 100 litre glass tank using a 200w heater, so hopefully a 200w heater should be enough so its not on all the time just to keep the tank up to temp. I was thinking of covering it with an old quilt or wrapping it with some sort of insulation?

ps; I would have liked to keep it in the house but the wife is having none of it

 

[mike455555]

iv got a tinny 1f tank on my window sill with plants trying to propagate more. most of my propagation is emersesed- no need to heat air+ no algae

200W hearter for 100L will me more than enoguh. i use 1w per L in my tanks =] as for insulation a blanket would be fine i think =]

id like to see how this comes together =]

 

[Livewire88]

Thanks,

It does get very cold in my garage so I think the heater will need every watt of the 200 when the outside temps drop below zero.
I was swaying towards emersesed growth but want to be able to transfer plants from the grow tank into my main tank without the plants having to go through a transition period, and as I will be growing a lot of different mosses so I decided submerged would be best.

I have put sand in the bottom at the moment and will be using trays of compost for the plants and netting for the moss to grow on. I will be dosing it daily (TPN+, Excel) and use the water from my main tank when doing the weekly water changes to go into this tank, also will have a koralia nano 900 PH to keep the water moving, I dont think I will need a filter and am yet to decide if there would be any benifit adding an air stone. Once it is all up and running I will add some photos

I need to buy some guttering so I can put the light unit together once the bulbs arrive.

 

[mike455555]

what moss's are you trying to grow?

 

[fluttermoth]

Wrapping the back and the two shorter sides in bubble wrap, and having a piece to put over the lid will help your heater having to work too much

 

[Livewire88]

what moss's are you trying to grow?

I will be taking cuttings of all the mosses I have so far and am waiting for a few other types to arrive in the post;

1, Java Moss
2, Christmass Moss
3, Coral Pellia
4, Fissidens Fontanus
5, Giant Willow Moss
6, Vesicularia sp

Wrapping the back and the two shorter sides in bubble wrap, and having a piece to put over the lid will help your heater having to work too much

I have lots of good quality bubble wrap so I will make a cover to slide around the whole tank out of it, and I also have an old quilt wich I will get the wife to sew in to a cover which I can put over/around the whole tank at night.

At the moment im trying to do some reasearch on what compost (DIRT) would be best to use, any idears?

 

[Livewire88]

Some good news to update with,

First off I managed to blag it and bring the tank in from the garage I told the misses that it was to cold out there and said the heater was not ablke to keep the tank up to temp!! (even tho it was doing the job fine)

So it is now in the back room and I have managed to get my spare plants in today, I am yet to decide or find any compost to use for the plants so once I do I will re plant the plants into trays of compost, I am also still waiting for my T5 bulbs to arrive so at the moment I have just put a spare small light unit on till the T5's arrive.

Also took a trip to the local P@H to buy a condensation tray and whilst there had a quick look at the fish, noticed that the only Betta they had looked like he was almost dead so I pointed this out to one of the members of staff and was told he had been like that for a couple of days, I asked what they were going to do with it and the guy said I could have it for free if I liked. This kind of caught me by surprise so I just said yes!! (not thinking of the bigger picture) So I bought it home and put him in the tank with the plants, 30 mins later I came back to have a look and there he is swimming round like a totaly different fish!! Fed him a few Betta pellets and he seems happy as Larry.

So I now have a Betta in the tank! which is not ideal as I want to use compost for the plants so before I put compost in I am going to have to find a new home for the Betta. Here is a picture of the tank as it is at the moment, it has no filter at the moment but I have a 600LPH hang on back filter on its way which I will seed with mature media once it arrives, I will do big water changes every other day to make sure the water is good for the Betta.

Also bought some coconut caves which I will be attaching some moss to shortly.

 

[mike455555]

im liking the middle focus on the light. why not EI dose instead of using compost, i know swords benefit from it and there heavy root feeders, so i reckon you could get away with just EI dosing? bet the betta is happy. get him afew females? (is that possible?, i know females are able to live on there own in groups and i know females and males are... but are the 2 combined?)

if i were you id turn that tank into another display tank >.> i dont notice any filter for the betta?... might be an idea to put one in =] otherwise the whole lot looks great =]

sorry i must of missed the bit about the filter >.> stupid eyes

 

[Livewire88]

To tell the truth I didnt put any thought into placement of any of the stems/plants, just spread them out as much as possible, and the light is only temporary till I hook the T5's up, I have a double 39W ballast but I think 2 39W T5's will be to much for this little tank, hmmm?

Its not supposed to look nice but now its going to be in the house I think I may have to try and make it look half decent

The whole plan was to have it in the garage out of sight so it could just be for growing plants, and thats why I was not worried about having dirty water from the compost, again I am going to have to have a re think! the tank was only £25 and it looks rubbish quality. I am beggining to think I should have left it in the garage afterall

 

[mike455555]

clearseal tanks are good iv got one =] it will be alot of light... how many WPG? my sig tanks 3.2wpg... a lot of light...

you might need co2 with that light?

 

[Livewire88]

Well the tank is 100litre (22 Gallons) and I have ordered 39w bulbs so if my maths is correct it will be approx 3.5WPG (I think this is too much)

I am going to be dosing Liquid Co2 but I think I may see a lot of Algae growing in this tank!! I should have ordered either 21/28 Watt Bulbs.

O well I will see how it all goes and if need be order some lower Watt bulbs in the new year, I could always put my 2 bristle nose plecs in as they make very quick work of Algae. Its all part of learning I guess and I am enjoying it all so thats the main thing