Plants for 1800 ltr tank.

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

Ok,
as i am making an 1800ltr tank (freash water) i would like suggestions on the plant life. i would like to even out the PH leves and all water chemistry just by the amount and type of plants i place in the tank.
I have gone to sere website and they have a plant calculator on the site Plant calculator
Ant ir says 352 plants should be installed but if i put that many i dont think i can place any fish in the thing

Advice please

 

[sanj]

1800 litre!!!

Are you sure, that is huge!!! My largest is 380litre and that is fairly good size.

352 plamnts in an 1800 litre is nothing, i probably have 200+ in my largest, ,but these numbers are as you buy them, small plants or cuttings. i.e one stalk of a stem cutting = 1 plant.

 

[Bol]

What kind of lighting are you planning on having? You're going to want a huge amount of light for a tank that size, to grow plants.

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

i think i will have 4 x 2x36 floresent tubes@ 1.22m

and the size has changed. it is now around 325x100x125 which works out at around 3794ltr

 

[mrV]

Are you serious about the size of tank? 3m * 1m * 1m (L*W*H)?? If you are, you'll have serious problems with plants. Fluorescent tube are not good for you at all, they aren't anough powerful to your tank. You must use HQI-lamps and are they still enough if you use 250W HQI bulbs? Don't know... Probably ypu can try to grow some plants...

 

[Rose]

I gotta go with Mr.V on this one. That sized tank isn't really the best thing to plant. Just on size alone. I'm not trying to say it can't be done, I'm looking at the practicality of this thing. Unless Bill Gates is a favorite uncle or something the set up for this is going to be massive $$$$$. You need to look at the lighting (which won't be cheap), then you have the substraight (you will need something other than just sand or regular gravel for, the plants themselves aren't going to be cheep especially while you figure out what will and won't live in your tank, the filters you will need for this thing will most likely have to be pond filters or the pro series of the Ehims(?sp?) and you will need more than one.

However IF you can pull off the lighting and the substraight and all the trace elements and co2.....this would be one hell of a planted tank I'm jellouse just thinking about it . If you are really serious about doing this tank planted let me know so I can find some good resources for you and what not.

Rose

 

[fozzy_wozzy_woo]

oh yes i am serious. i have just started to prep the location tonight. I worked out that their wouldn’t be enough light so as well as the florescent bulbs I am going to place around 15 Halogen 65w bulbs around the lid of the tank.

I also have 5 more 65w halogen bulbs that will hang on the out side of the tank beaming inwards to the bottom.

The plan is to have the tank with several levels in it so near the top their will be a ledge which will have a well. In the well will be gravel. then in that gravel i will place plants that like allot of light.

half way down again the same.

at the bottom i will make a ledge so lots of plants can be placed close to the wall and these will be low light plants.

i was going to cover the bottom of the tank with 4-5cm of mixed gravel. On top of the gravel I was going to place large stones and plant the plants in between the large stones on the gravel giving the plants protection from fish that like to burrow in the gravel and also giving protection to my FRY.

I will be getting a 3500ltr bio/uv pond filter so that is ok the only thing I need to do is to work out which plants, wood, and stones I need to even all the ph levels out. I don’t want to use chemicals as this will cause long term problems.

The glass is going to be the most expensive thing but it is only 1 piece I don’t know the measurements at the moment as I am still working on the structural drawings for the main tank and stand.