Re Starting Tank

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Callum27

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Hi, new to the forum and could use some advice.

I am about to restart my main tank, but with plants to help combat terrible algae problems. Anyway, I've been doing a bit of reading and discovered their are various factors in plant growth / algae control. However I need people to suggest a ratio of importance including each factor. This will help me determine which equipment to invest in, as money's very tight and D.I.Y isn't possible.

E.g.

Lighting: 8
Co2:4
Substrate: 2
Fertilisers: 1 *weekly / monthly store bought fertilisers*
root heating: 0.5
flow rate: 0.5

That sort of thing.


Thanks
 
Hiya welcome to the forum :D I'd say your filter and heating are most important. I'm no expert but I'm sure more exprienced people will be along to help. Just wanted to show you this link that I picked up from another thread earlier http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-CO2-Reactor-for-a-Planted-Aquarium/

It's how to make you own CO2 reactor for next to nothing if you wanted to have one but didn't want to buy one. :good: looks pretty good
 
You can rule out under gravel heater cables because they don't make any difference what so ever.
If you are on a budget then go really low tech.
E.g. for a 20gallon tank.
FloraBase - Black 10 Litre
75W Jager heater
AquaPro NR1 750lph external filter
Fluorescent Light Starter Unit with 18W bulb (triphosphor lamp, 6700K)and reflector
Lots and lots of plants such as Anubias, Hygrophila, Java fern, java moss, Ludwigia, Hornwort, Crypts, Amazon sword.
Medium stocked with fish.
2-3 water changes a year. Sounds odd doesn't but it's perfectly fine to do. The plants combined with the filter keep the water quality in top condition. The lighting is low enough that you don't need CO2 injection (which would speed up growth and need for more nutrients) therefore you don't need to do water changes and if you did then the tap water that contains high levels of dissolved CO2 would upset the balance and algae would become a nuisance as they are more adaptable to sudden change. The waste the fish produce goes towards the plants because this Columbo Flora base has a good CEC, basically it gathers the nutrients from the water column into the substrate ready for the plants to use.
Probably the easiest planted tank to do and it's cheap. Growth is slow but the results are good, particularly because you dont need to do much.
 
Thanks for the advice, However could you apply that to my current tank?

180litre ish
2 x 25w T8's ( 1 x 5000k ish 1 x 8000kish) with reflector hood
Eheim 2026
Tetratec Heater


Also would RO water with nutrients added back in be beneficial? (We have crap water here, very hard and fairly alkaline)
Finally, on that Flora base product, it mentions it is ph balancing?. Why would a substrate need to do this?


I appreciate your advice it seems really useful :)
 
Lighting is fine for that size tank.
The filter is good but I personally would want a bit more flow so I would add a powerhead rated around 600litres per hour.
With regards to the RO, it's not really needed. Most plants and fish don't care what the hardness is apart from the obvious fish such as chocolate gouramis, discus and malawi. And plants such as ToniaI'd rather use the tap water on this. . Feel free to use RO though, remember to use remineralising salts to bring the KH and GH up. RO is too pure on it's own as I'm sure you know.
The country it's made in like to believe that the majority of plants and fish prefer more acidic conditions. The pH effect wont both the fish though. It would have an even less effect if you used tap water.
 

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