So It Begins

[jag51186]

Hello all,

Just wanted to document my tank process. I'm hoping to have a fairly heavily planted community tank. I finally purchased a tank, stand and some equipment. My tank is an 80 gallon, dimensions are 48" x 18" x 20" I believe. I got a stand with it, and it came with a free Fluval 406 canister filter (thoughts on these filters?). It's rated at 383 gph (1450 lph). Wanted an eheim, but it was free.

Also, bought two 150 watt eheim jäger heaters. They are rated for 79 gallons, but I tried to get near to the 5 watts per gallon rule that I had heard by getting two, plus I have a back up this way.

Lastly, I bought some lighting. Ended up getting talked into the Fluval full spectrum aqualife and plant LED light. Lighting is an area I am still pretty lacking in knowledge, so if someone could weigh in on that, it would be great. It's 5200k and 35watt, which I know I wanted around 6500k, but had heard things were different with LED.

Picked up some nice Malaysian driftwood, And got my Seachem Flourish plant supplements in preparation!! Still looking into potential substrates, I'd like to go with sand. Potentially, play sand with something underneath to supplement the plants. But, I'm considering just going with the sand, since I will be supplementing regularly.

Thoughts?? Thanks all!!

 

[Blubble37]

thoughts?
 
Why no pictures?

 

[Akasha72]

I know nothing of the equipment as I've never had fluval but I thought I'd chat to you about substrate...
 
 
Firstly, play sand is fine. It's cheap and so long as it's non-toxic it's fine to use. Now, adding a layer underneath for plants - it's not really needed if you plan to add plants ferts regularily (I add mine daily but everyone does it differently) but you'll need to consider what fish you are planning to have. If you are planning bottom dwellers such as cories or plecs then be aware that they like to dig and so the layer underneath will eventually be a layer nearer the top - if not on the top! If your only planning on mid water/top dwellers then there is no issue with a plant layer.
 
When you get your sand be ready to spend hours washing it. I've heard of a few ways of doing it - from adding it to a pillowcase and running water through to throwing it all in a bucket and getting the hosepipe to it. Each time I've done my sand I've half filled a bucket with sand, stood the bucket in the sink and just kept running water into the bucket, getting my hand in all the time and swirling it around. All the debris will come to the top and you can just pour that away. Once the water is running clear that batch is good to go ... then you can start on another half bucket and carry on till the sack of sand is empty. By the time your done you'll not want to see another sack of sand in a very long time!
 
Hopefully that helps and I'll leave the others to answer your other questions. Good luck with the tank and I'll look forward to photo's as it progresses

 

[jag51186]

No pictures yet lol, my computer is broken, so I can't upload them =/

 

[jag51186]

Thanks for that info, I'll probably just use sand then. I'm thinking about doing both black and white with some separation, although I'm sure the cories will mix it all up anyway, but that's fine. Have you tried any of the sand that comes wet so it's been rinsed??

 

[Akasha72]

sand that comes wet? No, we don't get things like that in the U.K, not that I'm aware of anyway. I'd still wash it in any case as you have no idea what might be lurking in it or how it's been treated in shipping

 

[jag51186]

So, on lighting, is it ok to have it set to turn off at 10 or 11 pm so that we can actually see it on?? Or should I have it turned off closer to normal day length??

 

[jag51186]

 

[Akasha72]

that wood is amazing 

 
 
Lighting - here's how I understand it and do it in my tank. By having the light coming on and off through the day you can confuse algae and stop it from growing. But if you are planning on having live plants they will need several hours of lighting to thrive. In my tank my lights come on at 9am until 11.30am and then they go off until 4pm and out again at 10pm. I have them on a timer and so even if I'm not here they still come on. It's sufficient lighting for my plants to thrive but not enough for algae to take hold. The main algae that likes a lot of light is green spot algae and so if you can confuse it and stop it forming it stops you having to scrub the glass too often.
 
Hope that helps

 

[jag51186]

Thanks!! I might rearrange it still, but I really like that look so far. Once I make a decision on substrate, I can actually start soaking the wood and setting things up a bit.

 

[jag51186]

Also, do I need two filters for this tank??

 

[Akasha72]

Also, do I need two filters for this tank??

 
That's up to you but I run two on my 4ft - one in each corner - as I find one filter isn't enough to provide enough surface movement. It also means you can alternate filter maintenance which helps the bacteria when cleaning 

 

[jag51186]

So, can I get a second smaller one to save some money?? Or should I just get another of same size you think??

 

[Akasha72]

you could get a smaller second one if you wish. I ran a large one and a smaller one for a while until it needed to be replaced. Now I run 2 exactly the same size

 

[jag51186]

To see things a little better! Thanks for the help so far!