Starting First Planted Tank

[aaronnorth]

You can dose less nutrients, high lighting is required to 'drive' the plants to uptake nutrients & CO2, with low lighting, they will take in less, therefore, more suspended nutrients will be available for algae.

I wouldn't reccomend fermentation CO2 for EI, suitable for almost anything else though.

 

[Crazybob]

cool, thanks. i looked back and saw a link to making a fire extinguisher pressurized co2 system. i found this one http/cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...E:RTQ:US:1123 or this one http/cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...E:RTQ:US:1123 but im not sure if they will hold co2, and the seller wasnt positive either. does anyone know if they will or not?

 

[aaronnorth]

It should say on the bottle, make ure it is gas and not a foam o liquid otherwise you will be getting a cloudy tank!

 

[Crazybob]

hey, another question that just occurred to me, will carbon in the filter remove the fertilizers? should i only use ammonia, the biofilter, and mechanical filtration?

 

[aaronnorth]

yep, i use carbon once a month for 48hr to remove anything in there that shouldnt be.

I have a fluval 205 external, i fill it with:

4 sponges
Bottom - biomax (small blue tray that takes half a tray is use for a fine polishing pad)
middle - biomax
top - biomax

You want as much biological filtration as you can.

 

[Crazybob]

cool, thanks for the heads up. what ammonia remover? for the record, im going to be using an emperor 400 (hang over the top) and a cascade 700 (canister). so i will fill the cascade up with all biomedia and have foam in the emperor, should i also use the ammo remover or should i put foam in for all of the cartridge area?

 

[aaronnorth]

No point in the ammonia remover, as long as your tank is cycled then your other bacteria will take care of that.

 

[Raven999]

You might also want to try peat moss in your filter! It helps keep the plants going and is more efficient than putting peat clumps at the bottom of each plant

 

[Crazybob]

hey thanks, i saw that at the fish store for ponds and was wondering what it was for lol. will it make my tank cloudy? or will it not if i rinse it real good

 

[Crazybob]

okay, im going to pick up the tank this week to start my tank! is the tank going to be deadly to the plants or fish while it cycles?should i cycle it before i add the plants and things?