Supplies Came In Today!

[trojannemo]

well the stuff i ordered came in today:

got pretty much the entire line of SeaChem products as they have worked for me well in the past, and some of the nicest planted tanks i've seen use it.
2 bags of eco complete (40 lbs total) to go with another 15-20 lbs of my existing black gravel (to keep some of the bacteria) - this substrate came highly recommended by local and online stores, lets see how i like it

also got 2 new stealth heaters to replace my bigger, ugly non-stealth one (and get better temperatures all over anyways).

together with my T5-HO lights, i think i'm set for a low-tech planted tank (i.e. no CO2 yet)...what do you think? can this combination of things work without having CO2? i'm not looking for AGA-quality obviously as this will be my first time doing a "planted tank" rather than just sticking live plants in my tank, but i do want the plants to live as all my fish will benefit from live plants

 

[aaronnorth]

ot pretty much the entire line of SeaChem product

how much did that cost you

those 'beautiful planted tanks' you see will only dose the normal flourish, do you know the difference between flourish, & flourish trace?

flourish is a trace of macro's & micro's
flourish trace is a trace of micro's

so basically, they are the same!


what size tank is it, and what lighting do you have?

 

[trojannemo]

well the tank size has been a bit of discussion lately. it was sold me to as a 38G, and its labeled as such, but by my own measurements it's more like a 33G. i've got the Hagen Glo T5-HO system which has 2x 39W 6,700K bulbs, with an effective 2.3 WPG of T5-HO lighting.

i paid $4.99 a bottle for those things! not that i wanted to, but unfortunately the other alternative i know of, your beloved TPN+, is not available from any LFS or online retailers that ship to me.
i was originally going to buy about 4 of those bottles, but i stumbled across Seachem's own dosing schedule, and i decided to give it a fair try. it's a daily dosing schedule where i dose a different combination of ferts everyday of the week except sunday, where i'm expected to do a small water change.

since this is my first time, i dont feel confident to yet develop my own dosing schedule. i'm going to stick to theirs to the letter, and see how it works out for me. if i find i'm not satifsfied then i'll try to check out other schedules or other ferts.

i already finished the change. took me a good 8 hours from start to finish, but managed it all, cleaned everything, even the background! and none of the fish died or even got stressed thanks to my painstaking precautions (a whole 'nother post if you're curious!).

the eco-complete pictures online look like if it was a gravel substrate, but it's very much muddy/sandy, it looks like fine soil! water's still a little hazy from using the water clarifier solution that comes with the eco-complete, but the fish are showing much happier behavior. even my "light-shy" clown loach has been swimming around like nobody's business...and the g. incisus rainbows are looking great! i dont want to jinx myself but i think this is the start of something good for my fishies

 

[bordercollie05]

I use eco-complete and love it. The sandier parts settle to the bottom and the bigger pieces move up to the surface over time, so on the surface, it will look more like gravel after a week or two. Can't wait to see pics

Laura

 

[aaronnorth]

after you have used up all those bottles, i would just go with using flourish, and dose that daily,

that dosing schedule sounds a lot like EI to me?

And with 2.3wpg, you will need CO2, otherwise your plants will starve because of the high lighting which drives them to uptake more of everything so you need to keep up with all ferts & CO2.