120g Hardwater planted

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gobucks1

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I'm looking to set up a 4'x2'x2' 120g planted tank and i need some help.

-What plants will thrive in our water? It's about 8.2 pH and "very hard". I was thinking: Vallisneria americana, and gigantea; Sag. subulata; Various anubias sp. attached to driftwood; Maybe some sort of crypt?

-What spectrum of light is best? And is T5 better than Power Compact or vice versa? I'm going to use around 240ish watts. The two fixtures i'm looking at have 4 bulbs. What combo of bulb spectrums would be good?

-What type of fertilizers would be good? Any specific brands or types of root and water column fertilizers?

There's not going to be any CO2 and it's going to be filtered by a 55 gallon sump with scouring pads and about 1100 gph of flow. I'll have the heaters and a UV sterilizer in the sump.

The fish list if it makes any difference is going to be:
1 EBJD
1 NGT
2 P. senegalus
5 Syno. Multi
4 Bristlenose Plecos
2 Belonesox Balizanus

Anything else tip-wise you can give me?

Thanks,


Will
 
Crypts will thrive in that water. Also look into some African Fern - "Bolbitis", Java Fern, and certain mosses.

I've only used Compact Flourescent on my planted, and I would advise against it honestly. T5s seem to pack a a lot more power, last a few months longer (on average) and aren't quite as expensive. Stay close to 6700k for spectrum, you can throw in some 10000k bulbs too.

Fertillizers can be expensive. For the money, dry ferts are great. If you've got a little extra cash, check out PFertz. GreenLeafAquariums is an excellent site to order these from.

I would stay away from CO2 unless you go pressurized. Flourish Excell will melt your vals, and the yeast/sugar method would be a huge pain in the ass for a tank that large. However if you find that you need some sort of CO2 supplement, check out BrightWell Aquatics FlorinAxis. It works great, and to my knowledge, does not have any negative affects on Vals.
 
Adhlc;3078286; said:
Crypts will thrive in that water. Also look into some African Fern - "Bolbitis", Java Fern, and certain mosses.

I've only used Compact Flourescent on my planted, and I would advise against it honestly. T5s seem to pack a a lot more power, last a few months longer (on average) and aren't quite as expensive. Stay close to 6700k for spectrum, you can throw in some 10000k bulbs too.

Fertillizers can be expensive. For the money, dry ferts are great. If you've got a little extra cash, check out PFertz. GreenLeafAquariums is an excellent site to order these from.

I would stay away from CO2 unless you go pressurized. Flourish Excell will melt your vals, and the yeast/sugar method would be a huge pain in the ass for a tank that large. However if you find that you need some sort of CO2 supplement, check out BrightWell Aquatics FlorinAxis. It works great, and to my knowledge, does not have any negative affects on Vals.
Click to expand...

Any particular sp. of crypts you'd recommend? I like the looks of spiralis, wendtii, and walkerii, would they all do well?
I've never had much luck with java fern it always just turns brown in patches. Is the Bolbitis fern called Bolbitis heudelotii? Most of the sites i've seen said that hard water would lead to brown leaves?

So, vals americana and gigantea; anubias Barteri, Nana and Congensis; and crypt spiralis and green wendtii and walkerii. And maybe the bolbitis.

What about the Micro & Macro Fertilizer Package from Greenleaf? Would that be good for my chosen plants?


Thanks for you help.
 
Bolbitis seems to do a variety of things in different circumstances. It's done well for me in harder water. Though If you don't have much luck with Java Fern, I'd stay away from it.

I highly recommend Cryptocoryne Spiralis, it's one of my favorite plants. All the other plants should be fine. The only issue I can see you possibly running into is uprooting of the Vals. I've never kept an EBJD so I couldn't say whether or not he's a threat to them, but they are pretty delicate.

The Macros and Micros package is perfect. I would start of dosing very lightly and go from there.
 
Adhlc;3080007; said:
Bolbitis seems to do a variety of things in different circumstances. It's done well for me in harder water. Though If you don't have much luck with Java Fern, I'd stay away from it.

I highly recommend Cryptocoryne Spiralis, it's one of my favorite plants. All the other plants should be fine. The only issue I can see you possibly running into is uprooting of the Vals. I've never kept an EBJD so I couldn't say whether or not he's a threat to them, but they are pretty delicate.

The Macros and Micros package is perfect. I would start of dosing very lightly and go from there.
Click to expand...

Okay, so no to the Bolbitis.

Yeah, i really like the Spiralis as well, i'll definately order a good bit of that. The EBJD is in with some Val. Gigantea right now and it's fine, granted he's still pretty young. I'll keep an eye out for that though, thanks.

Okay, i'll get that, i assume it will have some general dosing instructions on it?


Thanks for all your help.
 
There are no dosing instructions on the bags since every tank is unique. on GreenLeafAquariums under the fertilizer section, there will be a few links on the Estimative Index dosing method, and a calculator to figure out how much you should dose. If you didn't want to use the calculator then try searching google for EI dosing regimes and try them out.
 
gobucks1;3080419; said:
Thanks, for the link, i had seen that a while ago and was looking for it just now.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
No prob, glad to help. I have hard water anubi and java ferns/moss do quite well. exp the moss.
 
For non CO2 and hard water, Types of Anacharis and Hornwort would do very well. They are efficient users of bicarbonate.

Plants such as:

Ceratophyllum demersum
C. submersum

Egeria Densa
Egeria najas
Lagarosiphon Major

Most milfoils do well in hard water, although I am not sure if parrot feather does. I have Milfoil, java moss AND Lagarosiphon Major in my tank, growing well. I never checked the hardness but the PH is over 7.6 and I get calcium deposits all the time on the waterline and above... So I gather it is hard.

These plants could make a very good background for your tank. L. major might be illegal in your area so watch out.
 
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