180 gallon planted aquarium.

Scruffy4

Candiru
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Mar 11, 2020
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hello, I just picked up a 180 gal for my manueli piranha. He’s currently housed in a 65 gal tank. I’m new to planted aquariums and have been doing research on lights/plants. I’m aiming towards going with no co2 and lower light plants. The tank came with 2 aquarium master 36” leds. I’ve researched them, they’re 10k and look to me to be completely garbage. They barely light up the tank now. I’ve been researching new lights non stop and sort of came to the fluval 3.0. I would go with 2 36”. Now I’m kind of wondering for the price tag will it be worth the reward. I don’t want to go heavily planted but would like to layer the tank with some sort of carpeting areas.I’m in no rush to add the manueli and would love to get this tank established before I add him(and obviously cycled). Anyways any suggestions/opinions would be great.

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Deadeye

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Only concern on my end is that piranhas like to eat plants. I’d hate to spend all that money on planting a tank for that to happen.
I don’t have too much experience in the planted tank field though, so others can chime in.
 

Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
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May 2, 2017
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The lighting doesn’t look bad but def won’t be able to get any nice carpets (imo). However there is a plant that carpets in lower light called dwarf Sagittaria and it looks like a short jungleval which will send runners all around the tank.

For a more traditional carpet I recommend using a planted tank light on the market but that may be a bit expensive for that size aquarium.

I don’t have much experience with carpets(I’m actually trying to start one in my 75 gallon, but I use a cheap Costco led shop light which grows a lot of moderately strong light plants well.

You could also try a dry start method (since you aren’t in a hurry to add fish. You can add the carpeting plants and once the carpet fills in emersed for a couple weeks you can add water!

Looking forward to seeing this thread it’ll def be interesting to see how your tank turns out! Good luck!
 

Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
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May 2, 2017
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Only concern on my end is that piranhas like to eat plants. I’d hate to spend all that money on planting a tank for that to happen.
I don’t have too much experience in the planted tank field though, so others can chime in.
Although pirhannas eat plants, I doubt they will be able to rip up an established carpet or established plants. However def be wary that the money you spend may make an expensive snack. I would recommend jungle Val and sword plants for background (they can take a beating and are extrmemely tough) and a carpet of plants like montecarlo, glossostigma, s repens in the front. These three I’ve heard are relatively easy non co2 carpet plants. You could also go with dwarf hair grass or baby tears but these def would prefer co2. Finally crypt Parva, dwarf sag, or even some types of moss like java and Christmas moss are both unconventional carpets but are super easy and quick to grow.
 

Scruffy4

Candiru
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Mar 11, 2020
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Sorry I should have added the list of plants I’ve come up with.
This is a you tube list-various plants I’ve come across

Micro swords

Water sprite

Vallisneria

Bacopa -

Cryptos (lutea, wendtii red)

Anubias- on driftwood
Java fern - on driftwood

Water wisteria

Amazon swords

Marimo moss balls

Aponogeton crispus

Susswassertang-

Dwarf sagittaria

Jungle val
 

Scruffy4

Candiru
MFK Member
Mar 11, 2020
85
177
41
Canada
Only concern on my end is that piranhas like to eat plants. I’d hate to spend all that money on planting a tank for that to happen.
I don’t have too much experience in the planted tank field though, so others can chime in.
It’s one manueli not a group if reds, so I’m going to go for it lol. As far as eating plants I’m going to keep dither fish in the tank so hopefully he’ll take them out first.
 
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Deadeye

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It’s one manueli not a group if reds, so I’m going to go for it lol. As far as eating plants I’m doing to keep dither fish in the tank so hopefully he’ll take them out first.
You should be good, I’m just paranoid about plants with any p after my red ate plastic ones:ROFL:
I look forward to watching how the tank progresses!
 

Rayfishowner

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
May 2, 2017
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Sorry I should have added the list of plants I’ve come up with.
This is a you tube list-various plants I’ve come across

Micro swords

Water sprite

Vallisneria

Bacopa -

Cryptos (lutea, wendtii red)

Anubias- on driftwood
Java fern - on driftwood

Water wisteria

Amazon swords

Marimo moss balls

Aponogeton crispus

Susswassertang-

Dwarf sagittaria

Jungle val
That’s a good list of beginner plants. I have experience with jungle Val, java moss, java fern, Anubias, and water wisteria so I’ll comment on those. First off jungle Val is a wonderful plant and fits the SA theme so def recommend it, however if you don’t do weekly maintenance, once it establishes (mine took around 2-3 months) it goes nuts and will “jungle” up your tank in no time. That said, may start out competing other plants so I would either do some type of barrier or cut the runner plants a lot if you don’t want it spreading everywhere and messing with other species of plants. That said, it may be difficult (and painful lol) to constantly be sticking your fingers in the pirhana tank so unless you like the idea of a jungle, maybe pass on it. Second water wisteria is a plant I really love! It is super fast growing once established but doesn’t grow horizontally, only vertically so you can easily just trim once it gets too high. Also can take a ripping and will grow pretty good even with fish messing with it s leaves. Finally java moss, java fern, and Anubias are cool, but I find they are slow growing and take a while to establish. My Anubias grows a leaf a month and since they are slow growing, will accumulate algae and detritus if not aerated well so if you get these def recommend either snails or shrimp or some algae eater that could be compatible with the pirhana. Hopefully others can chime in their experiences with other plants. I’ve attached some of my pics below!

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Fishnerd360

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 2, 2018
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For the light, the fluval 3.0 is very good for plants, but if you don’t want to pay that much, the fluval aqua sky does a great job growing plants. All those plants you have listed will grow great, but the swords will also need root tabs. I have micro swords, had them for a while, and they barely grown since when I bought them. Don’t know why since I have good lighting and substrate.
 

fishguy1978

Redtail Catfish
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Mar 30, 2020
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Micro swords, harder to maintain good growth and does better with co2

Water sprite,

Jungle val, Vallisneria, will benefit from root tabs, I had jungle val in the past in a 65g that grew to the surface and then across the full length of the aquarium

Bacopa - easy grow

Cryptos (lutea, wendtii red), I love crypts for their easy grow ability. Parva is a good low growing variety instead of the micro sword. Spiralis gets some good height

Anubias- on driftwood, recommend all variety. Farzeri and Congensis will get big and some height, Coffeeola for its bicolor, barterii for its rinkly leaves

Java fern - on driftwood, absolutly. Witches hand or windelov because of its unique leave ends

Water wisteria, can be made to grow horizontally if you weight the stem down against the substrate, tender leaves that could bet eaten

Amazon swords, definitly add root tabs, great variety

Marimo moss balls, never have tried, intense light though

Aponogeton crispus, good choice, will grow taller, undemanding

Susswassertang- looks like seaweed, fast growing from what I have been told, just recently was given some

Dwarf sagittaria, Dwarf compared to jungle val maybe. I have had some that stayed short, 1-3in. My most recent experience it took off and grew 24in. Better option than micro sword as it will grow in low tech tanks

Check out Beamsworks lights. Inexpensive and work well. I would recommend 2 36in fixtures as the 72in bends in the middle.
 
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