Angelfish setup and plants

[Jc1119]

So I'm setting up an aquarium for a small group of Pinoy angels and am torn over how to approach the setup. Tank is a 90 gallon 48X18dX24H with a built in 350 gph wet-dry and a canister moving an additional 200gph or so. Water movement is restricted to mostly the top and bottom of the tank (top overflow, bottom return on wet-dry and reversed for the canister)

Lighting is where Im a bit stumped. Most research says angels prefer dimly lit tanks and I currently have a Marineland 36-48" led strip that doesn't put out much light and the setup is in our garage so ambient light is mostly non-existent. Should I

A) stay with the current setup and use fake plants or find plants that can exist in such low-light situations or

B) add lighting for the sake of plants and forgo the mention of dim lighting for the angels?

I know the tank will be much healthier with plants, but not real sure how to approach a low-light tank with them. Most plants I've used in the past have all required quite a bit of light. Thanks in advance!

 

[probassfisher010]

I would add strong lights, and enough plants to create dim areas in your tank. Floating plants, large leaved plants, etc.


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[Charney]

i agree go planted. I curse my planted tank every day, but think it will look great once I get some angels in there. I have wisterai, sunset hygro, and water lettuce that gives plenty of shade

 

[Jc1119]

Yeah, kinda what I was thinking but the water lettuce and sunset hygro seem to be illegal in Florida. No-one will ship here...

I guess I could go with more standard species though.


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[decoy50]

I have a 60gallon angel tank currently, when I switch around my tanks in a few weeks they will be going into a 90gal with a marineland doublebright led 48-60. I'm going heavy on the driftwood & no plants(maybe some anubias). My tank was planted until about a month ago when I got tired of battling algae & having plant mulm & detritus everywhere. Planted tanks look great but are a huge PITA!!

Go heavy driftwood, anubias & maybe some floating plants(frogbit) & you wont be sorry. Your led lights should be fine with this setup.

 

[Jc1119]

Part of why Im debating it is because I'm putting a rather large Pothos in the top of the overflow area. Nitrates will be reduced quite a bit from this alone. O2 exchange is very high already with the built in wet-dry so the benefit of have real plants might not be as much as it would in a standard tank with a canister.

Algae is already kept to a minimum from a pair of small rubber lip plecos............

decisions decisions........

 

[Aquanero]

Sounds like this tank might not be the best candadate for planting. I have a group of six P. Leopoldi in a 90 with some drift wood and one 24" Marienland Single bright LED fixture. The tank is dim and the fish are always out. When I had them in a brighter tank they were not as active. These are wild cought fish however and the Pinoy may be more used to brighter light.

 

[Jc1119]

Yeah the more I consider it the more it may be best to not plant. I've already got several pieces of driftwood, rocks, silk swords and some pretty tall fake plants. Pothos will shade the surface a good bit.

Might go this route for awhile and see how it goes.


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