Hi. I have been thinking of setting up a planted aquirium, but I have absalutly no experiance with them. I have a 75 gal. tank with a corner overflow. Right now I just have itset up as a ciclid tank with a wet/dry with carbon in the media bags, then media balls under that. I have a 1400 gph pump. I relize it is overfiltered, but I like having the water crystal clear. I am moving the ciclids to a larger tank and I wanted to make a planted tank. Is this filtration set-up alright or will I have to change a few things. I do have smaller pumps I could put on it. I just havnt read about what types of filtration most people use on a planted tank. I also have a metal halide 600 watt growing light I could use. I was thinking this might be to bright so I might get a t-5 lighting set-up. I was thinking of running a co2 set-up eventually. I have a friend who owns a welding supply shop so I could do it fairly cheap. Would this filtration setup work?????????? Also this may be a stupid question, but I have a private lake on my property with all kind of plants in it. Could I take some of them from my lake to put into my aquarium????? I just want to do this as cheap as possible. Also could I have some of my smaller ciclids in a planted aquarium or will I have problems???? Sorry about all the questions.
filtration for a planted tank??????????
- Thread starter daveolejnik
- Start date
Wet/drys do not work well for planted tanks, they gas off all your Co2. Best would be a canister filter setup so there is as little surface aggitation as possible. If you don't over stock the plant will create enough oxegen for the fist to breath.
Issues Addressed in Order:
Overflow filter - will cause CO2 (that you plan to inject) to be outgassed into the atmosphere, and thus wasted. It will either need to be enclosed, or get a HOB or preferably a canister. Stop using carbon. So much data I've read suggests it's practically worthless, unless you are pulling medication from a tank or trying to get odors out (which means you have other issues anyway).
600 wt MH bulb will be way too much light, concentrated in too small of an area. Go with compact fluorescent or T5HO. If you run enough light, you pretty much have to have CO2 injection, or face an endless algae war.
A lot of native plants will be just fine in your aquarium. There are several US-native plant species that are often traded amongst forum users. I would probably suggesting a dip in potassium permanganate to kill off any unwanted hitchhikers.
You mention smaller cichlids. What kind of cichlids? There's only about 5000 species of them, ranging from plant-safe to plant destroyers.
Keep in mind, other nutrients are important too, particularly N, K, P and trace elements. You may find (depending on how much light you end up getting) that you'll need to dose some or all of these, to get adequate plant growth / health.
Overflow filter - will cause CO2 (that you plan to inject) to be outgassed into the atmosphere, and thus wasted. It will either need to be enclosed, or get a HOB or preferably a canister. Stop using carbon. So much data I've read suggests it's practically worthless, unless you are pulling medication from a tank or trying to get odors out (which means you have other issues anyway).
600 wt MH bulb will be way too much light, concentrated in too small of an area. Go with compact fluorescent or T5HO. If you run enough light, you pretty much have to have CO2 injection, or face an endless algae war.
A lot of native plants will be just fine in your aquarium. There are several US-native plant species that are often traded amongst forum users. I would probably suggesting a dip in potassium permanganate to kill off any unwanted hitchhikers.
You mention smaller cichlids. What kind of cichlids? There's only about 5000 species of them, ranging from plant-safe to plant destroyers.
Keep in mind, other nutrients are important too, particularly N, K, P and trace elements. You may find (depending on how much light you end up getting) that you'll need to dose some or all of these, to get adequate plant growth / health.
The carbon will remove some nutrients, the media balls (bacteria) won't. The bacteria will compete with the plants for ammonium, but the plants can still use the nitrates that result from the cycle (they just like ammonium better). Bacteria will also convert more O2 into CO2 that the plants use.
600W MH is a lot of light and really needs to be teamed up with CO2 and fertilization to keep things balanced. If you're not planning to have CO2 right away, I would suggest going with about 100W of T5.
And you can definitely take plants from the lake if they are growing underwater. Just make sure they're not carrying any hitchhikers that you might not want in your tank.
Hope that helps.
600W MH is a lot of light and really needs to be teamed up with CO2 and fertilization to keep things balanced. If you're not planning to have CO2 right away, I would suggest going with about 100W of T5.
And you can definitely take plants from the lake if they are growing underwater. Just make sure they're not carrying any hitchhikers that you might not want in your tank.
Hope that helps.
