New to Planted Tank and need help~!!!

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R

RoyalPiranha

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 18, 2011
60
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USA
Hello, I'm new to planted tanks. I need plants that are hardy, and easy to maintain.

I have several lights for my 175 gallon bow front - since this was previously salt water, I have the T5s and metal halides. I do not want to use it so often, since it'll spike my eletrical bill again. So, regular flourescent lights I do have. My tank is 29" deep.

Anyways, I have piranhas, and I want to give it the amazonoian look.

I have regular light tanish brown gravel that you see in stores. I want to get some flourite or maybe sand. I just want to hear your thoughts and see if I can mix substrates and not compromise the look.

Thanks for listening to me rant. :) This has been a great forum so far.
 
Jungle vals would be the best option for a tall enough plant, that is still hardy. You will however need a lot of HO t5 lights.
 
WyldFya said:
Jungle vals would be the best option for a tall enough plant, that is still hardy. You will however need a lot of HO t5 lights.
Click to expand...


BLah, I do not want to buy plants that require so much lighting.

Anyways - substrate, whats your or anyone's thought on mixing flourite and gravel to save cost. I already have 3 full buckets of gravel.
 
Your tank is the hindrance, not the plants. If you want plants in a tank that deep, you need enough light to get to the bottom. Metal Halide is the way to go.
 
That I do have. Okay, so maybe 6-8 hours of metal halides, but...then I have piranhas, which hates bright lights. Arent there low light plants such as java fern, anubus that can tolerate a lot of abuse?
 
Actually my concern is the substrate...I want something that looks cool and will allow me to grow plants without changing the water chemistry.

Flourite i guess is the only option, since sand can be really messy. Especially for piranhas
 
I've kept piranha in a 75 gallon high light planted tank. The lighting was 4x65 watt compact fluorescents. With the thick plant growth, the piranha were very relaxed, even under very bright light.
Personally, if you wanted to cut back on the hydro, I'd run some regular fluorescents for 3 hours, then have the halides turn on for 6, then back to fluorescents for another 3. Have the lights overlap a bit, say 15 minutes
 
What Wyldfya is eluding to is that at 29 inches it will be very hard to grow any plants unless:

A. You have adequet lighting to penetrate that depth. Hetal halides or many T5 HO's.
B. Somehow you bring your plants closer to the top of the tank. Preferably 20 inches or closer to your light source.

You can have the greatest of substrates but if you don't have proper light and of course nutrients your plants will not grow well if at all.
 
WyldFya said:
Jungle vals would be the best option for a tall enough plant, that is still hardy. You will however need a lot of HO t5 lights.
Click to expand...

I dont agree with that... I grew Vals under t8's.

Vals really only need two things Decent lighting and plenty of Nitrogen. What type of T5's do you have?
 
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