saltwater guy considering planted tank with QUESTIONS

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
A

agreeive?fish

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jan 2, 2007
429
3
18
oklahoma
Ok i have aprox 600g of saltwater in the house consisting of reef(softies) and fowlr(preditor) tanks and i have a EMPTY175g bowfront iam considering making a freshwater planted tank

iam considering multitudes of various live bearers(guppies,mollies,platties,swords), a black ghost or an elephannt nose, some cory cats, rainbow or red tail shark and a angel or 2

do you see any issues with fish that may eat my plants?


i also have a nice sized african clawed frog (NOT a drawf) i would like to move out of his 10g into the 175g would the tank height be to much for him to reach the surface to breath or not (yes i know he will limit the population of the live bearer but so will the black ghost or elephant nose and probably the angels as well)

i have a compact flourecent fixture that has 4 bulbs @ 96w each for a total of 384 watts would that light be enough for a average planted tank (above beginer but below the pros)

what bulb spectrums would i need?


how much flow does a planted tank need?



exactly what do i need to create a begginers planted tank that could be upgraded to a better than begginers but not to the advance or pro stage without doing an equipment upgrade?

thanks for your input
 
agreeive?fish;4380463; said:
...
iam considering multitudes of various live bearers(guppies,mollies,platties,swords), a black ghost or an elephannt nose, some cory cats, rainbow or red tail shark and a angel or 2

do you see any issues with fish that may eat my plants?


i also have a nice sized african clawed frog (NOT a drawf) i would like to move out of his 10g into the 175g would the tank height be to much for him to reach the surface to breath or not (yes i know he will limit the population of the live bearer but so will the black ghost or elephant nose and probably the angels as well)

i have a compact flourecent fixture that has 4 bulbs @ 96w each for a total of 384 watts would that light be enough for a average planted tank (above beginer but below the pros)

what bulb spectrums would i need?


how much flow does a planted tank need?



exactly what do i need to create a begginers planted tank that could be upgraded to a better than begginers but not to the advance or pro stage without doing an equipment upgrade?

thanks for your input
Click to expand...

Live bearers w/ Corys is great. I have that (sword/molly) and its very nice. Put any of those Angels or Sharks in there, and you might as well not have live bearers as you'll never get a chance to see the babies.

I don't know about Guppies or Platies, but I do know that Mollys and Swordtails don't eat most plants... in fact, you do very well at algae control. I actually try to keep pieces w/ algae in the tank to supliment their diet. They do eat it, as long as its not attached to the glass.

I know nothing about frogs... except that I think they are green.

Your bulbs wattage should be good, but just to be sure, check the sticky against how tall your tank is.

As far as spectrum - 6700K is good for most.

A lot of people are going to tank about CO2 as if its a requirement to have plants in your tank. Its not. But, for going to a professional looking tank, it is, as grass grows too slow without it. Most plants, however, do not require CO2 to grow nicely. What they all do need is a fertilizer. Do 1 root tab per large plant, no closer than 4 inches apart, and add a liquid or dry fertilizer after your weekly water changes. For liquid ferts, get the cheapest you can find. For dry ferts, buy in bulk, and just like the liquid stuff, its as easy as measuring and dumping in.

If anything in the post looks completely stupid, its because my 4 yearold is distracting me and I did not have time to proofread.
 
I don't know of any of the common livebearers that eat plants. A couple of angelfish/discus would probably do fine with those too, unless they are endler's livebearers. Those would be eaten in a heartbeat. Guppies might become fast food for your frog, but the larger stuff should be ok.

Don't forget, there are also lots of tetras and barbs at your disposal too! Your lights sound fine to start, just get a variety of plants and see what does best with your water and light.

As for flow, not too much is necessary. It's nothing like what's required for a SW tank. As long as water is moving through your filters it's fine.
 
how much flow does a planted tank need?
Click to expand...

lol, you're clearly a salty, lol good for you for diversifying though, anyways

most planted tanks have gently flow but it's more the surface agitation that could be an issue, if you were to ever run co2 you want as little surface agitation as possible to ensure very little gas exchange and maximize the amount to co2 available to your plants.

as far as the fish you listed they're all fine with plants you just might run into some issues with mixing all you're planning.

The frog could potentially uproot certain plants but you can worry about that when it comes along.


Sounds like you're on the right track anyway
post pics as you go please
 
Thanks for the reply

right now i can post a pic of an empty tank sitting on the floor without a stand,an empty sump, disassembled plumming supplies,pumps ect light fixture sitting on my FOWLR tank, some extra bulbs sitting in the bowfront tank..and after i get the cammera out of the wifes car tonight i can take a pic of the 10g with the frog... i can even post pics of the wife using the tank as a "work table" going thru the kids clothing before the start of school..not a whole lot of quality pic material to post at the moment
 
most planted tanks have gently flow but it's more the surface agitation that could be an issue, if you were to ever run co2 you want as little surface agitation as possible to ensure very little gas exchange and maximize the amount to co2 available to your plants.


ok the above stament confuses me because in saltwater fish and corals you want surface agitation to remove co2... i understand the plants need co2 the same as terestrial plants due but the fish dont infact co2 is bad for the fish (even freshies)... so do the plants consume the co2 that the fish expell with the same relationship as terestrial plants/animals... if you need to keep the co2 in a planted tank how do you provide oxygen in the water for the fish.. because i cant see where the plants could provide enough oxygen to keep the watere oxygenated enough for the fish in a "closed system or how you can remove excess co2 not consumed by the plants without surface agitation... some one care to educate me on this issue
 
co2 is fairly safe for fish. i inject co2 into my tank via a pressurized setup. even at 40+ppm of co2, the fish are completely fine. i do not use an airstone at night either. good flow is very important in a planted tank. if injecting co2, youll want to keep surface agitation to a minimum since it wont be cost-effective.

before you do anything, you need to decide what type of tank you want. do you want a high tech/high light tank with co2 and lush plant growth? or do you want a low light setup with easy to grow plants, no co2 and no ferts?

keep in mind that lighting for a freshwater planted tank is very different from a reef tank. lighting is much much more intense on a saltwater tank. going overboard will result in an algae explosion right away. check out the stickies in the planted section, lots of good info there
 
jcardona1

i have read the lighting sticky and dont know why but i just cant get it straight in my head, iam not buying a lot of equipment so here is what i got for lighting...so recomend some plants for for me if you would and i am not going to go the hig tech route//// even my reef tank is the low tech route (low tech for salt)

the lighting is a single ficture with the capacity for 4 liniar compact flourecsent bulbs @ 96 wats each.. i dont know the lummes or what the par readings are nor do i have a par meter or acess to one

i prefer to keep the kelvin rating at 10k or above because of the visual color spectrum, anything below 10k is too yellow for me, if i have to run at below 10k i will have to supplement with 420 nm and 460nm no flourecsents in a "shop fixture" at 32w(t-8) or 40w(t-12) 4 foot fixtures of 2 bulbs cou,d even due an supplement with a 20k bulb in the shop fixture or a combination of 20k and one or the other of the actinic (420/460nm) bulbs, i would just have to play around with the supplemental lighting to get the desired visual effects

the main fixture sits aprox 2" above the tank, the supplemental ligting sits aprox 1/2 above the tank,tank is 29" from very topof trim to the top of the stand and has glass tops(kids and cats)

iam alow tech guy for sure..i have had a computer for 15 years or more and i still pull out the instruction sheet to get directions to plug the power cord into the electrical outlet of the house electrical system,my vcr still flashes 12:00 (for those old enough to know what that means)...my reef tank is a 30g with 3 hob filters and an hob overflow with a 29g tank(with out modifications) as a sump with a mesh bag with carbon and filter floss on the overflow hose..and 2 light fixtures i had laying around when i started the tank...as low tech as you can go my fowlr salty tanks are nothing more than tanks with drilled over flows or hob overflows with sumps and return pumps with mesh bags with filter floss and carbon... thatsmy high tech salty tanks and mywater tests great every time i test it..but i do WEEKLY water changes on every tank religiously...wife works sundays and kids are gone to church sundays..perfect time to do my water changes...and its just a matter of hoses and pumps no buckets to carry..but i have to move the hose and pump from water storage container to the next as there is no automation there either... if i was going to do anything hight tech in the aquarium world it would be my water changes where i could sit with a cup of coffee and flip switches for each tanks water change
 
here's a great list of easy-to-grow low light plants that do well without co2. that should help get you started. if you begin to get algae problems, its because you have too much light. easiest way to decrease your light intensity is to raise the fixture a few inches off the tank. this gives you the most flexibility.

as for the PAR chart, it's easy. you just refer to the type of bulb you have, measure how high it will be from the bottom of the tank, and that gives you the PAR reading. then you just multiply that figure by the number of bulbs you have, and that gives you total PAR for your fixture. for a non-co2 setup, youll want to be in the low to low-medium light category. the chart only has data for PC bulbs from AHsupply since they use superior reflectors. chances are your fixture will give off a little less PAR if youre not using an AH Supply retrofit kit.

as for kelvin rating, freshwater plants are said to do best in lighting between 6500-10,000k. i personally like 10,000k for the color. i wouldnt add any actinic bulbs. they wont grow freshwater plants and i personally think it looks terrible on freshwater.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom