What Equipment?

[Vitaliy]

I finally have more room to add another tank and I would love to experiment with a planted tank. The thing is, I do not have a clue what I am doing but before I even start researching I am wondering what kind of equipment would I need and what is the price range I am looking at.

I am thinking of doing probably 30 or 55 gallon, and I have all your basic freshwater equipment. I am guessing I can keep the same filter? Better lights, how many watt's should I be looking at? CO2 stuff? Gravel? Fertilizer of sorts?

Just any suggestions, tips, opinions that you have are all welcome.

 

[I3u11he4d]

I finally have more room to add another tank and I would love to experiment with a planted tank. The thing is, I do not have a clue what I am doing but before I even start researching I am wondering what kind of equipment would I need and what is the price range I am looking at.

I am thinking of doing probably 30 or 55 gallon, and I have all your basic freshwater equipment. I am guessing I can keep the same filter? Better lights, how many watt's should I be looking at? CO2 stuff? Gravel? Fertilizer of sorts?

Just any suggestions, tips, opinions that you have are all welcome.

First off,what kind of filters?anything that aggitates the waters surface is out.A canister filter would be your best bet/I use a fluval 304/$85.99 at that fish place.com.next-substrate,use a flourite,florabase or floramax/my 55 gal. has 40 pounds of floramax gravel,could maybe used alittle more.Lighting is alittl trickier,low level plants require about 1-2 watts per gal,med. level about 2-3 watts per gal.,igh require 2.5 to 4.so depending on the plants you want to keep you may have to cange your lighting/I run 4-48" t-5 bulbs 2-9600k whites,2-420nm marine blue.This give me about 3.5 watts per gal.which maybe alittle to much in hind site $375.00.For my 55 I use the nutrafin Co2 plant system/which is rated for a 20 gal. tank but take in account for the O2 consumption by the occupants of te tank/it seams to do the job./$17.00.I use flourish potassium and flourish iron per instruction,I also use seachems equilibrium.these additives keep the plants nice and green and help with any short comings from my water.What kind of fish do you intend to keep?If you have any ? please let me know.

 

[I3u11he4d]

O yeah,check out this site.I ordered some plants from them and they were great + they have good info on thier plants too http://www.azgardens.com/bestaquarium2005.php

 

[sohfatfish]

Use a presurrised Co2 cylinder with a selonoid(get the german ones) as its much more convenient, especially with larger tanks. However if u do want to use a diy one, heres a very detailed description for you to make your own using 1.2/2litre drink bottles- http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html

For lighting buy the biggest you can afford so that you do not have to keep upgrading. Just make sure that the lightset has different switches controlling each lightbulb so that u can control the watts per gallon accordingly. 3 watt per gallon is a good start but i found it too low to grow demanding plants and increased it to 7 watts per gallon. Also try to get the lights with electronic ballasts as it emmits less heat. Depending on your tank height i recommend T5 lighting or PL compact lighting. Due to their high output over a smaller space. I find 8000K to 10000K tube more pleasing to the eye but anything between 6500K to 10000K will do. If you are on a tight budget maybe you can DIY one yourself. Theres a good article at petfrd.com with instruction and pictures on how to do one.

I recommend JBJ base fert and lapis gravel or ADA soil. ADA soil however lowers the ph a bit and may affect the types of fish that you rear. ADA soil also gets abit mushed up over time but if you dont keep on stirring up the soil it shoud be fine. You can grow nearly all types of plants with ADA soil. The lapis gravel and base fert conbo also works well just that base fertiliser will loose its effectiveness within a year. ADA soil doesnt as long as you keep dosing liquid fertiliser and it will absorb it in. If you are on a tight budget you can actually get either normal fine gravel(1 to 3 mm in size) and use normal garden soil as you base fert. Just make sure there is not compost or any rotting leaves in the soil and you would be fine. Get those pre-packaged from the nursery and you wouldnt have to worry. Load about half an inch to about 1 inch of the soil followed by 2 inches of gravel over it. Ive tried this method before with diy Co2 and it allows you to grow a decent amount of plants under a budget.

 

[boredcpl]

First off,what kind of filters?anything that aggitates the waters surface is out.A canister filter would be your best bet/I use a fluval 304/$85.99 at that fish place.com.next-substrate,use a flourite,florabase or floramax/my 55 gal. has 40 pounds of floramax gravel,could maybe used alittle more.Lighting is alittl trickier,low level plants require about 1-2 watts per gal,med. level about 2-3 watts per gal.,igh require 2.5 to 4.so depending on the plants you want to keep you may have to cange your lighting/I run 4-48" t-5 bulbs 2-9600k whites,2-420nm marine blue.This give me about 3.5 watts per gal.which maybe alittle to much in hind site $375.00.For my 55 I use the nutrafin Co2 plant system/which is rated for a 20 gal. tank but take in account for the O2 consumption by the occupants of te tank/it seams to do the job./$17.00.I use flourish potassium and flourish iron per instruction,I also use seachems equilibrium.these additives keep the plants nice and green and help with any short comings from my water.What kind of fish do you intend to keep?If you have any ? please let me know.

check www.petsolutions.com they have good deals. that fluval 304 is 74.99..check it out they are the cheapest i have found. if someone finds better prices let me know cause i am cheap..