WaterLogged

Could you keep guppies and gudgeons in the same tank with a whole bunch of plants?? I think if I can thats the road I want to be on.

Thanks for all that info that is great. The mono is pretty big maybe not 3" yet but close too. I'll try some plants and see how he does with them. The salt water tank is being torn down, and thats where the new planted tank will be. So I have no other place to put him. Anyways thanks for the info and I'll keep in touch!! Mark

I am not sure if this is the right place for this post, so you guys can move it if you like. Before going crazy on my empty 90 gal. I want to see if live plants is the right road for me. I currently also have a 30 gal with community fish in it set up at home. I would like to try to put in some easy, low light plants. If anyone has some I could take, or has suggestions as to what to buy that would be great. The substrate in that tank is just 1/4" sized gravel and is about 3-4" deep. The tank has been set up for about a year now so the gravel is established. I do have a mono inhabiting the tank right now, not sure if he would eat the plants or not. I had the mono in my salt tank to start andthen moved him and acclimated slowly and now he is in the fresh tank. My lighting is not all that greaet. 1 watt/ gal. So any suggestions for fauna would be great. Thanks Mark

Well if I like things to run smoothly with less time envolved I would go with a fully automatic system. With the use of CO2 do you still need to dose all these diff. types of fertilizers i am hearing about?

So you dont need all that automatic stuff they are selling to monitor ph levels. Just get the Co2 bottle and regulators and a bubbler thing. Drip it over a powerhead and thats it?

Thanks alot for the reply's guys. One other question that I have is flow. Do you want lots of flow in your tank? I also have a fluval 404 that I took out so I could probably put that back into service. Thanks again for the help so far! Mark

Hi all. I havn't been on here in a while. Mostly in the Saltwater sectiona s well. After trying it for a year, with success, I have chosen to give saltwater up because of my budget. I'm sure lots of you know what i mean. So i want to switch back to freshwater and a planted tank. I have a ton of expensive equipment that I am not sure will do me any good in a planted set up. I just want your input on this equipment and if i should keep it. I currently have a 90 gal, wavefront tank and custom stand. I have 2 - 150 watt MH and 4 - 96 actinics in custom stand. I am wondering if this is overkill for planted freshwater. The tank is more deep then it is long as well. 48" wide. I also have a seperate custom tank underneath the stand where my skimmer used to be. That tank is 40 gal and was used for dosing, refugium ect. This was my main filtration for my tank. I could probably use this as a filter as well, just a little overkill is all. Have a place for media ect. Do i really need this other tank though? Basically i want to know if any of this is overkill because i can sell it if i dont need it. (lets just say i was never going to get back into salt Do I need a CO2 thingy, I have never even really looked into something like this so I am unsure on the topic. I will read up on it in the mean time. Thanks for your input everyone. Mark

Peeps from Calgary, where do you guys find pickling lime around here?? I must be looking in the wrong spots! Thanks Mark

Okay that is good to hear. I'm going to do a few WC and dose with the 2 part additive. Will that bring the levels up to par, or will it just maintane the levels i have now? Those Hagen guys sure like to make things complicated. They should have that chart printed in the little instruction book they give you!! Thanks for the reply's midgetwaiter, Mark

Well turns out I mis calculated my dosing procedures. I wasn't adding enough. I finally got my calcium levels to 340 ppm which is way better. But now my alk reading is 80 ?? the hagen test confuses me though, with all the dkh's and meq/l I don't know what 80 is refering to but I'm pretty sure thats way low.

I actually have only been dosing straight calcium. On the bottle it says it will raise calcium and keep magnesium levels. Do I need to get calcium chloride? I asked the guy at gold's(lfs) and that is what he gave me? That article you posted is very good though. Explains everything very well. Maybe I just have to wait longer before things change. I hate waiting !!!

The hagen test kit is about a year and a half old. I use Instant Ocean marine salt. And the tank has only been up for 6 months. Thanks for helping me out Mark

You think those values could be off by that much? Not doubting you or anything. But I paid alot of money for that test kit. hehe

Hagen master test kit.

Haha okay.. it sure felt long typing it. I am all thumbs