WaterLogged Posted October 30, 2006 Report Share Posted October 30, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 30, 2006 Report Share Posted October 30, 2006 Sell off your actinics and skimmer, and other salt-specific equipment you have. This will give you the $ you'll need for the CO2 unit - with 300W of MH light over a 90 gal tank, yes, you will need it. If you have substrate that buffers the water, you may want to sell it, too - especially if it's live. Anything that is inert will work well for a substrate, or anything that is plant specific (Profile, Flourite, etc.). When starting off, you'll want to plant the tank as much as possible with fast growing (ie. stem, floating) plants - they will help to keep the tank from cycling by using up all availible ammonia. When I say plant as much as possible, I mean almost no gravel showing. This is just for the initial 6 months. Once things stablize, then you can start replacing some of the fast-growers with harder, slower plants - others that you want to try. Find a fertilizing schedule you think you'll be comfortable with. I don't like testing, so I use the Estimative Index schedule (read pinned articles in plant forum). Dry ferts are WAY more economical than using stuff like Seachem. Dry ferts can be found at hydroponics stores and nurseries. Hope this helps you get off to a good start. The auction on Sunday is a good place to get lots of plants for cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 You may want to run 2 of the regular bulbs for 8-10 hours and then do a burst with the halides in the middle of the day for 4-6 hours. Go easy at first, until you get in the swing of things with fertilization, etc. It's easy to end up with algae all over the place when you're just starting out. Replace the actinics (and your MH bulbs if necessary.) Anything between 5,000 to 10,000 Kelvin will have a better output spectrum for the plants to utilize. Go with a canister for filtration. Anything with lots of surface agitation, pouring, trickling, etc. will allow CO2 to escape to the air more quickly. Keep in mind that biofiltration isn't a big consideration since the plants do that for you. You mainly need to provide some water movement and mechanical filtration. And like Jason said, you will need pressurized CO2 for a tank that big with that much light. Try this forum for all the plant stuff you need to know: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaterLogged Posted October 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 You want to make sure that there is good circulation. I'd use a good-size powerhead in addition to the Fluval. In fact, I bubble my CO2 into the intake of the powerhead (I have powerhead + XP3 on my 90 gal), which creates a fine mist of CO2. The tank's only been set up for 3 weeks, and the stem plants are going crazy! Swords are growing new leaves every-other-day! Java fern is pearling away! It's great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaterLogged Posted October 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 I have my CO2 on a solenoid that shuts off w. the lights. If you don't want to spring for a regulater w. a solenoid, then just plug the powerhead into the timer w. the lights. I'm of the KISS mindset... I might not be the best person to mirror exactly b/c I don't even test for pH and hardness (w. the CO2 chart, you'll be able to tell how much CO2 you have by measuring pH & Hardness). I just look at plants and fish - if they look happy, then I'm happy. IMO, using pH controlers and dosers, and all that stuff, you just have more opportunity for something to go wrong - a valve gets stuck, the pH probe gets dirty, etc. etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 Besides the CO2 cylinder, you will need a regulator with a needle valve to control the bubble rate, and a bubble counter to count the bubble rate. You also need a way to dissolve the CO2 into the water- either by running it into a filter/powerhead intake (chops up the bubbles into smaller bubbles) or by using a ceramic diffuser (makes a fine mist of bubbles) or by using a reactor (prolongs the contact between water flowing through the chamber and the CO2 so that it dissolves.) You can add a solenoid to turn the CO2 off at night (some people run it 24/7) or if you're using a pH controller. A pH controller can be used to automatically turn the CO2 on and off to keep the water at a preset pH. You don't really need a bubble counter if you're using one of these. I seem to be on the opposite side of the spectrum to Jason (got the pH controller, etc., etc.) There are different ways of doing this- mostly depends on how much of a technophile you are, your time and budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaterLogged Posted October 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 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? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted October 31, 2006 Report Share Posted October 31, 2006 In your case, yes. Because you will have very high light, you'll really need to keep on top of the fertilizers. A good article on planted tank beginner basics: http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/bas...ages/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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