phoenixn7g Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Ive had some plants before, note the some XD I am looking to start a FW tank, under 15 gallons. For substrate, I was looking into Flourite, and seeing as its not a big tank, I have been told one 7 lb bag would be sufficient. For plants, I was looking into some vals possibly, anubias barteri, anubias nana, marimo balls when I can get some more..... and a few others that I cannot remember the name of right now X.X How much light should I be aiming for? With the "kit" I am looking at I'll be getting 1.3 watts per gallon. I KNOW that is not enough, but what do you suggest when it comes to little kits that have built in lights in the hood? How do I get more light? Do you suggest me ripping off the hood and replacing with a different light entirely? I was also considering dosing with excel, which I do not have experience with. Do shrimp clean alage off plants? or ottocats? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphine Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Hey, Substrate is really your choice whether you want to fork out for expensive stuff or just use plain old sand - As long as your dosing some sort of Ferts ei. Flourish, Excel, Dry in the Water Column your plants will be fine with feeding through your water column. If your worried you can always use root tabs for your heavy root feeders - Vals, Swords, Lotus, Crypts. Lighting to be honest you can get by with lower lights in your kit hood I would assume they are just T8 lights, which to be honest I've grown plants with no problem. If you do use those lights just don't expect the amount of growth you would with higher WPG. If you decide to get diffrent lights you can look into reading lights and just replace the bulb with a 40W - 6700k or something along those lines if you don't mind the eye sore. Fert dosing - I've never really stepped into excel becasue everything I read about people using it there is 5 bad expirences to the 1 good. I have some on order that i'm giong to try to dose and see what happens in my 55G hoping for the good. Currently I jsut dose Flourish and added a few root tabs for my heavy feeders. I personally don't buy fish to do certain stuff ei clean algae, my tanks I haven't had any problems with Algae once you get your photo period and fert dosing all in balance you shouldn't see much algae. Buy fish that you like and appeal to you. Shrimp and Otto's are a great algae force but I would have to say I like the BN Pleco the most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 With the plants you mentioned, you probably don't have to change your light. Adding Excel at 1/2 to full dose would be fine, and I doubt you'd see any algae. If you do want a good algae crew for a small tank, I'd pick up 6 or so Ammano shrimp (Tashiaki Ammano actually recommends 1 shrimp/gal) and a couple - 4 Ottos. I too love BNs, but if you're planning on keeping smaller fish and shrimp, an adult BN would completely dominate the tank (both in apperance and attitude). Like Morphine said, substrate isn't critical. I used to buy the specialty plant substrates all the time, but when I moved into tanks over 33 gal, the substrate became way too costly. I switched to Play Sand and Sandblasting sand ($7 for 50lb or $11 for 90lb) and could make the substrate as deep as I wanted (some plants prefer 3" or deeper) without an excessive budget. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 (edited) I had a low tech planted tank with only 1watt/gal(15g with a regular 15w flourescent). You just need to select lower light plants. I kept mostly crypts, java fern, vals, anubias. I didn't use any special substrate, just regular gravel. I also wasn't to regular with dosing ferts(I used root tabs) and didnt' add DIY co2 until over a year into it. It was super low tech and low maintenance. The plants grew really slow but that is still one of my favorite tanks I ever had. The fish I had in it were a pair of rams, 1 BN pleco and a bunch of Amano shrimp Edited October 4, 2010 by Vallisneria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvianAquatics Posted October 4, 2010 Report Share Posted October 4, 2010 Yep for a tank around 10Gal 1 bag of Fluorite is plenty... And for lighting I ALWAYS use incandescent light strip and make sure those are for 2 light bulbs. Don't get the ones at the pet shop but go to HD or Ronas and get a pack for like 10 bucks. Usually they are rated 25 or 50watt MAX so you can easily have 2.5-5wpg and grow practically any plant you want Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixn7g Posted October 6, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2010 I found a few tanks I like around. The only issue is the lighting. The Tatra Half Moon 10 gallon tank has LED lights... ewwww and the ten gallon tetra started kit I am looking at, the maximum wattage for lights allowed in the tank is 15 watts/ lightbulb. Something about melting tank lids otherwise. I was hoping to get a used tank off of kijiji or here, but no one seems to have anything worth my while/ cheap enough. A brand new ten gallon starter kit is 44.99.... so I may be better off buying new Oh well! Here are the plants I am looking to get: Alternanthera Rosaefolia ( High light, but may be fine as long as I am dosing with excel) Hygrophilia Polysperma Anubias Barteri Vallisneria Rotala Indica Bacopa Carolina and possibly some Creeping Jenny For tank stockage I am looking at A lyretail guppy or molly and a school of 6-7 raspboras. Maybe even an ottocat later on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphine Posted October 6, 2010 Report Share Posted October 6, 2010 If you want to bump it up to a 15G - I have 2 sitting in my storage room not being use. Anyways PM me - They are both located in St Albert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixn7g Posted October 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 22, 2010 UPDATE!: 10 gallon tank, I am still going to go with the flourite most likely, not a fan of root tabs, they made my last big tank a mess! Bought some marimo balls (!) Love them! and I am going to be buying some java moss on driftwood asap and I am hoping to get some cherry shrimp in there as well. Possibly going for Java fern as well, but someone told me it doesnt do so well planted in flourite... any truth to that? Not sure about other plants... I may not even go with other plants! Maybe some dwarf grass for the front of the tank.... XD stocking will be: (2) Blue lyre tail guppies (5-6) Rummy nose tetras orrrrr some galaxy/ phoenix raspboras Still undecided! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fshkpr4evr Posted October 22, 2010 Report Share Posted October 22, 2010 Check this link out: http://www.fluvalblog.com/fluval-flora-up-close/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishclubgirl Posted October 22, 2010 Report Share Posted October 22, 2010 IMHO, java fern does better attached to driftwood. I've never tried it planted though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenixn7g Posted October 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 XD java fern if I get it, will be attached the driftwood XD forgot to mention Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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