Need Advice On A 30G Planted

[kuhli1987]

It's been a long time since I took this hobby seriously, so I'm diving back in and intending to make a simple, fairly low-maintenance, planted aquarium to get back on my feet. My job is a 60 hour, 6 day per week affair, so I'm limited with options. I'd appreciate any and all suggestions (polite ones of course), but let me lay out the parameters first. Right now the tank is entirely empty excluding dechlorinated water and substrate.

Tank: 30 G (36 x 12 x 16)
Filter: Eheim Classic 250 (2213)
Heater: Aqueon 100 W
CO2: None, and (for now), none intended
Substrate: Eco-Complete with Standard Smooth Black Gravel
Additional Substrate: Purchased a BioBox (essentially soil) that is under the center portion of the tank. Search "AquaPlantarium" on YouTube for a thrilling video in this regard.
pH: 7.6 as of now
Hardness: 75 GH (soft)
Lighting: SolarMax HE 75 (21 W x 2)
Supplements: SeaChem Flourish Excel (whenever I begin planting)

I have a series of questions, so bear with me.

1. The only thing that I seem to be uncomfortable with is the lighting. Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems that it would be underlit, even for plants that require low to moderate lighting (my intended purchases).

2. On that note, here are the ideas I am having with plants. I'm willing to change lights if necessary: dwarf hair grass or micro sword, java fern, anubias, crypts, vallisneria, water sprite, wisteria, possibly java moss. Feel free to shoot down any of these. I don't want anything particularly complicated or needy, but I'm willing to supply the lighting necessary to make the aforementioned plants work.

3. My intended inhabitants, down the road, are as follows: 6-8 kuhli loaches, 3-5 otos, 1 male betta, and perhaps some snails. Any issues here?

4. As far as the actual cycling goes, my central idea is to plant the tank (after your suggestions), wait a few days, and populate it with just the betta. Let the cycle run its course, and move forward with the kuhlis and the otos. I know there's debate about the ethics of cycling a tank with actual fish, so I'm open.

5. This is really general and vague, but what am I missing here? To be blunt, I just am not interested in finagling a CO2 device. If this is an egregiously bad idea, please let me know. I just know my schedule too well. Beyond that, is there any glaring errors I am about to make?

Sorry for the lengthy post and I appreciate any and all help.

Thanks.

 

[TheCoolFish]

4. I have cycle tanks 4 times now and 3 out those 4 I had fish in them.
Those three time I had several fish die but if you do water changes every other day it will help keep the ammonia and nitrite down.
Have fish in there while cycling does speed up the process so if you are in a hurry I would get about 30 bait fish an put them in there.

3. The betta might not get along with the loaches but I don't have experience of keeping loaches.

 

[azmodan]

It's been a long time since I took this hobby seriously, so I'm diving back in and intending to make a simple, fairly low-maintenance, planted aquarium to get back on my feet. My job is a 60 hour, 6 day per week affair, so I'm limited with options. I'd appreciate any and all suggestions (polite ones of course), but let me lay out the parameters first. Right now the tank is entirely empty excluding dechlorinated water and substrate.



Tank: 30 G (36 x 12 x 16)

Filter: Eheim Classic 250 (2213)

Heater: Aqueon 100 W

CO2: None, and (for now), none intended

Substrate: Eco-Complete with Standard Smooth Black Gravel

Additional Substrate: Purchased a BioBox (essentially soil) that is under the center portion of the tank. Search "AquaPlantarium" on YouTube for a thrilling video in this regard.

pH: 7.6 as of now

Hardness: 75 GH (soft)

Lighting: SolarMax HE 75 (21 W x 2)

Supplements: SeaChem Flourish Excel (whenever I begin planting)



I have a series of questions, so bear with me.



1. The only thing that I seem to be uncomfortable with is the lighting. Does anyone have any experience with this? It seems that it would be underlit, even for plants that require low to moderate lighting (my intended purchases).



2. On that note, here are the ideas I am having with plants. I'm willing to change lights if necessary: dwarf hair grass or micro sword, java fern, anubias, crypts, vallisneria, water sprite, wisteria, possibly java moss. Feel free to shoot down any of these. I don't want anything particularly complicated or needy, but I'm willing to supply the lighting necessary to make the aforementioned plants work.



3. My intended inhabitants, down the road, are as follows: 6-8 kuhli loaches, 3-5 otos, 1 male betta, and perhaps some snails. Any issues here?



4. As far as the actual cycling goes, my central idea is to plant the tank (after your suggestions), wait a few days, and populate it with just the betta. Let the cycle run its course, and move forward with the kuhlis and the otos. I know there's debate about the ethics of cycling a tank with actual fish, so I'm open.



5. This is really general and vague, but what am I missing here? To be blunt, I just am not interested in finagling a CO2 device. If this is an egregiously bad idea, please let me know. I just know my schedule too well. Beyond that, is there any glaring errors I am about to make?



Sorry for the lengthy post and I appreciate any and all help.



Thanks.

1. Sorry, not familiar with your light. Can you tell us some specifics on the bulbs you're using and how many there are?
2. Sounds like a good list although I'd scratch off dwarf hair grass. Dwarf sag might be a better option than micro sword depending on your lighting too. Vals are very sensitive to flourish excel -- personally I'd just scratch them too in favor of similar looking plants without the excel worry (more excel/glut = better for your plants). Lastly I'd skip the Java moss and instead look at obtaining some peacock, Christmas, flame moss, etc.
3. Sounds good, just keep an eye on the betta for possible aggression.
4. Fish in cycles are perfectly fine as long as you keep a very close eye on your parameters. To be honest with your schedule a fishless cycle would actually probably be less work as you wouldn't have to worry about tons and tons of PWCs. Regardless whether you go fish in or fishless I'd aim to plant very heavily from the start particularly with stem plants. Even just floating a bunch of anacharis or water sprite will help with the "silent cycle".
5. You definitely do not need pressurized co2 for simple planted tanks. You will however need fertilizers. Plants such as swords, crypts, and many others will need root tabs in the substrate (although it sounds like your soil will help with that too) while others will need ferts in the water column delivered via commercial liquid ferts like Seachem flourish/API leafzone or dry fert regiments like EI or PPS pro.

Please don't hesitate to ask for any more clarification regarding any of this, particularly fertilizers.

Good luck!