Newbie Alert

[monkeyboy]

Hi i have just taken delivery of my first aquatic set up, and guess what ? I have a few questions.

To help i guess i should give you a brief out line of what the set up consists of :

Aqua One Windsor 66 Corner Unit 66 x 66 x 70 cm (189 liters)
Aqua One CF1000 L/PH Pressurised external bio filter
200w glass heater
Twin lighting with 2 x 20w tubes.

I'm looking to keep freshwater tropical fish with live plants.

Now my questions are this:

1, Do i need or is it desirable to have c02 or a air pump ? The filter has a inlet pipe that sits just above or below the water level and has a tube that has holes along it. now does this produce bubbles/ oxygen.

2, The bio filter came with the open cell foam, ceramic cylinders as a filter medium and some round plastic balls which sit in the very bottom of the filter. Do i need to add anything like Activated carbon or similar as filter medium ?

Any help would be greatly recieved.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Do i need to add anything like Activated carbon or similar as filter medium ?

Activated carbon is not needed unless you are removing meds. The ceramic rings will do perfectly. Alternative additives include peat, crushed coral, and so on. Those things are only added if you need to alter the tanks pH.

Regarding your fish question, I am a newbie to plants so I can't help you out there. You may want to post it in the Planted Forum.

Welcome to AA!

 

[mattrox]

It looks like with your set up you won't need CO2 for the plats as it would fall into the low light category, others seem to say that 2 watts per gallon is about were CO2 helps. (YES! I think it is screwy using metric (watts) and imperial (gallons) in the same measurement) Amazon Swords, Crypts, Val, Anubias and Java Fern are what I keep in a quite low light tank ~ 1 to 1.3 watts per U.S. gallon. (pics in my gallery). Since it is the depth of water not volume that matters I don't know why there isn't a watts per cm(inch or foot) of depth measurement, maybe someone needs to work it out.

Yours it about 47 U.S. gallons so just under 1 watt per gallons...remembering that you lose some volume (height) to gravel/sand. Sorry about the Yankee measurements, it is what most folk on this board use. You just have to make sure that light is reaching plants on the bottom. Java Fern, Crypts and Anubias may be a good place to start plant-wise.