eco complete question

[fort384]

Yes. I would elect to get CO2 over substrate.

 

[Crepe]

Yep. If you're on a budget and are patient or have a stuffy nose you can make mts either by: Mineralizing top soil with repeated soaking and dryings (there are numerous guides on the web for this) or boil it for 20 minutes or so in an old pot (as suggested by tom barr for time's sake)

 

[fishfanatic]

I currently have 8 mm gravel that I bought before I was into the plants will this be good enough. What kind of co2 should I get. I have seen a co2 system for sale at the lfs it is rated for a 40 gallon tank. I am not sure what brand or anything. Does that sound good it was like 50$. (My tank is 35 gallons)

 

[fort384]

I doubt that CO2 system is real good...

Yes, the gravel can grow plants just fine. Check out the photo album of my 29G in my signature block. Those plants are growing gravel.

 

[fishfanatic]

That gives me some hope with my gravel. How far am I from a high tech tank? If I get co2

 

[fort384]

What size tank and what kind of light again?

 

[fishfanatic]

35 gallon, marineland reef led (it is a deep tank so the led does not have great light towards the bottom of the tank)

 

[Crepe]

Which marineland light do you have?

 

[fishfanatic]

The reef led. It just came out last summer.and I really like it!

 

[fishfanatic]

It has 36 1 Watt 10,000 k lights and 6 blue led lights

 

[fishfanatic]

I was trying to send a picture of the light spectrum butthe app on my phone keeps crashing sorry

 

[fishfanatic]

Never mind it worked?!

 

[Crepe]

That's not the best fixture for growing plants tbh but I would see you at medium light. One of the ways to optimize the light you have is cranking the CO2 up as high as you safely can (40-60ppm). Tom barr uses very very small amounts of light ~10-50micromols of par in his tanks but keeps co2 as high as 70ppm and gets growth far healthier than anything I can grow in my ~90 micromol par tank with 30ppm co2.

You need more red in that fixture. Blue is photosynthetically useful but red is required as well... lemme get you a pic of my plant bulb's spectrums.

http://www.heliamphora.nl/picts/GiesemannMidday.jpg
Giesemann Midday 6000K bulb.

http://www.testudo.cc/Media/Sp_Hagen-Life-Glo.gif
Hagen life glo t5ho 6700k

The midday 6000k really shows the ideal peaks in blue and red you want in a plant bulb.

 

[fishfanatic]

I don't have a co2... yet ( do you have a brand or a good DIY co2 that would work for me?)

 

[fishfanatic]

Holy Hanna I need a lot more red!

 

[fishfanatic]

I actually have a GLO t5 ho light that has a spectrum similar to those that you sent.... could I run the GLO fixture and my led at the same time?

 

[Crepe]

Your set up isn't ideal but it'll grow plants and grow them quite healthily. IMO you won't need co2, but it'll help regardless. IMO unless you're going to go all out with plants it's not worth your money to spend the ~150 dollars on a CO2 set up.

edit: yes you can and it'd be a good idea to. You'd be even better off replacing the relatively blue/green hagen 6700k with a roseatte bulb from aquatic life or giesmann's aquaflora. But that'll probably edge you closer to high light meaning fertilizers and CO2. There begins a long descent into plant madness.

 

[fishfanatic]

So you would say just keep my tank the way it is.... I have only had the led light for a week. ( I have noticed that my plants are doing very well with it)

 

[fishfanatic]

These are the old bulbs that I had I stopped using them because with this fixture my tank was at just over 1 wpg

 

[fishfanatic]

Do know what I am going to leave the tank the way it is. It sounds like I will be able to grow some plants and that is all I want (I am not dedicated enough to do anything really crazy that I would need more light.) I might consider putting my glo light on with my led just to get some more red in my system. Thanks for all your help