Flipping my tank?

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Angellove78

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Well! It's time and I'm getting ready to upgrade. Taking everything out of my 75g except my fish. Going with eco complete for the bottom and she's gonna be planted. I have a old style hood light over glass top. I'm looking for low light plants and maybe a better light cause I know I'll probably get into Co2 set up after I get the low maintenance down pat. I take baby steps. Lol! So any suggestions on a good light or anything else would be awsome? I have Angelfish, swordtails, mollies, platies, pleco, Otto's catfish. And I have gravel substrate I'll be removing and replacing with the eco complete, is there anything I should know about replacing this with my fish in the tank while doing this. I don't know if it will cloud my tank. Do I add it any special way? Lower water level, add slow, rinse it? IDK... Any advice on that would be great too. Thank you! PH 7.8 Nitrate 40 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 75g, C-360 Canister filter, 300watt heater set @ 80 degrees.
 
Well! It's time and I'm getting ready to upgrade. Taking everything out of my 75g except my fish. Going with eco complete for the bottom and she's gonna be planted. I have a old style hood light over glass top. I'm looking for low light plants and maybe a better light cause I know I'll probably get into Co2 set up after I get the low maintenance down pat. I take baby steps. Lol! So any suggestions on a good light or anything else would be awsome? I have Angelfish, swordtails, mollies, platies, pleco, Otto's catfish. And I have gravel substrate I'll be removing and replacing with the eco complete, is there anything I should know about replacing this with my fish in the tank while doing this. I don't know if it will cloud my tank. Do I add it any special way? Lower water level, add slow, rinse it? IDK... Any advice on that would be great too. Thank you! PH 7.8 Nitrate 40 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 75g, C-360 Canister filter, 300watt heater set @ 80 degrees.

Decent plan you have there!

Couple things I'll share my experience with:

1) Swapping substrates:

I once swapped regular ol gravel for eco-comp, no issues, took 4-5 hours in a 65 gal, here's how I did it.

Grab a 20-40 gal rubbermaid tote, as long as it holds water. Fill it with tank water, move filters/heaters/decor into the tote, catch fish and place them into the tote. Make sure filters/heaters are running. Bam, all the time in the world to change substrates.

Drain the remaining water, use an old dust pan to scoop out old substrate, clean up anything that needs cleaned, replace with new substrate, refill aquarium (use old tank water or new doesn't really matter) put in the clarifying stuff eco-comp comes with, transfer fish/heater/filter back onto tank, and done.

I would also suggest grabbing an old HOB filter and filling it right full of fine filter floss to help with any clouding and micro particles floating around.


2) How handy are you? Many more options for decent lighting at cheaper prices if you are handy.

3) What are your goals for the tank? that will determine what plants you should pick up. What fertilizers you should have, what lights you will have to have, and if yu will need CO2 or not.
 
Honestly I think I liked the original CFL light the most. Everything I had was just growing without me worriying, just putting flourish and excel at times. When that light burned out I replaced with finnex planted plus. That one provided much more light , even though I cut down to 6 hours I was growing lots of algea on all my anubias. Dosed excel and everything, just couldn't get a good grasp of it. That finnex didn't last for to long unfortunately (so much for "the last light I'll ever need"), bad choice in the hindsight. At the moment I can't recommend a good 48"led , so will be curious as to responses you get. I will share how my cheap Costco shoplight fared over my planted 55 as time goes by.

ADD: I'm very close coming to conclusion that the only good light is DIY.

Ecocomplete comes in liquid AFAIK, I would still rinse it before putting in. you will cloud your water taking gravel out, probably a lot. I would vaccum it extensively before removing (which will lower water level - bonus). Fish will survive the cloudiness. I capped my ecocomplete with playsand. Although I like the outcome ALOT now that is something that creates real cloudiness.

Good luck
 
Decent plan you have there!

Couple things I'll share my experience with:

1) Swapping substrates:

I once swapped regular ol gravel for eco-comp, no issues, took 4-5 hours in a 65 gal, here's how I did it.

Grab a 20-40 gal rubbermaid tote, as long as it holds water. Fill it with tank water, move filters/heaters/decor into the tote, catch fish and place them into the tote. Make sure filters/heaters are running. Bam, all the time in the world to change substrates.

Drain the remaining water, use an old dust pan to scoop out old substrate, clean up anything that needs cleaned, replace with new substrate, refill aquarium (use old tank water or new doesn't really matter) put in the clarifying stuff eco-comp comes with, transfer fish/heater/filter back onto tank, and done.

I would also suggest grabbing an old HOB filter and filling it right full of fine filter floss to help with any clouding and micro particles floating around.


2) How handy are you? Many more options for decent lighting at cheaper prices if you are handy.

3) What are your goals for the tank? that will determine what plants you should pick up. What fertilizers you should have, what lights you will have to have, and if yu will need CO2 or not.
I'm a total DIY redneck woman. I built my stand for my tank, and come up with new stuff all the time. I'm very handy. Could I modify my hood light? I could, or just come up with a shop light fix. I was looking into getting some Amazon swords, ferns, and I'd like to throw in some red. But not sure yet. Thanks for the advice about the tote. I got one a while back just for my fish. (Hospital tank) I will for sure do that. Sounds better than putting the little guys through all the stress. And thoughts on other plants? I don't really want much floating on the top.
 
I was looking at one like this but it don't have that yellow light in it. Just blue, white, and red. I'll look into that one alittle more. Thanks![emoji4]
 
I'm a total DIY redneck woman. I built my stand for my tank, and come up with new stuff all the time. I'm very handy. Could I modify my hood light? I could, or just come up with a shop light fix. I was looking into getting some Amazon swords, ferns, and I'd like to throw in some red. But not sure yet. Thanks for the advice about the tote. I got one a while back just for my fish. (Hospital tank) I will for sure do that. Sounds better than putting the little guys through all the stress. And thoughts on other plants? I don't really want much floating on the top.

What kind of light is in the hood you have?

Why not get the best of both worlds and buy a red melon sword? ;)

Anubias, mosses (java, flame, christmas etc), R. rotundifolia, Lloydiella spp., ludwigia repens, crypt wendti "brown" or "green", crypt sparalis, bacopa, normal baby tears, helanthium spp, saggiteria, vallisnaria, cabomba, dwarf red tiger lotus, ozelot sword, crinum, apongeton. There's a good list you can google and see if you like them.

Basically any sword, crypt, java fern, anubias, helanthium, vallisnaria, saggitaria species will work.
 
I've been eye balling alot on that list. And done alot of research on what ones are low light, and high light. I just don't wanta get anything high light yet. And I wanta beable to see my fish too. Lol! But I have a 40watt frosted tube bulb and black light, it's with both in the hood. But a pain in my a** when I wanta take a picture I gotta unscrew the black light bulb to turn that off. Other than that it's a nice clear look to the tank. But I'm also looking to remove the glass top back half so I can open that middle area up for the plants. Glass tops are the biggest pain with build up stain fogging up everything and blocking the light. If my little girl would keep her finger out of the tanks I'd remove the top completely. But till then. I gotta have something to cover the front top of the tank.
 
All of those plants a "low" light, none of the require high light. Are they fluorescent tubes?

You can try running 2 x 6500k bulbs in the hood and get very low light plants at first and see how they do, or pick up a 4 bulb T5-HO growlight fixture off amazon, and only run 2 bulbs for now, or you can pick up a 2x54w T5-HO here: https://www.amazon.com/6500K-Aquari...TF8&qid=1517503125&sr=8-3&keywords=odyssea+t5

and then another, or beamswork, if need be later on depending on how much light you want.
 
Honestly I think I liked the original CFL light the most. Everything I had was just growing without me worriying, just putting flourish and excel at times. When that light burned out I replaced with finnex planted plus. That one provided much more light , even though I cut down to 6 hours I was growing lots of algea on all my anubias. Dosed excel and everything, just couldn't get a good grasp of it. That finnex didn't last for to long unfortunately (so much for "the last light I'll ever need"), bad choice in the hindsight. At the moment I can't recommend a good 48"led , so will be curious as to responses you get. I will share how my cheap Costco shoplight fared over my planted 55 as time goes by.

ADD: I'm very close coming to conclusion that the only good light is DIY.

Ecocomplete comes in liquid AFAIK, I would still rinse it before putting in. you will cloud your water taking gravel out, probably a lot. I would vaccum it extensively before removing (which will lower water level - bonus). Fish will survive the cloudiness. I capped my ecocomplete with playsand. Although I like the outcome ALOT now that is something that creates real cloudiness.

Good luck
I hear ya. I'd like to stick with my hood light and maybe check into the bulbs. I've done research on the led lights and how they burn out and you gotta replace the whole light. And with alot of them they only last for so many hours. Depending on how much you use it. This is why I posted this. Just to see what some say. DIY shop lights have been a pretty big hit for years. And that's basically what I have. So continue following and we'll both find out. Lol! [emoji39] [emoji6]
 
All of those plants a "low" light, none of the require high light. Are they fluorescent tubes?

You can try running 2 x 6500k bulbs in the hood and get very low light plants at first and see how they do, or pick up a 4 bulb T5-HO growlight fixture off amazon, and only run 2 bulbs for now, or you can pick up a 2x54w T5-HO here: https://www.amazon.com/6500K-Aquari...TF8&qid=1517503125&sr=8-3&keywords=odyssea+t5

and then another, or beamswork, if need be later on depending on how much light you want.
Yes they are the fluorescent.
 
Okay, first step I would take is pick up 2 x 6000-6700k bulbs for that light. I would then clean the reflector (if it has one?) of the light to make the most of the light being emitted. Keep an eye out for the same style of light for cheap on the internet, new or used as long as it looks nice and pick it up if you need the extra light. That will keep things simple for you. You could then run 1 x pink plant grow bulb, 2 x 6500K and 1 x 10,000K which should look nice, and put you in medium light territory. T8 bulbs are the way to go for a fixture like that. Could you snap a picture of the inside of the light fixture with the lights off?

If you are wanting more light, then you would have to look into T5's and LEDs
 
IMAG3376.jpgIMAG3373.jpg I picked this one up at a yard sale last yr for a 20 gallon. Just because it was $2IMAG3377.jpg I've never used it though.
 
View attachment 306772View attachment 306773 I picked this one up at a yard sale last yr for a 20 gallon. Just because it was $2View attachment 306774 I've never used it though.

Yep, so go with 2 x 6500k T8 bulbs for the original fixture, try some java fern, anubias, java moss and some crypts out first. You can use that one from a garage sale, just paint the inside with some white HIGH HEAT paint, that will help reflect light into the tank, buy some 23w "cool white" or 6000k spiral compact fluorescent bulbs and try them out with the other T8 fixture. Obviously the closer to the center of these lights the plants are placed, the more light they will receive.
 
Yeh, that actinic tube is to blue for us in FW and not really for of much use for plants. The other one I'm not sure about, can't read the fine print.
I bet if you change to 6500K tube you will enjoy the view much more.

My fixture was a single tube, enough to grow everything low light without algea.with double the capacity you can mix and match in yours. I'd say you are set as far as starting light capable of growing plants, unless you specifically want to try a different fixture.
 
Yeh, that actinic tube is to blue for us in FW and not really for of much use for plants. The other one I'm not sure about, can't read the fine print.
I bet if you change to 6500K tube you will enjoy the view much more.

My fixture was a single tube, enough to grow everything low light without algea.with double the capacity you can mix and match in yours. I'd say you are set as far as starting light capable of growing plants, unless you specifically want to try a different fixture.
Yeah, I do. but much later down the road. And for high light plants. I'll get into it more when I'm all in and hands on know how. I just know if I'm gonna start this than I need to do it the right way. Changing out my gravel for eco complete is a huge step that I will not have to do again. I have a few more fish I'd like to get but after I start plants I will be set with fish. (I hope) lol! But yeah I think this will work. A few more weeks I'll be getting r done. I'll be updating soon! In the mean time I got driftwood to clean and bulbs to shop for. [emoji57] [emoji6]
 
Fluorescents will work fine.
6500 k is proper.
For the record most LEDs claim 50,000 hours of use.
That is 17 years at 8 hours a day.
Fluorescents will last 1500 -2000 hours which is 6-12 months.
They may still light the tank but the proper spectrum will have been used up.
Your 75 is pretty deep and many plantheads who grow would say a medium light powered LED would probably only grow low light plants due to depth.
PAR is drastically reduced on deep tanks..
I like fluorescents but for proper lighting spectrum I can't afford them.
 
Fluorescents will work fine.
6500 k is proper.
For the record most LEDs claim 50,000 hours of use.
That is 17 years at 8 hours a day.
Fluorescents will last 1500 -2000 hours which is 6-12 months.
They may still light the tank but the proper spectrum will have been used up.
Your 75 is pretty deep and many plantheads who grow would say a medium light powered LED would probably only grow low light plants due to depth.
PAR is drastically reduced on deep tanks..
I like fluorescents but for proper lighting spectrum I can't afford them.
You diffently have a good point. If I find the right light (not cheaply made) I'd save some money in the long run. I wouldn't have to stock up on bulbs. I know this is just a practice run for me. But why not set it up for high light with Co2 and fertilizer too. That way I'll be ready for the tank I see in the future. I'll still start out with low light plants. But get Co2 injection set up here and there. So would the light you recommended earlier be OK for high light plant too. Or should I look around for a different one.
 
You diffently have a good point. If I find the right light (not cheaply made) I'd save some money in the long run. I wouldn't have to stock up on bulbs. I know this is just a practice run for me. But why not set it up for high light with Co2 and fertilizer too. That way I'll be ready for the tank I see in the future. I'll still start out with low light plants. But get Co2 injection set up here and there. So would the light you recommended earlier be OK for high light plant too. Or should I look around for a different one.

Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts - The Planted Tank Forum

read up on this.

Low light = 20-40 PAR
Medium light = 40-60/70 PAR
High light = 70+ PAR

CO2 with benefit any planted tank, regardless of light, I will always recommend it. Buy the highest quality within your budget, look up reviews, and look up what is needed/what comes in the package.

As for lighting, a 75 gal high light would need LED or T5-HO.

LED:
Fluval fresh and plant 2.0 (great light, could probably get by with 1)
Finnex Planted+ 24/7 (good light, some bad warrenty claims, with probably need 2)
Current SAT+ pro (great light, may or may not need 2)

These are the most "common" you could do 2 beamswork DA-FSPEC, but you may need 3 to get into high high light.

AI prime freshwater, kessil etc are more of the high end light options.

T5-HO
Odyssea seems fine, would need 3-4 bulbs, aquatic life, or a homedepot T5-HO shop light x 4 bulbs if you are up for a DIY setup.
 
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