Help me spend my money! heh

[ProCanadian]

Hello all,

So I had my first child, Gwendolyn, who is now about 6 months old! We took her to our friends house, where they have a small freshwater aquarium (not a very nice one at all to be brutally honest). So while there, we noticed Gwen just loves fish tanks. I've been taking her to out LFS (which is 45 mins away) to see some fish! So naturally, I am going to set up a system for her. At first i was going to go salt water with corals, and now i think i have decided to go planted freshwater. Ive been reading and researching online for almost a month now, putting in roughly 20 hours or more. So, my conclusion is that i read to much and now im not exactly sure what i want completely. What i would like to do is set-up a 90g set-up, with a nice stand and canopy. I've been debating doing a reef ready tank, with a sump, regardless of salt or fresh water. Im a very busy sef-employed new father, so im attempting to make a beautiful system with as much automation as possible. Ive read thru Ziggys corner tank from start to finish(a very long read), and was impressed that he had a sump setup on a freshwater tank. Then as i kept reading, he moved and switched to a canister filter.... more confusion for me now!

So ya, anyway, i have a budget of around 2500 Canadian dollars to purchase this aquarium (give or take).

Main decisions :
reef ready tank vrs non drilled (basically sump or no sump)
i do like the idea of having the heaters/filtration etc in the sump
lighting- i would like to have high lighting in the tank, but not have to worry about heat, LED's maybe?
CO2, would like to get a full pressurized system
Automatic dosing system for the ferts, PPS pro system is what i will do
Canister vrs sump?

any advice would be appreciated.
Pro

 

[blert]

Welcome to AA and a great hobby.

Sumps are not the best alternative in a CO2 injected tank, too much off gassing. I would go canister.

LEDs are great but do your research. They are a big upfront expense and one you may not be happy with. There are many out there that are way expensive and down right inadequate, not to mention their color can look like crud. It is much easier to get a look (color of the light that you see) that you like with a T5HO fixture/retro, and heat is not a huge issue with modern fixtures.

Heaters, intakes and other hardware can be hidden with plants.

 

[aqua_chem]

I agree that a sump probably isn't in your best interest. If you're not familiar with aquariums (or even if you are), a sump will just be an unnecessary pain for you. If you want to get the hardware out of your tank, an understandable sentiment, then you can get a nice set of lily pipes and run your CO2, heater, and filter in-line under the tank.

As far as light goes, with a tank that size you are pretty much forced to go DIY with LEDs to get an appreciable amount of light. If this is something that you're interest in, and you think you have the necessary expertise and hardware (or are willing to put in the timer/$$$ to acquire both) then it's a decent option. Otherwise, you can go with a conventional T5HO setup. Heat generally isn't that big of a problem, and if you are wanting to do a DIY retrofit (much easier than LEDs as they usually come in easily assemblable packages) then you can fairly easily rig fans that will keep everything cool. Of course, every thing gets super simple if you opt to leave it open-top.

I will say though that your pricepoint is probably very reasonable going on generous for the endeavor at hand.

 

[ProCanadian]

Thanks for the advice! So I got bad news from my wife last night. I was telling her about the possibility of using CO2 for a planted tank... She does not like that idea and basically kiboshed that whole idea... Gheesh. Is it possible to have a decently planted tank without CO2?

 

[aqua_chem]

It's in fact very possible. Rivercat's tank is a good example of a non-CO2 tank.


Is your wife concerned about the pressurized CO2 being dangerous? Her fears are understandable, but I've never heard of a single incident of a tank going rouge through someones wall or anything of the support. People work with pressurized gases all the time (ours isn't even explosive or flammable) without issue. For sure it is something that deserves your respect, but given that it isn't particularly dangerous.

 

[ProCanadian]

I think she is just concerned about creating a "hobby" that i dont have time for! its her excuse for me to start small i assume. So ya, on that note, i bought a 38 gallon tank to start.(so i can maybe use it as a sump later on a 90g tank). I think i will start with a fish only freshwater to keep her happy, and slowly move to a planted or salt water reef tank. This tank came as a "kit" with a marineland emperor 280 power filter with a bio wheel, a 150 watt heater, a canopy with a "full spectrum" 18 watt t8 bulb lighting and some other items (fish net, some water primer, fish flakes etc). I picked up a nice piece
of driftwood mounted on a piece of slate, and some gravel for the base. Im wondering if i made a mistake using gravel? thinking i should use a substrate that i could grow some plants in? not exactly sure where to go from here!

 

[aqua_chem]

I propose an alternate plan. Go low-tech with moderate light, DIY CO2 or Excel, etc, and test the water. For someone that's interested in the more plant-y side of the hobby, it will be much more rewarding for you to start out 'right'. You can do pretty stellar things with a basic setup, and if you stick with that it will show her that you're actually interested in the hobby.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

You can easily start out with a low tech tank and still have lots of plants. If your gravel is small it will be okay for plants. If it's large or coarse gravel it won't be as friendly for the plants. You can always change it out for a specialized plant substrate, especially if your just getting it going.

The bio-wheel filter isn't ideal but people use them all the time. My first planted tank was a 55 gallon with an Emperor 400 bio-wheel filter and it had loads of plants. You could always change it out cor a canister if you really want to hide the filtration and the heater under the stand.

The light strip can easily be swapped out for an LED fixture for your size tank. The Finnex Ray II has gotten very popular for these size planted tanks recently. They're actually pretty cheap. Not any more than a low price T5 light fixture.

You can still have fun growing lush plants without CO2. Give in to your wife and just use liquid carbon. It really does wonders when co2 isn't an option. The tank should be all about enjoyment for your family. If she says no co2 tell her "no problem". Once you have everything going you can always talk about it again when she's feeling more secure. lol