It's a been a long while but I'm back and rusty.. new setup!

[Electrobes]

Well I haven't done Freshwater in about three or four years.. I left after discovering Reef Keeping and never really looked back. But now as I am moving and decided it was best to give my precious corals to a coral farmer friend, plus I am taking a major job change to my new residence I thought I would go back to my first love... Planted tank with Puffers!

After rummaging around in old photo files I remembered the good ol' college days of my planted tank and my two awesome GSP puffers. I decided that this time I would stick to a more freshwater tnak (I went Brackish for the GSPs) and go for Figure 8's in my 40Br. I sold most of my Saltwater equipment but kept some goodies for my new set up.

What I am hoping to get from you guys is whether this set up is good for what I would like to have... any advice to help my rusty freshwater skills would be very appreciated! So here we go.

I am looking to have a planted (From the looks of what I researched and spotted... I's like to have Glosso, Java ferns, and maybe something other than green to grow from the ground to about mid to top of the tank in my 40Br with ___ figure 8 puffers (Any ideas?).

- Fish: I am not really sure how many figure 8's would be happy in a 40Br let alone with each other. I had two GSP's for about a year that hung around all the time, but that could have just been luck.

- Substrate: Back in the days of freshwater I used Wal-Mart's ?Shultz? pond gravel as my substrate which seemed to work really well. I have seen/heard about Eco-System as being a great substrate for planted tanks but would like to hear from you guys.

- Lights: I kept my 2X39 watt HO T5's from my saltwater days and will use these in conjunction with my new 2X(?96?) watt VHO's (I switched from a halide to help keep heat down in my newly puchased enclosed canopy. I would like to know what would be the best light spectrum combo to go with.

- Filtration and Water Movement: I was thinking of going with a XP2 or XP3 (I don't think there was much difference in price) and using it with my AC500 that I kept. It should give me a not so turbulent 15x for my tank turnover. I am thinking this would be great to help prevent algae growth and still not blow away the puffers. As for the content for the canister filter I am still not sure what is used nowadays.. so again would like to hear your opinions I have an idea of using my Phosban Reactor in line with the canister filter with a valve to control the flow through the carbon.

- CO2 addition: I was thinking of using the bio-canister... it's easy to do, and I don't have that big of a system that would need much CO2 (Like that which comes from a bottle-can). But again it's been a while so maybe some new has come up and I would like to hear about it

- Additives: I can't remember what additives worked for me but seeing as that was years ago I haven't a clue about what is used these days. I wasn't big on additives in both my freshwater and Reefing days though, so I doubt I'll prob use much, if any.

That's all I can think of for now.. thank you again for reading and I look forward to your opinions!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Since the majority of your questions are regarding plants I am going to move this to the planted tank forum. You can post your non-planted questions in the General Forum.

 

[Electrobes]

Sounds good, since I had some Q's about puffers and what not I figured it was more all around Thanks!

 

[Jchillin]

Since you kept your lights, that is going to help in getting one major issue out of the way.

- Substrate: Back in the days of freshwater I used Wal-Mart's ?Shultz? pond gravel as my substrate which seemed to work really well. I have seen/heard about Eco-System as being a great substrate for planted tanks but would like to hear from you guys.

I happen to have a Shultz/Flourite combo at the moment so Shultz is not a bad idea. I did find it to be less dense (heavy) than other substrates but it hasn't been a problem.

Filtration and Water Movement: I was thinking of going with a XP2 or XP3 (I don't think there was much difference in price) and using it with my AC500 that I kept.

I have an XP3 on my 75g, nice filter. You could also use the AC alone but I prefer the cleanliness of canister for planted. I would simply jam plenty of filter floss since your planted tank does not need chemical filtration and your plants will provide the bio. Maybe a few ceramic rings, but that's it.

- Additives: I can't remember what additives worked for me but seeing as that was years ago I haven't a clue about what is used these days.

If you are referring to nutrients and fert dosing, you will definitely need them.

I have no experience with puffers in planted so I will allow others to chime in there.

You can do yourself a world of good by reading through the stickies at the top of this forum. Plenty of start up info is provided there.

 

[Purrbox]

Definately check out the Read This First Sticky at the top of the forum. Links to lots of great information, many of which are related to your questions.

I was under the impression that the only true FW Puffer was the Dwarf Pufferfish and that all others need BW or SW at some point in their lives. Might want to do some more checking on that.

Either of those substrate options should work out quite nicely. There are many other options that would work well too. It really boils down to what you have readily available to you, the cost, and the appearance.

If you're planning to use both of those fixtures or just the second on over the tank, you'll have crazy light and need to look into both CO2 and fertilization. On the other had if you just stick to the 2x40 watt fixture, you might be able to get away with a lower maintenance tank, no CO2, and minimal dosing.

I'm not really sure what methods you're referring to with the CO2. Might want to explain a bit more so we can figure it out.

 

[Electrobes]

Thanks for the opinions guys - Seems like the substrate and filtration issue is good, plus the lighting. I know there are more true freshwater puffers, but I was just merely seeing what you guys might have known. I am checking over in thepufferforum.com so I'll see what's available.

As for fertilizer what brands do you guys prefer most? Since my lighting (I plan on using both as my more favorite plant Glosso requires higher lighting to stay shorter) is strong and I do plan on dosing CO2 (Though I may have to look into this more as to method... this is what I was thinking for now, but maybe a DIY on a bigger scale... http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=8981&N=2004+113779) )

 

[Purrbox]

You could definately do DIY on that size tank, but it's going to be a pain to maintain good CO2 levels especially when cooler weather rolls around next fall. If you can find the space in your wallet, I'd recomend making the splurge for Pressurized. It makes life much easier and gives you more time to appreciate your aquarium. If you do decide to go with DIY, then you'll want to start with about four 2 Liter bottles and a powered reactor. Don't even bother with one of the prepackaged versions like that Hagen Unit as you'd end up spending the same amount as a pressurized unit to be able to have enough to be effective on your tank.

You'll probably be able to achieve the results that you want with the glosso with just the 2x96 watt fixture. I'd give it a go and see how it works out before adding the second fixture. More light means faster growing plants, which means more fertilization and trimming to try to keep up. More light than you need just means extra work and less time to enjoy the results.

For your size tank I'd definately recommend going the dry fertilization route, as it will be much easier on your pocketbook.
KNO3 - Potassium Nitrate (doses Nitrate and some Potassium)
KH2PO4 - Mono Potassium Phosphate (doses Phosphate)
K2SO4 - Potassium Sulfate OR KCl - Potassium Cloride (doses Potassium)
CSM+B (Trace Fertilizer)