I've got several questions..

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Morgie

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
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So I'm converting my 55gallon tank into a (maybe) high tech planted. I've got the substrate (flourite & eco complete), a new lighting fixture (T5HOs), and this piece of driftwood:
img_1916359_0_3cad8d42fe0701546d623ebd9334ca0a.jpg

on the way.
I'm going to keep my existing stock for the tank (four angels, a four line pictus, and a pearl gourami) minus my two sun catfish, which will be moved to either a different tank or the pond.

Here are my first batch of questions (I'll likely have more later hehe)
1. What CO2 kit would you recommend? I'm a little iffy on getting one just because it'd be something totally new for me.
2. Can mosses be used as a ground cover plant? Will they actually root to the soil or do they need to be anchored to driftwood or rocks? I'm interested in Christmas and Fire mosses.
3. Any opinions on whether my pictus will tear up more delicate plants? He's about 11" and typically spends his day hiding but goes crazy at feeding times and at night. I definitely don't want to move him though, he' six years old and I don't want to stress him. I'll probably just have to wait and see. :rolleyes:

Also any plant recommendations will be loved, although I have a pretty solid list of what I'd like to grow already: aponogetons, cabomba, anubias nana, blyxa japonica, narrow leaf chain sword, ludwiga inclinata, christmas moss, crinum natans, vallisneria spiralis, wisteria, java fern, bolbitus heudelotii, dwarf sags
 
How many bulbs/wattage is your T5HO?

Most carpeting plants (like what you're looking for are medium to high light. I've got only 108 watts (2X54 watt T5HO) and I think most of these plants would have a snowballs chance in hell, Personally. I'd love to be proven wrong though :)
 
It's two 10,000K 54watt bulbs, I believe.
I've had luck with some of the medium light stem plants above with a similar lighting set up on my 10gallon tank so I'm hoping I'll have similar results. Ground cover plants I have no idea, though. I think it's just going to be an "experiement" with those.
 
A 2bulb t5ho over a standard 55g is more than enough to grow most any plant. It'll probably put you somewhere in the medium range but there are several factors that can make that go up or down.

As far as your questions go:

1. I don't have much experience with different pressurized setups but a lot of people recommend the ma-957 as a good starter kit, its one of the most economical as well.

2. Moss can be used as ground cover but it doesn't root. It *might* attach itself to gravel if left on it long enough, but any amount of current will move it. That said you can attach it to some plastic mesh canvas to make a carpet if you really wanted.

3. I don't know anything about pictus cats.

As far as ground cover goes, a less demanding option would be something like pygmy chainsword or dwarf sag. Marsilea is also a good low demand choice.
 
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I suppose. No harm done (other than the $$$) if the plant dies. There are some dwarf grasses that do OK in medium light. I've got the same power as you, except 6700k bulbs. if it works for you, I'll give it a shot, lol. (sorry, I'm a jerk haha!)

Problem with my tank is that I have duckweed in there, and it really blocks a ton of light. Every attempt to get rid of it is futile, I just comes back again within a few weeks... its pretty, but annoying!
 
A great method of duckweed control is a shop vac. Turn off all aeration/filtration and let the duckweed get still. Just do a daily shop vac on the surface of the tank and in a few days it'll be all gone.
 
Thank Jeta, I'll definitely look into those systems :)
The only thing about my pictus is.. he's not one of the dainty ones that are normally sold.
He looks like he could have the potential to be really destructive if he wanted to be.
img_1916535_0_181153684904c05e4245f73d6e049f7b.jpg
 
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