New planted, about to start, advice please

[JoeandCarrie]

Wewere going to go SW, but it was cost prohibitive right now.

Instead the wife ordered, 60 pounds of flourite, a marineland single bright led, and the delux plant pack from live aquaria. I have a 43.6 gallon tank, the strip light it came with, and will pick up new media for the cascade 700 today. We have a fw test kit, and an air pump rated for the depth of this tank.

Everything will be here tomorrow or Friday. any advice on last minute pickups? I am going to cure two new driftwood pieces this morning, and a nice chunk of granite.

Just want to make sure we have it all together before I start aqua scraping.

Thanks for your advice,

 

[BBradbury]

FW Tank Pickup List

Hello J & C...

Below is a basic list:

Tank
Stand
Tank Cover
Lighting
Filtration System
Heater
Thermometer
Water treatment
Substrate
Fish Net
Plants
Substrate vacuum
Algae scrubber
Testing kit
Some plastic buckets for water changes
Fish

There you go. Have fun!

B

 

[JoeandCarrie]

I did some more reading on the plants, and it looks like some req med or more light. Is anyone familiar with the led marineland?

Thanks for the list, got all but the fish. Gonna let it run for a month first, get a decent cycle.

 

[Rivercats]

From what I have read and heard others talk about that is very dim light. Even heard the double bright LED doesn't work very well for plants. I had a stock LED similar to what you have come with a tank and it was so dim I ended up getting a double T5 HO fixture. All I can say is you can try but IMO it's not going to give you enough light. You will have to eventually invest in fertilizers and root tabs. A liguid carbon (Flourish Excel) is helpful as well. When starting out Seachems Flourish line is a good way to go. There are other brands out there I'm just not familar with them.

 

[JoeandCarrie]

Yeah, little peeved on the light. Found a post on another forum for planted tanks that has a ton of light comparisons, with PAR values and such. this one didn't fair well. Gonna check lowes for a hanger temp, then just work towards a good light.

Should be fine on frets for a little bit, will have to see how they do first with the light.

What kind of schedule do you follow for ferts? How do you know when to add them?

 

[Rivercats]

I use the PPS-Pro method. Go to Green Leaf aquariums and they have all kinds of information and amounts needed. Here is a link https://sites.google.com/site/aquaticplantfertilizer/home/pps-pro
This is a link to the macro/micro fert package I buy: Micro & Macro | Aquarium Fertilizer | Green Leaf Aquariums
I add macro and micro ferts every day, but I also check my water readings 2x week so I can make adjustments if needed. It's not hard once you actually start doing it.

 

[JoeandCarrie]

Solid info, thank you. Looking into the DIY co2 method as well, not sure if I need it yet though. Petco has this little co2 jobby that says it will work for up to a 60 gal. Ever used that? It's a co2 cartridge thing. Plants scheduled to arrive today, pretty excited.

Thanks again. Will try and post a pic once planted and water clears.

 

[Rivercats]

I've seen them and if you google customer reviews on the product you might get an idea of what people who actually have it think. I use liquid carbon.... maybe one day I'll give CO2 a shot.

 

[hpiguy]

Interested in seeing how those plants from LiveAquaria look.

 

[JoeandCarrie]

The plants look good. I had ordered the middle package on the website that was supposed to be for the 30gal. It should have only been like 10-12 plants... I ended up with this giant bundle of plants. Not sure if they messed up, but I wound up with probably 50. Several will not make it, as they are med-high light, one bundle I have no idea what they even are, no labels. I added a desk lamp for some extra light.

I thought I had all the tannin out of the wood... well, was wrong. I have a nice Ice tea tank right now. Will get some pics when I get home tomorrow. Gonna have to hook up a second canister with some carbon though to clear it up.

The service was quite fast though, 2 day shipment. Was anoying to have to make two accounts since we ordered from Drfostersmith and Liveaquaria, but they are really the same service...

Overall pleased with the tank. Gonna get some names on them and figure out the fert plan.

-

 

[BBradbury]

Your New Tank

The plants look good. I had ordered the middle package on the website that was supposed to be for the 30gal. It should have only been like 10-12 plants... I ended up with this giant bundle of plants. Not sure if they messed up, but I wound up with probably 50. Several will not make it, as they are med-high light, one bundle I have no idea what they even are, no labels. I added a desk lamp for some extra light.

I thought I had all the tannin out of the wood... well, was wrong. I have a nice Ice tea tank right now. Will get some pics when I get home tomorrow. Gonna have to hook up a second canister with some carbon though to clear it up.

The service was quite fast though, 2 day shipment. Was anoying to have to make two accounts since we ordered from Drfostersmith and Liveaquaria, but they are really the same service...

Overall pleased with the tank. Gonna get some names on them and figure out the fert plan.

-

Hello J & C...

Hopefully, you got the right plants for your particular lighting setup. Aquarium plants take some time to get used to new water conditions. My new plants looked poorly for quite a while and then I started to notice new growth. Sadly, some never recovered, but that happens.

I have a lot of fish in my tanks and they provide most of the fertilizer. I also dose a liquid from Tetra called "Flora Pride". I just started using it, but so far my plants are doing well. Plants are a lot like people, we do best when we eat a variety, so I like to change the fertilizers from time to time.

The tannic acid from the wood is harmless and large, weekly water changes will eventually clear the water. The chemical medium (carbon) is fine to use, but the water changes will do a much better job of keeping the water stable for your plants and fish.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

B

 

[Amicus]

Just my 2 cents. I have had a moderately planted setup for a few years now and am running t5 HO. I was looking into buying an LED fixture for my plants and ran into a couple of road blocks. The LED market really took off for marine LED fixtures and trying to find a LED fixture for plants that puts out the proper color temperature and spectrum was difficult for me to find. There are a couple of companies that are coming out with fixtures that claim to be for freshwater plants but, as usual, they are very expensive. Also, I have a friend that is using a Kessil pendant over his freshwater aquarium and the plants are doing well, it has been a couple of months so far. There are a lot of choices out there and as mentioned by other members, other supplemental things you can do.

 

[JoeandCarrie]

Well wife got a double bright instead of single... so trying that with the hood light, getting a fair algae growth now though. will do a larger water change when I get home tomorrow and test the water again.

picked up some fish though, wife had a field day on the local petco

1x banjo cat
1x farwallo(?) cat
4x nerite snails (2 tiger/2 zebra)
2x ghost shrimp
2x big ghost looking shrimp, forget the name right now
Pair of blue veil tail beta's... about to be seperated on my return. Guess the 10g is getting setup/planted now too...
Got a giant Annubas for 2$, so added that to the DW pile

Will post some pics once the water doesn't look like ice tea...

Thanks for the advice so far though