Plants for a High lighted 29 gallon aquarium with DIY co2.

[Jmenehan2]

My light fixture is the EnviroGro flt24 T5 HO 4-Light. My substrate is going to be 3 inches of Seachem Flourite, can't wait to wash it.... I was wondering what plants would do well in this Tank set up and a good place to purchase the plants. Not really sure what plants are suitable since my Lfs seems to just have low light (easy) plants. I was also wondering if my fixture would have to be hung above the tank or if the light is fine sitting right on the rim of the tank. If I left any info out let me know! Thank you

 

[meegosh]

Is that 24" bulbs or 24 watt. Are you planning on dosing any ferts? How's your co2 levels now with the diy?

 

[Jmenehan2]

I do not have this tank up and running. My DIY co2 consists of two 2 liter bottles, 1 Gatorade for the bubble counter and a small 2 gallon power filter to disperse the co2. I will dose furts if I need to. The light fixture has four 24inch 24 watt T5 HOs.

 

[Rivercats]

You have to dose ferts, preferably dry ones so you get a balanced macro and micro fert regime. I use the dry ferts package at GreenLeafAquariums. Also here is a good thread about dosing dry ferts, PPS-Pro. You only need to read the openning post not all the comments. Newbie Guide to PPS-Pro - PPS Analysis and Feedback - Aquatic Plant Central. I touched on this in your other thread.

With high light, CO2, and ferts you can grow about anything you want including non-green plants and carpeting plants. You can go on a site like AquariumPlants.com and go through the different plant sections to see what you like. When planting this type of tank you need to plant at least 80% of the substrate right off the bat as this will really help with there being enough plants to out-compete algae. Fast growing stem plants are really good in these types of tanks. I have a high light tank and grow mostly stem plants.

 

[Michaelbknudsen]

That's a lot of light, and maybe overkill. You will definitely need to dose ferts or risk facing algae problems and nutrient problems IMO.

 

[aqua_chem]

If you were to go with dry ferts, you would really have a pretty good setup. I think the better question wouldn't be 'what can you grow' so much as 'what do you want to grow'. With regards to your light, I'm not familiar with that brand. What's the wiring like? Are there to plugs so that you can control the light banks individually, or will you have to remove bulbs to reduce the light, assuming that works in that model? I wouldn't trust more than 2xT5HO on DIY co2, especially in a tank that's larger than 20g.

 

[meegosh]

I was thinking the same thing aqua.. May need to go right into pressurized to avoid issues right from the start.

 

[Jmenehan2]

You have to dose ferts, preferably dry ones so you get a balanced macro and micro fert regime. I use the dry ferts package at GreenLeafAquariums. Also here is a good thread about dosing dry ferts, PPS-Pro. You only need to read the openning post not all the comments. Newbie Guide to PPS-Pro - PPS Analysis and Feedback - Aquatic Plant Central. I touched on this in your other thread.

With high light, CO2, and ferts you can grow about anything you want including non-green plants and carpeting plants. You can go on a site like AquariumPlants.com and go through the different plant sections to see what you like. When planting this type of tank you need to plant at least 80% of the substrate right off the bat as this will really help with there being enough plants to out-compete algae. Fast growing stem plants are really good in these types of tanks. I have a high light tank and grow mostly stem plants.

Thank you for the great response ill look into getting the dry furts. I would love a carpeted tank, but I'm not so sure what plants look and live best with each other.

 

[Jmenehan2]

If you were to go with dry ferts, you would really have a pretty good setup. I think the better question wouldn't be 'what can you grow' so much as 'what do you want to grow'. With regards to your light, I'm not familiar with that brand. What's the wiring like? Are there to plugs so that you can control the light banks individually, or will you have to remove bulbs to reduce the light, assuming that works in that model? I wouldn't trust more than 2xT5HO on DIY co2, especially in a tank that's larger than 20g.

The lighting system unfortunately only has 1 switch so I would have to remove bulbs to adjust the lighting. If I hung the light higher above the tank could I get away with my DIY? Here is a pic of the DIY setup

 

[aqua_chem]

I would probably rather remove the bulbs than figure out some way to relevant the entire fixture. Many fixtures can run with bulbs removed, but no all unfortunately.

 

[Rivercats]

If he didn't want to go with pressurized right away couldn't he suppliment the DIY CO2 with liquid carbons since I run a high light tank and only use liquid carbon.

 

[Jmenehan2]

I would probably rather remove the bulbs than figure out some way to relevant the entire fixture. Many fixtures can run with bulbs removed, but no all unfortunately.

The fixture can be run with lights removed, but I have no top to my aquarium. Could the moisture from the tank ruin the fixture? A light socket that is plugged in with nothing in it over water does not seem like a good idea.

 

[Jmenehan2]

I guess I'm just new to this. What potential problems could occur if I kept up with water tests, kept the light on for 7 hours a day, kept up with refilling g the co2 system, and Dosed the tank with the Mac,mic, flourish, and whatever else

 

[Rivercats]

IMO I don't see why you couldn't run the tank on 6-7 hours (you'd have to test light times vs algae growth like I did to find the right amount of time to run lights), use DIY CO2 plus a liquid carbon such as Excel/API CO2 Booster/Glutaraldehyde but I would suggest dry ferts as I think they are more complete than using the liquid ferts. If you did the above and also filled your tank full of plants, especially fast growing stem plants and either water sprite or wisteria, I believe you wouldn't have alot of issues. If you did you could always take out one bulb and see how that would be.

 

[Jmenehan2]

Thank you for the replies. All of you have been very helpful. I will put up pics when I set the tank up.