Seachem flourite red

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Allanhep

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Aug 18, 2017
Messages
47
Looking for some advice I am looking to swap out my sand for flourite as the bags im looking at are 3.5kg bags how much would I be looking for to do a trigon 190 I have added a picture to show my current hard scape as I will prob leave that in with the sand its all built up on and just plant around it.IMG_20171203_203326.jpgIMG_20171214_132800.jpg
 
I think they have an online calculator? I've used it in my tank and quite like it (mixed in with gravel and pellets).
 
So I have now put a base layer of tetra complete substrate and a top layer of seachem flourite red. Just waiting on the aquarium settling I have also added a tri-spec led light unit 38w and I am looking in to plants. I was wanting a carpet plant for the front of the tank and just going to buy a bulk pack of plants from plants alive im also looking to dose the aquarium with seachem flourish excel as I don't have the resources to run a pressurised system. Is there any carpet plants that will grow in flourite red with my lighting and dosing with excel.
 
Hi there.

I have a mix of the fluorite substrates in my tanks, so far think its great and think you have made a good choice :). I think monte carlo would work well as a carpet plant, or potentially dwarf hairgrass - although both of these spread and root easier in fluorite sand, so im not sure if they would spread as easily in the more course fluorite red - though i think its possible.

One thing i would definitely put in is some nice red plants - i was suprised how much difference that extra iron makes, i guess its not called fluorite red for no reason!

Be interested to hear what plants you decide on and how you get on with fluorite as a substrate :).
 
Thanks for all the comments I have recently received a a collection of plants from plants alive 48" selection. I will also look in to monte carlo I have been toying with getting a pressurised co2 setup but the kits are expensive especially when I have just forked out £355 on new lights, filter, substrate. I had seen a few regulators with solenoid on ebay around £40 mark and I have found a web site here in the UK selling co2 fire extinguisher 2kg for £22 with £5 postage. Any advice on a reasonable priced setup. Thanks
 
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Im looking for any advice on led lighting I bought a tri spec led 90-100cm it had stated it fits trigon 190 which was a typo so ended up needing to modify my aquarium for it to fit. More watts plus could not be bothered with organising a return then reordering the correct size. Questions are - what range does this lighting fall into? Should I be running the blue LEDs along with the white and red? Also I seem to have had a algae bloom on the glass and my florite red is turning green not sure if its a result of the sachem excel dosing every day I have noticed a slight growth in my plants some are long and spindly I have added a few photos. I'm ordering my co2 regulator next week I have been looking at the tmc regulator with solenoid seems to have quite a lot of good reviews IMG_20180203_203929.jpgIMG_20180203_211058.jpg
 
How deep is tank? And how long are you running lights for?

The seachem excel (glut) is a low level algaecide (works best on black beard algae, green algae not so effective).

I can see better growth on stem plants near water surface but do think CO2 is a must have to get sorted.

At the moment, if getting green algae on substrate - I’d cut back lighting time and maybe turn off the blue LEDs (white light has plenty). You do want to run all the red lights you have.
 
Thanks for the response my tank is 60cm or 24inches deep mabe less s I have 2 inch of tetra complete as a base and 1 inch flourite red. Im currently running the light 10-11 hours per day. Im hoping that the co2 will help the plant growth and cause the algae to slow down. I have never ventured in to the planted tanks but like the look of them. I bought the led lighting on a whim it was a toss up between the tri spec or fluval 2.0 plant led but liked the tri better for watts now not sure if I made the correct choice.
 
I can’t really help on those lights but at the depth I’d say you will need good lights which then really leads into have CO2 and a ferts dosing program.

I’d get the CO2 going (along with a drop checker and good flow to push the water around) as soon as possible.

Pick up a dry ferts package and keep phosphate above 1ppm. This may help with green algae (jury is still out).

Liquid carbon will definitely help with any black beard algae.

Algae loving fish also help.

Then with CO2 and ferts not the limiting factor, lower lights to 6 hours and then work back up. Aiming to get good sideways growth at substrate (or plants at least growing) but not too much algae.

On my tank I run lights 7.5 hours, it was 2.5ft deep but I had 4 inches of substrate and I ran an LED light and quad t5ho.

With the leds - run white / red lights at 100%, run blue lights less. This is because red light doesn’t travel through water well so you need lots of it for the plants. Blue light does so not so much needed.

Generally allow some weeks to months to sort out.
 
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