Want to grow plants.

[Dooboedoo12]

Have my ehiem 600 filter, 90 gallon tank, heater, Hydor air pump, and lighting ( see picture )

I have live sand at the bottom of my tank ( I know this limits me to how many plants couldn't afford the good stuff )

I bought a 26 inch driftwood piece and want to attach some moss too it and plant a few plants around it

What bulbs will I need to change or will those suffice? Do I need a co2 system? I don't want dead plants and I want to set this up right before I add my fish

 

[Dooboedoo12]

No help ? It has a 10k lamp and a 6.5k

 

[Mebbid]

Two high efficiency bulbs will put your tank at the high end of the low light level. You will safely be able to grow java fern, java moss, bolbitis, anubias, some crypts, amazon sword, maybe vesuvius and a few other plants.

At a low light level you won't need co2 so that's not something to worry about. It might be advisable to add some excel if you skip the anubias as well as liquid ferts such as seachem flourish comprehensive.

Have you thought about switching to a sand such as pool filter sand rather than the live sand which is likely aragonite? The pool filter sand won't change your water parameters.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I spent over 100$ on the live sand. What would be the reason behind the switch? And I'll get on ordering that stuff now. I was worried about the co2 thing. Thanks for clearing that up for me

 

[Mebbid]

Can you post a link to the sand that you bought? The only live sand that I'm aware of is made for saltwater applications. It's an aragonite based substrate that will leech calcium and alkalinity while raising the pH which might not be the best match for your parameters.

 

[phishfriend]

Well as mentioned the sand you have isn't normally used in the setup you are trying to achieve. What the sand is made of causes high PH lvl's in freshwater tanks. So it's really only used in very specific setups.

Regular pool sand or sand blasting and (black sand) have neutral effects on water quality and are generally use in most community tanks.

 

[Brilliant_Barbs_21]

Drsfosterandsmith sells some live sand and gravel for freshwater tanks if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

First thing mine says is ideal for most all freshwater as weird as that is. See pic:

 

[Mebbid]

Gotcha, I've never seen that before. Would be interested in how it looks once it's in the tank It should work just fine.

 

[Rivercats]

There are 6 or 8 different types of this they are making, some are sand and some small gravel but all are like Eco Complete in that they come packed with bacterial water. I'm curious to as to how they do.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

So far I don't like it. It's day 2 and the cloud from the sand still hasn't gone down....

 

[Rivercats]

Try turning off your filter for a while and see if it settles or put a lot of polyfill in your filter because the dirtier it gets the finer the particles it will filter out.

 

[Dooboedoo12]

I've had it off for 2 days. If I add that do I turn on the filter after?

 

[Rivercats]

I always add the polyfill wet and really cram it in (I have canister filters) then turn on the filter and give it time. Also doing a couple large 50% or more WC's will help.