Questions on lighting and substrate for nature aquarium

[draX]

Hi

I need a little help with a nature aquarium I am trying to put together. I live in South Africa, and I'm having problems getting the equipment and substrate I need. I am still a novice with aquariums, I have only ever had one 24g tank. I have now got another tank, its 35x13x15 inches, about 29g. I am trying to make a very simple nature aquarium based on a picture a friend sent me (I'll try and add it in the post). I am having trouble finding the carpet plants (glossostigma or riccia). I am also having trouble finding out what lighting would be adequate. I can apparently only fit 20 or 30W tubes into the tank. Would two 20W tubes be enough? I was also looking for substrate such as Eco-Complete or Fluorite. I can't get either of these in south africa. What kind of substrate can I use? I have some nice black gravel, but what else would I need to make the plants grow?

Thanks

 

[Todd2]

Hi draX,

I'll try to help to the best of my knowledge. I'm no plant expert but I'll try. Glosso is a hard plant to grow it needs around 3 wpg to grow and with that amount of light you'll need CO2 injection. 29 x 3 = 87 So you could put 4 20W tubes on it or 3 30W tubes or a combination of both. You can use laterite instead of Eco-complete. You would put down a layer of peat moss on the very bottom then laterite then your gravel. The laterite will supply the plants with iron. You might need some ferts such as Flourish. Rex Griggs FAQ has some good info. HTH.

 

[hashbaz]

I'm thinking that your best bet is to try local. Shipping (especially on a substrate) will be very expensive. And you might not be able to post plants internationally. US customs confiscated the breyanni (spelling?) mix I tried to bring home from SA. Plus the time it would take would probably kill your plants.

Are there any large pet stores in Cape Town? I don't remember seeing any in Durban, but I wasn't looking for them. I'm guessing these will be your best bet.

There are some good resources on this site about different types of substrate and also building your own. This link may also help.
http://www.aquabotanic.com/sfintro.htm

Here is a website I found to have info on a lot of different types of plants. Hopefully one of the plants you like can be found locally.
http://www.tropica.dk/plant_print.asp

Good Luck.

 

[draX]

Guys, thanks for the quick replies! CO2 injection is something I haven't tried before, but might give it a bash. I'll also need to build a new hood if I want to mount 3 or 4 tubes. I've read Rex Grigg's faq, was very helpful. But I'm thinking I'm gonna have to abandon the idea for this tank, unless I can get stuff imported.

There is maybe one big petstore in Cape Town, and they're not that great with fish. They sell basic equipment etc, but no special fish or plants. Guppies, mollies and Gourami's are just about their entire range of fish, and plant-wise you can get Elodea, and Amazon Swords. Thats about it.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Guest]

You can use basic sand or fine gravel as the substrate. As long as you can get some laterite to place under it. And a hand full of common gardening peat moss will also help. As for lights check out this thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=175 for what could well be the solution to your lighting problems.

As for the source of plants... you should be able to find Riccia locally as it pretty much occurs all over the world where water exists in a normally liquid state for over 6 months of the year.

CO2 injection is easy to do if one is willing to put in the legwork to find the parts needed. The hardest part to find could well be the needle valve but it's actually the easiest to have mailed to you if necessary.