Questions on planted tank with sand

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as far as lighting..you can go to wal-mart, home depot, etc and get a double pack of CFL 13 watt daylight 6500k bulbs for about $7.....since you are doing low-mod planting
 
Geronica said:
as far as lighting..you can go to wal-mart, home depot, etc and get a double pack of CFL 13 watt daylight 6500k bulbs for about $7.....since you are doing low-mod planting
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+1 to this. I have two of these on my 55g. I just bought clip on lamps from Walmart and the few plants I have are growing pretty well.
 
blueramboy87 said:
And what plants can I keep if I use the Walmart bulbs
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I have low light plants and they are growing just fine. Crypts, amazon sword, java fern and java moss, banana plants.. Just to name a few. Someone else can chime in on specially what plants, but if you want to do a quick search online of different crypts you can, not all of them are low lights but most are.
 
The reason you may want a hood is if you have jumpy fish. Open tops evaporate fast and you can lose fish. I have both.

Also the u shaped mini CFLs do give off a good amount of light since they are designed to go sideways.

By the time you buy clip on fixtures and bulbs how much is that ? Is that without a glass top ?

Your way works. For sure. But it depends on the look you want.

EC is great stuff, but pricey. Yes plants like it, but the nutrients will run out and then you still have to add root tabs.

Blasting sand is super cheap. I use black diamond. I top with CaribSea just cuz it's pretty.

I have super expensive AquaSoil and super cheap sand, even just gravel. All grow plants.

I have an Archaea LED to my CFLs. All grow plants.

There are many paths to success ;)
 
You can do Swords, Crypts, Dwarf Sag, Jungle or Corkscrew Val, Ambulia, Anacharis, Green Cabomba, Micro Sword, 4 leaf clover, red tiger lotus, and Bacopa. On DW you can use Anubia, Java Fern both regular and Wendilov, Bolbitus, and mosses.
 
The issue with layering substrates like dirt or kitty litter is moving plants. You can end up with a lot of the bottom stuff on top and if it's a different color that can look bad. If you plant and never move stuff that's fine. I often move mine around as they grow out and I get free plants every month.

Again, all these suggestions work. I get super cheap root caps. There is a seller on here that has them for $5 ?? Ghost shrimp is his name I think.
 
Coursair said:
The reason you may want a hood is if you have jumpy fish. Open tops evaporate fast and you can lose fish. I have both.

Also the u shaped mini CFLs do give off a good amount of light since they are designed to go sideways.

By the time you buy clip on fixtures and bulbs how much is that ? Is that without a glass top ?

Your way works. For sure. But it depends on the look you want.

EC is great stuff, but pricey. Yes plants like it, but the nutrients will run out and then you still have to add root tabs.

Blasting sand is super cheap. I use black diamond. I top with CaribSea just cuz it's pretty.

I have super expensive AquaSoil and super cheap sand, even just gravel. All grow plants.

I have an Archaea LED to my CFLs. All grow plants.

There are many paths to success ;)
Click to expand...

So far I have around $25 I would say in my lights; I have an open top tank. My cfl's came in a 3 pack for $7, each of my clip on lamps are about $8. I know I'll eventually need a third lamp once I get more plants, but for now two are just enough. Everything I've gotten has all come from Walmart.
 
Mrs.h2012 said:
So far I have around $25 I would say in my lights; I have an open top tank. My cfl's came in a 3 pack for $7, each of my clip on lamps are about $8. I know I'll eventually need a third lamp once I get more plants, but for now two are just enough. Everything I've gotten has all come from Walmart.
Click to expand...

Ok so my hood about $20-25 new , lights are $8-10. Total $35 to $40 ?? Petsmart 10g incandescent full hood.

You can get used hoods for free or cheap.
I got mine as a kit. Under $20 I think for tank, hood and filter. Petsmart has good sales ;)

So moneywise, not too bad. Also clip on can fall into the tank unless you add a glass top.

If you have cats or kids a covered tank is best.
I don't so I have both. I have had fish jump out of my rimless 10g

Just trying to present both sides. ;) spot light style also may leave more dark areas. We measured my PAR and even my bulbs leave corners less light. I grow plants everywhere tho. Corners too.
 
Coursair said:
Ok so my hood about $20-25 new , lights are $8-10. Total $35 to $40 ?? Petsmart 10g incandescent full hood.

You can get used hoods for free or cheap.
I got mine as a kit. Under $20 I think for tank, hood and filter. Petsmart has good sales ;)

So moneywise, not too bad. Also clip on can fall into the tank unless you add a glass top.

If you have cats or kids a covered tank is best.
I don't so I have both. I have had fish jump out of my rimless 10g

Just trying to present both sides. ;) spot light style also may leave more dark areas. We measured my PAR and even my bulbs leave corners less light. I grow plants everywhere tho. Corners too.
Click to expand...

I have my clip one to where the rest on the rim of the tank, so they dont fall in the tank. The 55g I have was given to me, it was just the tank and didn't have a hood. I've been looking for hoods or canopies for a while but haven't found one yet.
 
Thanks for all the input on lights guys!! But can I keep amazon sword in a 10g? I thought they got pretty big
 
Eco Complete is 17.99 and there is free shipping on orders over $49 at petco online , it may be a good place for the hood too and some food or plants for sale there too to get the 49 free shipping.

I would say if you might be the type of person who moves plants around alot, I like to re arrange things myself, take that into consideration. Sometimes plants don't like sitting in sand so some little rocks may be useful to hold them down, and white sand sucks since you see every poop and plant particle. My white sand was awesome until I started planting live plants and what a dirty looking mess, lol.

Black or brown sand. lol

Caribsea is so very fine, I didn't like it that much. Petco sand Black didn't really need rinsing one tank I did and one I didn't and couldn't tell the difference.

Pfs and sand blasting sand all need a ton of rinsing then a ton more rinsing. I wouldn't bother for the extra few bucks for the small size tank you have I'd go petco sand its about $1 pound for the 5lb bag and maybe 18-20. for the 20lb bag. I have used construction sand, helped friend use pfs and the white caribsea supernaturals, beautiful. but gets sucked up in the hob filter too much, burned up several filters. Aqueon hob filter seems to work well in the sand tanks ime.
 
I would suggest using Seachems Flourish Comprehensive weekly after WC's. And also getting API leaf zone which will dose potassium and iron. This combination will be good. And if you put in any swords or crypts I suggest getting some root tabs.
 
ok sounds good!! Just wondering but why would you suggest root tabs if I keep crypts or swords
 
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