Back to Fishkeeping! Suggestions?

[Rach101]

Welp! I used to be on these forums a couple years ago, and now that I am finally settling down I decided that I would get another aquarium!(( I had to sell my old ones for money reasons. )) We have a 75 G freshwater tank cycling, and I actually have a few questions.

How long should it take for a 75 G to cycle. I had a ridiculously big tank when I was a kid, but it turned out waaay too expensive for my little job at the cornerstore at the time, and my ten gallons were cycled incorrectly due to lack of experience.

Also! Suggestions?
I would like a community of several different smaller species, and probably not going to go the Semi/Aggressive Cichlid route.
One thing that is kind of important is that I want to keep it relatively low maintenance.

Whew! It's been awhile.

 

[krap101]

If you don't have any seeding (bacteria) it should take maybe a month. With good seeding (I guess alot since it's a 75g) you could probably shave that down to around 1-2 weeks.

If you get some low light plants (or whatever you can support) and if you get enough scavengers, you can stretch the time inbetween water changes. The plants will take care of the nitrates and the scavengers (cories shrimp etc) will clean up after feedings. The last area (I guess) would be algae eaters. Once you find a good balance, (I forgot filter) you can have a virtually maintenance free tank.

 

[Rach101]

Well i've been using fish food and dumping the waste from a few bettas tanks in it to cycle, which right now my ammonia level is still pretty high.

What are some good hardy plants? I never really ventured into the world of real plants successfully. Right now I have generic lighting but I most definitely would not be opposed to upgrading.

It's not really a matter of money, just a matter of convenience, because by the time I get home and finished with cleaning cages and litter boxes, I want to pass out XD

 

[krap101]

I think java fern, amazon sword, anacharis, hornwort, and anubias sp. are the first to come to mind for first plants. You probably want something between like 75-150 watts, and if you want to go beyond that, you might want to start dosing ferts and co2.

You probably want to keep the ammonia around 5ppm, and it would speed up if you put something solid to seed (bacteria live mostly in the gravel/sand and in the filter).

 

[Rach101]

At the moment it's at about 7ppm.
Now i'm familiar with general fish care, but when it comes to plants I really don't know much. If I wanted to begin dosing ferts and co2, how would I start that?

I know you can make home made co2 systems, but is it worth the hassle or better to just purchase it?

 

[Crepe]

With a 75gallon you have to use pressurized co2 lest you want 20 2 litre bottles of yeast, sugar and water that needs to be monthly replaced.

The first thing in plants is light. You need enough light. With a 75 gallon, you won't be needing fertilizers and co2 until as krap put it, at least 150watts. I would say you wouldn't need it as high as 200 watts of light. 4x 54 watt T5 HO lights would put you into the medium-medium high light range. While a 6x54 fixture would bring you up to high to very high.

CO2 systems are pretty easy to set up. A solenoid, regulator, diffuser and 20lb tank. You can DiY a drop checker (used to measure co2) and a bubble counter.

Fertilizing is also easy. For a large tank I suggest EI using dry fertilizers: Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Chloride, Potassium Mono Phosphate, CSM +B.

 

[krap101]

I think it might be closer to 8-10 yeast cultures, and I think you'll probably want to change them like every 2 weeks. A pressurized setup will cost you around 130$ for the tank and the solenoid/controller. Ferts are pretty easy, alot of people do the pmdd (poor man's dosing drops) and you basically mix the fert powder with distilled water, and use calculators to try to get to your target amounts. It cost me around $30. One thing you should pay attention to, (I didn't for awhile) is that you want to be precise in how much you put in (I just put in a squirt) and I got the worst case of green water ever... After I got rid of that, cladophora set in, and since I was at school, I couldn't do anything about it.

Also, I think there's potassium nitrate in the csm+b, but I've been out of the game for awhile

 

[Crepe]

There's no npk in csm +b.

 

[krap101]

My bad, I was thinking Rex Griggs pmdd mix, which includes kno3 and csm+b

 

[JustOneMore20]

Good info above.

If you really want a low maintenance tank, stick with low light plants, around 75 watts of light, and a low fishload.

Medium and high light tanks are alot of fun....lots of plant choices. But, with high light (or medium light), ferts, co2, you have to do alot of plant trimming. I have to trim my plants about every week and a half. Its worth it to me though, just don't expect a tank like that to be low maintenance.

You can definitely have a nice planted tank with low light plants though.

 

[krap101]

I forgot about trimming ><, but you'd probably have to do it once maybe twice a month, if you got carpet plants, you wouldn't have to trim, but something like aponogetons or dwarf lillies (grow really high really fast) along with stem plants. I think the anubias's grow slowly, as well as most of the carpets (micro sword, dwarf hairgrass, glosso, hc etc)

 

[Crepe]

My dwarf hairgrass grows hair grass. Maybe 2 inches a week and spreads another square inch every 2 weeks.