Basic New Tank Questions

[pankelephant]

I'm almost ready to start setting up my 55g planted tank and I have a few questions.

First, I bought the Odyssea T5HO 4x54 "plant version." I know the reviews are mixed, that the ballast is usually for NO and not HO and that the bulbs are crap. I'm going with it stock for now because I intend to upgrade to something high-end when I have more money. I've decided that figuring out how to determine wpg is impossible, so any help there would be appreciated. The big thing is determining which plants I can have based on my lighting. This is for a standard 55g (48" x 13" x 21"). Do I have high/med/low?

Second, do I need CO2? My understanding is that the answer depends on my lighting - the higher the lighting, the more need for CO2. Is that correct? My tank will get lots of indirect sunlight every day - 9' south-facing windows - can't do anything about that. Should I factor this in when I'm figuring out my light/nutrient/CO2 balance? If so, how? Does livestock need to be considered?

Assuming I do need CO2, I would definitely do a DIY system with soda bottles, etc.. My reading suggests that more and/or larger bottles increase the amount of time a given solution will last. Does it also increase the output? Why do I only see 2L bottles being used - why not a 5g bottle or something? My water is incredibly soft and I have almost no buffering - I'll be using crushed coral right from the beginning. So it's critical that I don't crash it with too much CO2. Is it possible to keep it in check with a DIY set up?

Lastly, how do I include ferts in all this? I would like to keep it as simple as possible.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[jlk]

Hi! I am not going to be of a big help here but hopefully some of our plant experts will chime in with further suggestions. I have an Odyssea dual T5HO on my one 55g (stock bulbs). I do not run CO2 but dose Excel almost daily and micro/macro fert mix biweekly. Without it, the tank is very unbalanced and I have run into issues before. I have a different brand quad T5HO fixture on my other 55g and rarely ever run both sets of bulbs as its simply too much light. My guess is that running four bulbs in addition to natural sunlight will be overkill on your 55g but perhaps this can be mitigated with a good CO2 system. I'll let the experts help figure this out for you!

 

[pankelephant]

Thanks! What kind of plants are you able to go with the Odyssea? Assuming some sort of carbon solution (co2 or Excel), are you able to grow plants with high lighting requirements?

 

[jlk]

I do not have anything fancy or with special requirements but everything grows very well for the most part. I think my water is a factor in part in this as its very hard, high ph water and not everything can tolerate the conditions as I have discovered the hard way. My guess is you have quite a few options for plants that have higher light needs. Once again, I am far from an expert on this and I am just happy to have any plants growing, lol!