Old Scales
Aquarium Advice Addict
Amen about Rivercats! I'm sure glad she's here for us. Doing plants is a whole separate adventure. LOL OS.
level issues in upgraded tank... need help please.
- Thread starter Shon
- Start date
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phishfriend
Aquarium Advice Addict
Rivercats, I think I may just start referring to you as the PQ. Has a certain ring to it dont you think? LOL!
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
Here is the link for the other thread I will get on there and post the light information for that tank after this post.
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...eding-help-with-setup-of-new-tank-252107.html
On my 29 gallon I have a ge F20T12/AQ•ECO wide spectrum 20w pictures attached. It is a Aquarium plant light from Walmart. It's what was in it when I got it. I also put the blue led strip on there myself for moon light. The camera makes it look brighter blue than it is.
Attachments
You could most likely get low light and med-low light plants to grow fine. Swords, Crypts (for sure), Narrowleaf Temple, Corkscrew Val, Dwarf Sag, Ambulia, Water Sprite, Wisteria, 4 Leaf Clover, and for alittle color Red Tiger Lotus and Telanthera Rosefolia (Alternanthera reineckii). Then you can use Anubia, Java Fern (regular and wendilov), Bolbutis, and java moss to attach on DW if you have any.
Are you going to change your substrate?
Are you going to change your substrate?
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
Thank you and yes I'm thinking about it to be honest I don't really like the blue rock but it came in the tank so was a money saver. But is it easy to change the substrate I've heard I can't without risking shocking my fish.
People change their substrate all the time, it's easy. Just remove the fish to a container that you can put their filter and heater on/in. Drain the tank water down enough you can remove the gravel and then put in the new substrate. You can siphon off more of the tank water if it's really nasty, then refill the tank with clean new water of the proper temp (or you can save some of the old tank water to add back in with new water. Rehook the filter and heater to the tank and let run about 30 minutes and then acclimate the fish just like when you brought them home. That's how I've done it in the past. It's not hard, just time consuming.
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ok thank you I will definitely look into it is there substrate that is better for live plants or can I just use a different gravel.
You can use sand or any small grained gravel if you want but you will have to use root tabs for root feeding plants like Swords and Crypts. Or you can use a plant substrate if your going to be planting alot of plants. It's just a matter of how much you want to spend.
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
Rivercats do you know if I can use a cfl bulb in my incandescent as long as it is 25w or less on my 5.5 since that's the Maxx rating. And also I have a ten gallon put up that needs cleaned and bulbs and was going to use a 13w cfl in it since it calls for 15w maxx incandescent. I can purchase the plant ones by ge at Walmart $15 for 3 if so...
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
My 25w hood is for the 5.5 gallon the ten take two 15w maxx. The fixtures are made on the hoods I can't change them as they are one piece assembly. Only thing I can do for now is change the bulbs. lack of funds
lack of funds
phishfriend
Aquarium Advice Addict
I use 4 23w 6500k CFL's in a 75g. I know lowe's carries a 6500k 13w mini cfl that might work but it may be to much and cause crazy algae issues. I had a 5g that was planted and I put a high output bulb in that hood that I got at petco. It worked well for low to med light plants. They didn't grow like crazy which I liked because i didn't want to trim plants very three days but they always looked healthy.
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Shon
Aquarium Advice Regular
Ok thank you for the advice ill post pictures in a few weeks of the update. Not too sure what plants I'm going to get yet. I got alot to ponder on thank you all again stay tuned.
thank you all again stay tuned.
phishfriend
Aquarium Advice Addict
That's the good thing about plants they are easy to change so you can try different kinds to see what works best in your setup
