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fishyperson3010

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
659
Location
Surrey, United Kingdom
Hi

So after a ilness and a nasty accident, I have only 3 fish left in my 180 litre tank, so I thought this would be a good time for a revamp of my tank, e.g. new substrate, plants, filter, light tubes and add more fish, co2 system and fertilisers. I was thinking for:

Substrate: eco complete. Does anyone know how much I will need?

Plants: http://www.plantsalive.co.uk/aquari...tions/48-collection/prod_48.html#.Ug9NC33TXMI

Filter: Either a fluval 406 or a eheim 2224 or other recommended filters.

Light tubes: replacement of current juwel t5s

Co2 system: what do you recommend? I'm a complete novice on co2.

Ferts: Dry or liquid. Whats simpler? Again I'm a novice on these also do you recommend any brand

And driftwood

Thanks
 
Fish:

1x Bolivian ram
7x harlequin Rasbora
6x various cory
2x zebra loach
2x honey gourami
6x red phantom tetra
5x otocinclus
6x red line torpedo or some sort of barb but not cherry

Any one recommend any thing else or am I fully stocked
 
Some of those plants are quite difficult to grow, even for the experienced. You might want to wait on a few of them. Mayaca is difficult, hydrocotyle verticillata is really a pain too, cabomba, while lovely, often simply falls apart.

C02 is not rocket science but you do have to get a decent system and have it set up properly. If you add too much gas you will suffocate the fish. If you don't add enough, it's pointless doing it at all. You need a good quality regulator and a high quality needle valve. Cheaping out on either one is false economy.

Check with a company that supplies gases and find out what it costs to buy a tank and to get it refilled. I imagine the UK requires tanks to be recertified at specified periods. In Canada, it's every ten years. Buying a used one, while not always a bad idea, can cost if it's old enough that it has to be recertified before you can have it filled.

You'll also need a diffuser of some sort, unless you do it inline. These are all topics you can research on line in detail, and you will need a bubble counter and a drop checker as well. Bubble counter allows you to monitor how fast the gas is going in, drop checker allow visual monitoring of levels quickly.

If you want to grow demanding plants, you need a high level lighting system. Either High output T5 flourescent tubes, or regular T5s, and enough to light the bottom really well, or you won't be able to grow that hair grass either. It needs a lot of light.

Feeding is probably easiest if you buy premixed liquids, like Seachem's line or others. But it's much cheaper if you buy dry ferts and mix up a solution yourself, and then it's still pretty simple. You've just saved a lot of money.

Go to the Barr Report and read Tom Barr's info. The guy is magic for planted tanks and knows all there is to know, I think. Or most of it anyway. You can do EI, estimative index dosing, or try to be more precise and test for levels of key nutrients, like iron. Overdoing iron is bad, under dosing will make a lot of plants unhappy. Most red plants need a lot of iron. Usually, if iron levels are good, micro nutrients are good too, generally speaking.

Hydroponic stores are good sources for dry fertilizers, btw.

Glad you are feeling better, and wish you luck with the new venture. Best to take it in steps, don't buy all those plants at one time. Start with the easier ones, get the C02 running well, fish in, etc., then start with the pickier plants. I always research a plant before I get it, having had a few really disappointing outcomes, and I resent losing the money because I could not provide the right conditions too. You can always add more.

If you can get it, consider cyperus helferi instead of the Vals. Very pretty, grassy leaves wave gently in the current, I love the way it looks and they don't spread so fast as Vals do. But no corkscrew leaves, unfortunately.
 
Actually red plants don't need as much iron as people think. Running a low nitrate and high phosphate tank with high lighting will give non green plants amazing color. Plants need phosphate to undergo the chemical change which allow them to color up which is the plants way of protecting itself (like a sunscreen) from intense lighting. Here's some of my plants in one of my high light tanks that I run with 10ppm nitrates, 5-10ppm phosphates, and the normal amount of dosing of micro ferts which include iron dosing PPS-Pro.

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: 5-12-13 update/new plants - Picture

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: 220g 8-9-13 - Picture

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/64804-albums13012-picture60392.html

The difference between dosing El, which is basically overdosing all ferts, then doing a 50% WC weekly. This method is to be sure to have all the ferts available that plants need. PPS-Pro allows you to custom dose a tank to the levels you want. I dose PPS-Pro in all my tanks as I tend to grow mostly non green plants.
 
Even better information. I'm aware of the protocal you use.. but he said he wanted simple, and EI is pretty simple. Be enough issues getting it all set up and the C02 running properly and that list of plants was huge.

I've actually had problems with a couple of all green plants I got, misidentified at first, that turned out to have quite high needs for iron, which they were not getting in my tank.

Beautiful pics, of truly lovely plants, btw. I wish mine looked half that good. But I still have plenty to learn.
 
Some of those plants are quite difficult to grow, even for the experienced. You might want to wait on a few of them. Mayaca is difficult, hydrocotyle verticillata is really a pain too, cabomba, while lovely, often simply falls apart.

C02 is not rocket science but you do have to get a decent system and have it set up properly. If you add too much gas you will suffocate the fish. If you don't add enough, it's pointless doing it at all. You need a good quality regulator and a high quality needle valve. Cheaping out on either one is false economy.

Check with a company that supplies gases and find out what it costs to buy a tank and to get it refilled. I imagine the UK requires tanks to be recertified at specified periods. In Canada, it's every ten years. Buying a used one, while not always a bad idea, can cost if it's old enough that it has to be recertified before you can have it filled.

You'll also need a diffuser of some sort, unless you do it inline. These are all topics you can research on line in detail, and you will need a bubble counter and a drop checker as well. Bubble counter allows you to monitor how fast the gas is going in, drop checker allow visual monitoring of levels quickly.

If you want to grow demanding plants, you need a high level lighting system. Either High output T5 flourescent tubes, or regular T5s, and enough to light the bottom really well, or you won't be able to grow that hair grass either. It needs a lot of light.

Feeding is probably easiest if you buy premixed liquids, like Seachem's line or others. But it's much cheaper if you buy dry ferts and mix up a solution yourself, and then it's still pretty simple. You've just saved a lot of money.

Go to the Barr Report and read Tom Barr's info. The guy is magic for planted tanks and knows all there is to know, I think. Or most of it anyway. You can do EI, estimative index dosing, or try to be more precise and test for levels of key nutrients, like iron. Overdoing iron is bad, under dosing will make a lot of plants unhappy. Most red plants need a lot of iron. Usually, if iron levels are good, micro nutrients are good too, generally speaking.

Hydroponic stores are good sources for dry fertilizers, btw.

Glad you are feeling better, and wish you luck with the new venture. Best to take it in steps, don't buy all those plants at one time. Start with the easier ones, get the C02 running well, fish in, etc., then start with the pickier plants. I always research a plant before I get it, having had a few really disappointing outcomes, and I resent losing the money because I could not provide the right conditions too. You can always add more.

If you can get it, consider cyperus helferi instead of the Vals. Very pretty, grassy leaves wave gently in the current, I love the way it looks and they don't spread so fast as Vals do. But no corkscrew leaves, unfortunately.

Thanks any valves or regulators you recommend
 
Actually red plants don't need as much iron as people think. Running a low nitrate and high phosphate tank with high lighting will give non green plants amazing color. Plants need phosphate to undergo the chemical change which allow them to color up which is the plants way of protecting itself (like a sunscreen) from intense lighting. Here's some of my plants in one of my high light tanks that I run with 10ppm nitrates, 5-10ppm phosphates, and the normal amount of dosing of micro ferts which include iron dosing PPS-Pro.

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: 5-12-13 update/new plants - Picture

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - Rivercats's Album: 220g 8-9-13 - Picture

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/64804-albums13012-picture60392.html

The difference between dosing El, which is basically overdosing all ferts, then doing a 50% WC weekly. This method is to be sure to have all the ferts available that plants need. PPS-Pro allows you to custom dose a tank to the levels you want. I dose PPS-Pro in all my tanks as I tend to grow mostly non green plants.

Thanks rivercats your plants never cease to amaze!
 
Check with a company that supplies gases and find out what it costs to buy a tank and to get it refilled. I imagine the UK requires tanks to be recertified at specified periods. In Canada, it's every ten years. Buying a used one, while not always a bad idea, can cost if it's old enough that it has to be recertified before you can have it filled.
.

Could I use a fire extinguisher or something like that
 
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