setting up my latest tank..

[William]

Alright, this is my first serious atempt to make a good tank, all my other tanks kinda happened by accident as far as decoration and such


Anyways, I'm setting up the 30gal in my sig to be a cichlid tank, I am going with very passive fish like German Rams.


This tank is going to have a sand bottom, and be heavily planted.

So I plan on getting some kind of Co2 system. and I was reading somewhere [ I don't remember where ] that I should put peat down on the bottom of the tank, then put the substrate over that.

Well the substrate is going to be flourite and Tahitian Moon sand, Is this the good idea to do?


I also plan on making a hood for this tank, and DIY lights around 70 or 80 watts of light for the 30gal.



This sound just about right?

 

[Guest]

Your tanks sound nice.

 

[BrianNY]

Bad idea on the peat William. It's an old technique. Your best bet IMO is to go with a substrate of ALL Eco-Complete. No headaches and a great place to start plants rooting.

 

[William]

i dont like it, its to gravel looking, beside... I already bought 40lbs of moon sand

 

[Allivymar]

I am using Moon sand and laterite in my 25g ram tank; works great. Why the peat tho? Whats your water hardness/pH? Some driftwood and the CO2 should lower the pH to a decent level without the need for peat actually.

 

[William]

What I read is that it allows the plants to absorb what they need from the substrate.


my PH, I don't know quiet honestly. I've always thought it was 7.2 but I'm getting conflicting reports now.

Its either 7.2 or 8.2

 

[Allivymar]

Urk. Better make sure of the pH levels. And find out what your hardness is; since mine is really low (2-3) I have no problem lowering my pH from 7.0 to 6.0, which my rams and angels love. Course, I'm not even trying LOL

And my plants are doing spectacularly without peat. Just CO2, laterite and occasional fertlizers.

 

[William]

Okay, I'm an idiot.


In the Utah Ice Rock post I said I don't have a hardness test.

I just looked through my AquariumPharmicuticles master test kit and found out I do.


All I ever used was the Ammonia, Nitrate and PH test.


I'll run the PH test with the normal and high range PH tests, cause I think it is higher since I always get the highest reading on the normal test. I'll also to a general and carbonate hardness tests.


On my tapwater of course.

 

[Allivymar]

*smirks*

 

[patryuji]

why not put the eco-complete down and then the sand over the top of it?

 

[William]

High range PH test does indeed read 8.2

Gh and KH both read the same, 143.2ppm

 

[55ReefGuy]

You got some hard water there!
Peat can help you lower PH a bit, but your buffer level is high so I'm not convince Peat will do anything.

PH of 8.2 should be fine (I'm not sure about the plants, never had any), PH changes is not a good thing.

What kind of filter will go in the aquarium?

Eric

 

[William]

Penguin 170


And I want to make the tank as good as it can get for them, cause I want them to breed [ So they'd be happy. Since they only breed of their happy with the tank ]

 

[55ReefGuy]

That's the wet/dry version?
That one filters 170 gph, but the general rule here seems to point out anywhere from 6 X to 10 X to amount of filtration is needed from the tank size.

This means that you would require minimum 180 GPH of filtration minimum, and the specifications on almost all units is when the filter is empty, so you will doubtfully get even 170 gph when you add the media.

I have an AquaClear 200 and a Fluval 304 on a 36 gallon tank, so that's roughly 460 gph of filtration (again, with no media). The fish are happy and nothing gets blown away in the tank. I would also recommend a powerhead to improve movement in the tank.

Have you ever considered a canister filter? They are great to put various media, some are a snap to clean, quiet, and out of the way.

A mechanical filter would complement the wet/dry filter you have well, not to mention it would add redundancy.

A Fluval 304 would do the trick.

Good luck

Eric

 

[AtodaJ]

And I want to make the tank as good as it can get for them, cause I want them to breed [ So they'd be happy. Since they only breed of their happy with the tank ]

If I remember correctly you won't have much luck breading blue rams in water with such a high PH and high hardness. I think they are pretty picky. If you really want little ram babies you might be in a situation that requires r/o water.

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/blue rams and PH.html

 

[William]

And I want to make the tank as good as it can get for them, cause I want them to breed [ So they'd be happy. Since they only breed of their happy with the tank ]

If I remember correctly you won't have much luck breading blue rams in water with such a high PH and high hardness. I think they are pretty picky. If you really want little ram babies you might be in a situation that requires r/o water.

http://hjem.get2net.dk/Best_of_the_Web/blue rams and PH.html

...Which is why I want to make the tank as good as it can get for them, Cause I want them to be happy.



and I'm aware of the turnover rate, Its not going to be a very populated tank so the filtration I have chosen will be fine.

 

[AtodaJ]

Are you going to go with r/o water then? :?

 

[William]

Donno, Be a pain to have to buy water every week for my fish.


Off to ebay I go, I guess.


a good layer of peat, and driftwood has no chance of affecting my water right?

 

[patryuji]

Donno, Be a pain to have to buy water every week for my fish.


Off to ebay I go, I guess.


a good layer of peat, and driftwood has no chance of affecting my water right?

Buy an RO/DI unit if you have the money. Versus the weekly purchase in addition to travel expense and time spent travelling it might come out to be competitively priced to just own a unit.

Have you already tried to run peat in it for a week just to see if it had any effect on the hardness and pH?

 

[William]

I was waiting for all my supplies to come in before I filled the tank, I suppose I could try it in my fish bucket..


Whats the ideal ammount of peat for 5gal? I can use that as a base figure tow much the 30 needs