Need-to-Know

[uscamaro]

Hey everyone, I have recently decided to invest in a large aquarium and I have been doing lots of research so I could eliminate most of the beginner mistakes. So here is what I am planning on working with:

*$500 budget (+/-)
*46-75 gal. (w/ stand)
*live plants
*tropical fish
*other attractive decor
*timed power strip
*filter, bulbs, thermometer, heater

I know these aren't very specific, but I am trying to get a general idea of what kind of setup I want before I do further research. I also have several questions or what is recommended/needed:

*Floor: gravel, rocks/stones, sand, live sand
*Filter: mechanical, chemical, biological
*Accessories: UV filter, lunar bulbs (I love night-views of fish)
*Chemical Testers: will less expensive ones work as well as top dollar?
*Algae Control: algae eaters (shrimp, snails, fish)
*Chemicals: hardeners, softeners, phos-x, others I'm not aware of
*Siphon Pumps: do manual ones work well?

I know that there is probably loads of information about all of these, but if anyone can contribute their knowledge on at least one of the topics, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, if you have any links to sites that most likely have answered these questions before, that would be great. Thanks again you guys!

 

[jsoong]

Welcome to AA!!

If you are doing live plants - go to the planted forum stickies & read the recommendations on lighting & substrate. Normal gravel won't do for plants, you need either plants specific substrates (like ecoflourish $$) or a home mix (sand/peat, etc). For sucessful plants you will need at least 1.5-2 wpg of fluorescent light on a timer (power compact or T8's are most cost effective at your size tank).

Chemicals - you need nothing except a dechlorinator to start. No need to doctor your water unless your tap water really bad (and in that case, better to do de-ionized water rather than adding a ton of crap into the tank). Once you are really into plants, you will need to consider fertilizers.

Testing - liquid reagent types (test stripes are almost useless as they are totally inaccurate). For NO2, NO3, NH3, your hobby grade liquid tests are good enough - you really need just a yes/no answer for those tests. If you are into high tech/high light/CO2 planted tank, you will need pH meters & other fancy tests .... but no need for beginner or low-tech setups.

Algae control in a planted tank - very important to have those before anything else (normally add with the plants) - Simese algae eater, Otocinclus, dwarf pleco, Nerite snails.

Filter - a good canister.

Siphon - for gravel vac, manual ones are fine as long as you have enough height to dump out the water (I siphon my water out a window into my flower bed) .... consider a python if you are in the basement & have to move water uphill.

 

[odessadude]

I would also consider buying a used tank and stand and buying your supplies online. Many people get in this hobby only to find out that it is not for them. When they do this the equipment is sold for a great discount. Just make sure the glass is good and it will hold water. Scratches are best seen when the tank is dry. I recently bought a 55 gallon I found on my local craiglist.org. It was close so I could go take a look at it and the price of $25.00 was worth the asking price. When I first got started years ago a friend of mine told me about a mail order catalog and that I would save a lot of cash on the equipment. He was right and now they are online and I pay about 1/3 to 1/2 of what the local stores get for pumps, filters, etc. In addition the quality of items online are much better then what you will see in the mass market tropical fish stores.

Figure out what size tank will fit the location in your home will fit best. Buy it and then outfit it. It is much better to take a slow approach and spend your money wisely, then to take advise from the store and buy it all at once.

Here is a useful formula to figure your gallons on a square or rectangular tank.

Measure the outside of the glass in inches L X W X H and divide this by 231. This will give you the nominal size of the tank in gallons. So if you see a good deal and the seller doesn't know the size, now you will.

Keep us posted on the progress and many members will help you with your en devour!

 

[mattrox]

Once you get the tank and get it cycled add the desired fish slowly. Don't buy all your fish at once unless you are prepared to do regular water changes, just in case your biological filter is not up to the bioload you put in. Don't worry about any charcoal or ammonia absorbing materials in your filter. Just mechanical and biological filtration will be just fine. A good canister filter will serve you well, I run a Fluval 404 on my 80 gal and have no trouble.

Don't worry about changing your water chemistry too much, most fish you buy are tank bred in a variety of water conditions. You would only need to worry about this in specialized setups, and you would read about these in your research.

I have been successful with a low light planted tank using a flouro light with two flouro tubes. I used the flourish range to assist the plants. I had the fish in there first, I started with Rummynose Tetras and Cardinal Tetras and Corydoras cat fish. I added plants and didn't gravel vac for a while until the plants were established.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[rkilling1]

The setup for plants all depends on what type of planted tank you are considering. Do you want a high light tank? medium? ect...

You don't need a special substrate to grow aquatic plants as they get most of the nutrients from the water column and not from their roots. Having a substrate with nutrients in it will help, no doubt, but it is not required.

As far as tank size, the bigger the better. I would get the biggest that you can fit into your viewing area. I would take odessadude's advice and look for a used tank and stand.

500 dollars does not go very far when setting up a high tech planted tank, so take that into consideration when figuring out what type of tank you want.

www.plantgeek.net is a great resource to see what type of plants you would want to go with. Just click on "Plant Guide" and there are different selections that you can search under.

 

[uscamaro]

few more questions:

what would consist of a high-tech planted tank? I was really just looking to add a few live plants to my fish tank instead of vice-versa

would high/low light levels affect other parts of the aquarium (like algea eaters, algea growth, even the fish)?

how bright, roughly, is low/med/high light look like? or wattage?

(completely random)
any feedback from "lunar" light? I've seen these advertised, but never on tanks, and I think they look good... are they worth it or effect anything?

 

[rkilling1]

few more questions:

what would consist of a high-tech planted tank? I was really just looking to add a few live plants to my fish tank instead of vice-versa

would high/low light levels affect other parts of the aquarium (like algea eaters, algea growth, even the fish)?

how bright, roughly, is low/med/high light look like? or wattage?

(completely random)
any feedback from "lunar" light? I've seen these advertised, but never on tanks, and I think they look good... are they worth it or effect anything?

High tech meaning that you are running high light (3 to 4 WPG or more), inject CO2, and have to add ferts routinely to the tank.

Only wanting a few plants is easy to accomplish without spend too much money. You should shoot for around 1 to 2 WPG for the lighting.

I have never noticed the fish being affected by the higher levels of light. Not including nocturnal ones.

Algae will grow faster with more light, no doubt. It's a balance you have to maintain.

Blue LED's are awesome IMO. They are not needed, what so ever, in fresh water, but I really enjoy the way the fish and tank look at night with the LED's on. I also have a couple nocturnal fish and having the LED's really helps me appreciate them.

Many light fixtures that are made for Salt Water, come with LED's in them.

I have a coralight 4 X 65 watt fixture over my 75 gallon aquarium and it has the LED's built in.

 

[jsoong]

A high tech planted tank is one designed for the plants - fish are secondary - consisting of - lots of light, specialized substrate, regular fertilizers, and (most importantly) injection of additional CO2. You are looking at $1000 or so in equipment alone.

Generally, low light is 1-2 watts (fluorescent light) per gallon, high 4 wpg & up. With high light, you need to have perfect balance of plants, CO2 & ferts or you get into major algae problems. The fish should not mind the extra light. Even a low light tank will be brighter than the typical fish only stock light ... personally I like the brighter look.

From what you say - just having a few plants with the fish, you are looking at a low tech/ low light tank. If you chose the plants correctly, you can get by with stock lights to start (eg Jave ferns) ... but beware, plants are addictive, before long, you will want more plants, better lights ........

 

[uscamaro]

Thank you guys so much for all the help so far and keeping patient with me.

I was doing more research and some people placed egg cartons or cardboard for support for the weight of the rocks (I'm looking to get a lot of rocks and stacking them up for a nice background).

Anyway, where do they put the supports? Are they under the tank, or in the tank? Also, if I were to get an undergravel filter (should I?) what would I do then?

 

[odessadude]

No under gravel filters in planted tank. The constant flow of water will not allow the root system to grow properly. As far as the egg cartons are concerned, I don't believe they or the cardboard would be a good idea in the tank.

Moderators may disagree!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

If you are going to load your tank up with rock work, egg crate is nice to evenly distribute the weight. I use it in my 150 because I have a hefty load of rock in the center of the tank. It's cheap and is never seen, it can't cause any harm. Don't confuse it with the cardboard or foam egg cartons, the stuff most of us use is plastic and can be found at many home supply stores. In fact, I bought mine at Home Depot in the lighting section.

 

[jsoong]

Just to repeat, "eggcrate" has nothing to do with eggs or egg cartons! 'Eggcrate" is a style of light diffuser for office fluorescent light. It is made of hard plastic and is in a grid pattern, making it ideal for DIY aquarium grates, dividers & also rockwork support.

For rockwork, people put a sheet in the tank under the rock to distribute the weight of the rock so sharp rock edges don't cause cracks in glass. If you are planning to have tall rock work (as in a background), you would also silicone the rocks together so the whole thing won't fall down & break your tank.

 

[uscamaro]

yea, I kinda figured that after it posted, but thanks for the added info

 

[severum mama]

You can have a heavily planted tank without going high-light/high-maintenance, just to reiterate. I have a heavily planted 55 gallon using only a Coralife 2x65W PC strip light (10000K bulbs), no ferts, and no CO2. I'm having great success with anubias, rotala indica, vallisneria, red ludwigia, various crypts, ozelot sword, red rubin sword, kleiner bar sword, brazilian pennywort, lace aponogeton, and water sprite. I do use Eco Complete and I'd swear by it in a planted tank- mine is a mix of 40 lbs. Eco and 20 lbs. Estes natural gravel. Here is the latest pic of my tank, in case you'd like to see it:

I don't consider myself a planted tank guru in any way, but my point is you can have an aesthetically pleasing planted tank with medium light and low effort on a $500 budget.