Overhauling my system--

[zombie2k]

Hi everyone!

I have a tall 30 gallon tank with the eclipse 2 cover/filtration system (with the blue pad and biowheel). I've been trying to get plants to grow in my tank forever now and it has become a bit of a black hole.

I've got two 15W Powerglos in the lighting fixtures right now, but I've only been able to get an amazon sword and anubias to survive. While they do survive the big leafs have mostly died and the new sprouting ones don’t seem to grow at all.

I'm aware that my lighting is pretty low as far as the WPG rule goes (and I've heard tall tanks need more light to grow as effectively as long ones). I have fluorite for my substrate and 2 angels, a gourami and a tiger barb (he doesn't nip my angels yet --hopefully it stays that way! ).

I've been thinking of completely overhauling my tank to support more robust plant growth. I've looked into compact fluorescents but im not sure if they'd fit in the fixtures. I only have two pins and they (compact) all seem to have three, not to mention they take up space im not sure my lighting area has. I've also heard the biowheel and filtration method (waterfall) screw co2 pretty badly.

In any case I'm looking for advice as far as being able to fix my current system or suggestions on what to buy for a new lighting/filtration system. I've only got about $150 USD to spend at the moment and I'm not likely to have much more in the near future. My DIY skills are extremely limited (I don't even own measuring tape), so most of it will have to be commercial (unless I can just buy some stuff and put it together easily).

I'd like to eventually add a sump as well so it would be great if suggestions allow for that possibility in the future as well. Though this is clearly not necessary, I just want some green with my fishes
I believe my tank dimensions are 12 X 24 if that helps at all.


Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[rkilling1]

What you need to decide it what kind of planted tank do you want and then we will go from there.

If you are not injecting CO2, then the biowheel is fine.

BTW, you can't just put CF bulbs into a normal fixture. You would have to obtain a whole NEW fixture.

 

[zombie2k]

My tank is fairly tall, so I want some plants that can grow fairly tall. If the light requirements for some tall plants aren't high enough to warrant co2, then I'd rather do without it.

As for the CF issue, then I suspect I'll just have to buy a new fixture as i have two light sockets ( 18" t8 ) and i can only find 15w for them. Any suggestions?

 

[rkilling1]

What I need to know is, what do you REALLY want out of this tank?

Do you want it to look something like this:

Or just some regular old green plants that you don't have to deal with as much.

There are plenty of plants that you can grow with medium light and not have to inject CO2.

Plantgeek is a great source of info for plant requirments.

http://www.plantgeek.net/

I can tell you, just as you have pointed out, that there are very few that will grow under your current light setup.

If you are looking to just grow 'some' plants, then I would look into a HO T-5 fixture that has about 60 watts.

If you want to grow exotic and very colorful plants, then you are going to have to invest quite a bit of money. It's better to buy what you MAY need now then to have to upgrade later.

 

[zombie2k]

What price range am I looking at for the lighting in the pic? I would buy the best setup imaginable if I had the cash, so right now with this tank something around 150 bucks is all I can muster for a fixture alone.

So if "some plants" fits into that then I'll be happy with that. I'd be perfectly content with plants that grow large and are healthy. The sweetness in that picture would be fluff as far as im concerned.

I wouldn't mind buying co2 at some later point, but def not at this point.

 

[rkilling1]

I would purchase this:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12772&pcatid=12772

It only has two bulbs that are good for plants and then that leaves you with room to upgrade if need be.

There are other options as well. They do make retrofit kits that fit into standard hoods. I think hello kitty sells them.

You can search on Ebay, but research the brand BEFORE you buy it.

Runing between 1.5 and 2 WPG allows to grow a vast amount of plants without having to dose ferts all the time or add CO2. Though, DIY CO2 is not hard to do on that size that. Granted you would need to remove the biowheel from your filter if you were to inject CO2.


EDIT:

What price range am I looking at for the lighting in the pic?

My lighting cost about 300 dollars, then add about 350 for the CO2 setup and another 250 for the substrate. That's not even including filtration/heater/Plant cost/Ferts/ect...

 

[Sectoid Command]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but aren't Hagen PowerGlos 10,000K bulbs? If memory serves me correctly I believe they are. Those bulbs are probably more for marine tanks and non-planted tanks (just for color in this case). Most planted tank folk, myself included, have better luck using bulbs in the 5000K - 7000K range. Using 2 15 watt 5000K bulbs won't increase your light output but it may increase the amount of plant usable light. You can find them pretty cheap too. 5-10 bucks per bulb at Wal-mart I believe.

Also, consider dosing Flourish Excel. Flourish Excel is in a sense, liquid carbon...i.e....its kind of like CO2...sort of. A 30 gallon tank is probably still not too big for dosing excel. It is a lot more consistant than DIY CO2 (especially if you are new to DIY CO2) and a lot cheaper than pressurized CO2. In general, plants can do with less light if there is CO2 readily available. As an added bonus, excel does not gas off so you wouldn't have to remove your bio-wheel. A 2L bottle of excel cost about 25-30 bucks online and should last you anywhere from 1 - 1.5 years.

It should be noted that doing these two things will probably not result in a tank like rkilling1's. Doing these two things will probably enable your anubias and other low light plants to survive...maybe even your sword.

EDIT: PowerGlo bulbs are 18000K. That being said, many people seem to be having success with them, espcially when paired with a bulb in the 5000K - 7000K range bulb.

 

[tropicfishman]

I have the bare minimum on my 29 gallon tank, except for the filtration but that doesn't effect the plants hardly any, and I've done really well with low to medium light plants. Now I realize you have a tall tank which puts your plants at a disadvantage for recieving the full force of the lighting but even so there still are some nice low light plants that can survive. java moss, anubius, wisteria and hygro would do well if you could find some tall ones to start out with. Just make sure not to plant them somewhere where the other plants will get smothered out by the shadowing. try some pet supply stores online, I promise it seems like I have seen specia ladapters for the eclipse setups that allow you to use certian other bulbs.

www.drfostersmith.com
www.thatfishplace.com
www.petsolutions.com