From fake plants to aquascape

[almcloud]

I am planning to convert my beginner / fake planted aquarium to an aquascape.
I would appreciate any suggestions I can get.
Currently my setup is a community tank with 6 dw Gouramies, 1 swordtail, 2 ramirezies, 4 cories, 5 khuli loaches and 1 peacock gudgeon.
Tank is a 55 gal marineland kit with all stock equipment ()
I want to get a good canister filter (pls recommend) better lights (pls recommend) and CO unit (pls recommend)
Thank you in advance for your input.

 

[almcloud]

I am planning to convert my beginner / fake planted aquarium to an aquascape.
I would appreciate any suggestions I can get.
Currently my setup is a community tank with 6 dw Gouramies, 1 swordtail, 2 ramirezies, 4 cories, 5 khuli loaches and 1 peacock gudgeon.
Tank is a 55 gal marineland kit with all stock equipment (70 G Penguin 350B & 40G Sponge filters and 2 sets moonlight/daylight marineland lights)
I want to get a good canister filter (pls recommend) better lights (pls recommend), CO unit (pls recommend) and substrate of course, currently have medium bk mixed with light substrate covered in fine light sand.
Thank you in advance for your input.

 

[Mr.Pleco]

I am planning to convert my beginner / fake planted aquarium to an aquascape.
I would appreciate any suggestions I can get.
Currently my setup is a community tank with 6 dw Gouramies, 1 swordtail, 2 ramirezies, 4 cories, 5 khuli loaches and 1 peacock gudgeon.
Tank is a 55 gal marineland kit with all stock equipment (70 G Penguin 350B & 40G Sponge filters and 2 sets moonlight/daylight marineland lights)
I want to get a good canister filter (pls recommend) better lights (pls recommend), CO unit (pls recommend) and substrate of course, currently have medium bk mixed with light substrate covered in fine light sand.
Thank you in advance for your input.

The most popular brand for canister is Fluval IMO. I have 2 Fluval 405's and love them. You could look into Eheim or Rena as well. There are cheaper brands that people recommend such as SunSun, Cascade, and AquaTop. I have no experience with those brands though. I would keep the stock filter on the tank still. Adding a canister would be a good combination with a HOB.

The question for the lighting and co2 depends on what kind of plants you are wanting. If you just want plants like anubis or java fern then you don't need to spend much. The more demanding the plant, the higher the lighting which in turn most likely means co2.

I have a Milwaukee gauge and solenoid with a controller on my tank with a 20lb tank. After my research I got that Milwaukee was the best for the price.

I have a 150g planted community tank. I have 3 Deepblue Solarmax tf HO fixtures on it. One 48" and 2 "36". All 6.7k bulbs.
This is what I have...it would fit you 55..assuming it's the same size as my 50 just a little taller.

For substrate...most people use Ecocomplete. There are other brands such as FloraMax and Flourite. I bought FloraMax for my 150 only because it was cheaper and I could buy more.

Hope this helps some.

 

[Eleven13]

As Mr.Pleco said, it really depends on what kind of planted tank you wish to set up.

You can go low tech, with low lighting and pretty much whatever substrate you want and have success with easy low light plants like java fern, anubias, anacharis, crypts etc. That is currently what I have; gravel substrate, no C02, and I just use root tabs for my root plants and I dose the water column with liquid fertilizer.

The higher you get in lighting, the more need is placed on C02, but it does open up the list of plants you can keep further.

I like the low tech tank I have now because it has been a good learning experience so far. I definitely want to upgrade to a higher tech tank down the road, but I'm enjoying it a lot right now.

 

[almcloud]

The most popular brand for canister is Fluval IMO. I have 2 Fluval 405's and love them. You could look into Eheim or Rena as well. There are cheaper brands that people recommend such as SunSun, Cascade, and AquaTop. I have no experience with those brands though. I would keep the stock filter on the tank still. Adding a canister would be a good combination with a HOB.

The question for the lighting and co2 depends on what kind of plants you are wanting. If you just want plants like anubis or java fern then you don't need to spend much. The more demanding the plant, the higher the lighting which in turn most likely means co2.

I have a Milwaukee gauge and solenoid with a controller on my tank with a 20lb tank. After my research I got that Milwaukee was the best for the price.

I have a 150g planted community tank. I have 3 Deepblue Solarmax tf HO fixtures on it. One 48" and 2 "36". All 6.7k bulbs.
This is what I have...it would fit you 55..assuming it's the same size as my 50 just a little taller.

For substrate...most people use Ecocomplete. There are other brands such as FloraMax and Flourite. I bought FloraMax for my 150 only because it was cheaper and I could buy more.

Hope this helps some.

Thanks a lot for sharing your opinion. It will help me a lot with my upgrade.
So far I want to go with Fluval based on previous research.
I do want to get a aquascape setup which requires good lights and co2 because i will grow carpet on parts of my substrate and moss on stones and wood

 

[almcloud]

As Mr.Pleco said, it really depends on what kind of planted tank you wish to set up.

You can go low tech, with low lighting and pretty much whatever substrate you want and have success with easy low light plants like java fern, anubias, anacharis, crypts etc. That is currently what I have; gravel substrate, no C02, and I just use root tabs for my root plants and I dose the water column with liquid fertilizer.

The higher you get in lighting, the more need is placed on C02, but it does open up the list of plants you can keep further.

I like the low tech tank I have now because it has been a good learning experience so far. I definitely want to upgrade to a higher tech tank down the road, but I'm enjoying it a lot right now.

Thank you for your feedback.
I will do a aquascape and am planning to go high tech.

 

[almcloud]

More feedback and suggestions are welcome
Thanks!

 

[Mr.Pleco]

Thanks a lot for sharing your opinion. It will help me a lot with my upgrade.
So far I want to go with Fluval based on previous research.
I do want to get a aquascape setup which requires good lights and co2 because i will grow carpet on parts of my substrate and moss on stones and wood

You'll love Fluval if you get one. Not sure if I mentioned already but I'd buy on Amazon and not the stores. I built my 150 off Amazon and saved a bunch.

But you won't regret going planted and high tech. It'll be a learning experience for the first bit which is good and once you get the hang of it the plants will start to grow faster.
And once you have co2, moss is a good choice. Without it it grows pretty slow. It'll look nice on dw, carpets, and on rocks!

 

[skywhitney]

+1 to Mr. Pleco's comments.

On my 67g i'm running a Fluval 406 which i love. I also have a 5lbs CO2 tank with Milwaukee regular, solenoid, and PH controller.

For my lights i'm running a WavePoint 36" quad T5HO (2x 6500k, 2x 10000k)