Help planting my 75gal!

[XimeD]

So here's my 75gal set-up so far:

-Acrylic 75gal tank 48''L x 15''W x 24''H
-Aqueon 300W 15inch heater
-Rena xP3 canister filter (for up to 175gal, 350GPH)
-Lights: 2 T12 48'' 40W tubes (one daylight 6500K and one plant/aquarium 3100K) - so I am at 1wpg (low light)
-Subtrate: playsand
-Decorations: one large piece of malaysian drifwood, some slate rocks.

I live in So.Cali so my tap water is slightly basic and very hard. Water in tank:
gH: ~300pm (14 drops on API test kit)
kH: 8 degrees or 143ppm (8 drops on API test kit)
pH = 7.4
temp = 86F (bringing this down to 84 during the fishless cycling and then down to 80F a week or so before I add fish)

Fish Stocking plans:
All the fish in my 20gal will go into the 75gal. Then adding:
-fire eel (small)
-MTS and a few assasin snails
-MAYBE: a couple of pictus cats (not sure the tank can handle it)

Plant Stocking plans (pardon if I misspell any scientific names):
- 1x Amazon Sword (Echinodorus bleheri) - I know they need medium light but this is part of the plant package I am getting. I guess I can always ask them to substitute if there is no chance it will survive with my lighting.
-2x Baby Tears (Hermianthus micranthenum)
-1x Anubias nana (Anubias barteri var nana)
-5x Jungle Val (Vallisneria gigantea)
-4x Corkscrew Val (Vallisneria asiatica var biwaensis)
-1x Aponogeton ulvaceous
-2x Cryptocoryne petchi
-1x Cryptocoryne wendtii bronze
-2x Java fern narrow leaf
-1x Cabomba green (Cabomba caroliniana)

And I would love to keep some banana plants (Nymphoides aquatica) but read they need high light. Anyone had success keeping them in low light conditions like mine?

A couple more points:
-Do I have too many background plants and not enough foreground plants? If so any recomendations for foreground?
-I plan on using seachem flourish root tabs, and I messed up and bought some seachem excel. I now know this is a no no with vals but they had already shipped it and wouldnt let me cancel the order.
-Is using dry ferts worth it with my low light set-up?
-Same for DYI CO2 injection, is it worth it for my set-up
-What extra test kits (besides, API master kit, gH and kH) should I think about getting, phosphates?

So, please tell me what you think so that I can order plants I appreciate any help.

 

[XimeD]

Oops forgot, here's some pics:

 

[FishEggs]

with the extra tall tank it's actually lower light than 1 wpg at the bottom where the plants will be. t-12's dont penetrate the water to deep.
i would suspect the baby tears and the cabomba to not do so well. i have an amazon sword in low light and it is doing ok just be sure to use a root tab near it. i use excel with lots of vals in my tanks and they are fine. just dont use too much but i think it will still help. also the vals in my 1wpg 75g set up are staying pretty short so it might work as a foregroud for you
dry ferts is always cheaper whether you have low light or high light. they just last longer in low light conditions due to the slower growing plants.
diy co2 would be pretty inadequate for a 75g but it might help a bit if you get some algae issues i would try it.

 

[XimeD]

Thanks! I'll scratch the cabomba and baby tears. I will also add another shop-light with another 2x bulbs (i'll do T8 if I can) the soonest I can.

How much do you dose excel with your vals? Half-dose?

Also for dry ferts I was looking at:
-PMDD Pre-Mix 1 lb contains 1 part each of Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, Plantex CSM+B
-Iron Chelate

This sound good?

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

i dose my tank with excel the recommended ammount on the bottle every 2nd water change. my plants grow like crazy. and i only have the one 40w bulb

 

[XimeD]

i dose my tank with excel the recommended ammount on the bottle every 2nd water change. my plants grow like crazy. and i only have the one 40w bulb

2nd water change meaning every other week? or do you do twice weekly wcs?

 

[FishEggs]

i usually do it about every 11-14 days. i think it is one cap full for 50 gallons and my tank is 40 so i usually end up just doing the one cap full.
my jungle vals dont seem to be harmed in any way with that dosage.

 

[XimeD]

Thanks! I am going to do 1/2 capfull every week with my PWC and go from there.

On a side note, I have some staghorn in my 20gal so I will get my feet wet with DIY CO2 for that tank. I agree it's not adequate for the 75gal but I guess it will be better than nothing (my husband won't let me spend anymore money on the tanks for a few months and I still want to add that extra shoplight fixture, so getting a fancy CO2 injection system is out of the question )

Ordering those plants today I'll post some pics when I get them.

 

[FishEggs]

keep looking in the free section on craigslist you might get lucky and score the light for free. then hubby cant complain about cost.

 

[XimeD]

I didn't think about that!!!! will do =)

 

[mudraker]

For what it's worth, here is my recent experience with banana plants.

I got two last June. I had one in lowlight (18 watts in a 20 gal) with no ferts. The leaves slowly began to brown and it didn't thrive, though it did root out well. I moved it to my lowlight I dose with excel and EI dose (dry fertz) and no CO2. It greened back up, looks healthy and is growing slooowwwlly, but looks great.

The other is in med. light (75 watts over a 30 cube) with EI dosing, diy co2 and excel. Its growing like gangbusters, leaves are almost the diameter of a softball and its gone from about four inches in height to about 10 inches and has branched out considerably.

I really like them both, as the green is a really nice shade.

Hope this helps.

 

[XimeD]

Sure does! Thanks =)

I am going to be trying DIY CO2 in my 20gal (it's low light too but not as deep as the 75gal so I feel the plants are "effectively" getting more light in this one) so I will probably try the banana plants there first to see if I can get the hang of it.

Thanx again!

 

[taylorodw]

Hey Ximenia,

Your plants seem like a good selection.

You may find your tank looks more full if you also try some stem plants. Some (like Wisteria, and Water Spite) do well in low light and if you got 4 bunches or so, they'd take up some real estate visually.

Swords are fairly hardy plants so it might be okay, you may try googling "Echinodorus bleheri low light" and then tank/aquarium/etc. to see how it fares.

You have a T8 plant bulb, correct? WPG is super inaccurate and includes a ton of unaccounted variables. One of these is the type of lighting (T12, T8, T5, etc) and a watt of T5HO is better than a watt of T8... Most people who are plant hobbyists, helping to establish this information, have T5HO (high output) lights. I think WPG with your tank may turn out to be effectively less than 1WPG, however because of all of these variables exist I take WPG with a grain of salt.

So, that said, you have selected appropriate plants. However, we can't give you any for sure answers. Plants have a lot of needs we don't exactly understand from a hobbyist perspective, so you will just have to find some that grow well. Some may flourish, some may not "take". Here's wishing you the best of luck!

As for ferts, if you choose to go the Flourish route, you may find it simpler. I initially planned on using Flourish, but eventually decided to go dry ferts for my first time dosing. I would suggest getting the individual components (KNO3, KH2PO4, and CSM+B... depending on your water's GH, perhaps GH Booster) because if you find you have algae issues, you may need to alter dosing regimens.

 

[XimeD]

Yeah I think I get some of the complications with the WPG, mostly that the wattage is rated for consumption and the fact that a bulb consumes more doesn't mean it emits more, reflectors also play a part and I have crappy ones. It is definitely more accurate to think in terms of lumens, surface area and water depth that the light has to penetrate.

No T8s, the lamps I have right now are 2x 40W T12s, so not good at all. Like I said, I will try to add that second shoplight fixture as soon as I can (working on convincing hubby, he would need to do the retrofitting for me since I don't get along with power tools), particularly if plants start to go downhill.

About the dry fertz, I am inclined to use those because of the cost. Also I have access to an analytical balance and millipore water (like DI, but with extra filtering to remove microorganisms), so no problem measuring small amounts and making stock solns =) Do you think I can use chemical grade compounds as fertz (ie >99% pure KH2PO4)? I can get those "free", well except the CSM+B.

Thanks for helping me implement your master plan, I'd be willing to start that 75gal club =)

 

[XimeD]

So, ended up getting a 2x T8 shoplight fixture (convinced hubby lol, he needed a favor from me and I was like... suuuure I'll do it if you ket me buy those lights AND install them for me) They are the cheapo ones but it's better than nothing. So now I have the 2xT12 40W (6500K and 3100K, I should change that to 6500K, I know) and 2xT8 32W (6500K). My tank is pretty deep (24in) so I still consider it in the low light category, you guys agree?

Ordered the plants from Sweetaquatics and they should be here tomorrow =). I'll post some pics.

 

[mudraker]

Yes, it is still low, especially with the depth of your tank, but if you are growing lowlight plants, thats just fine.

It's a process like any other when building an aquascape.

 

[XimeD]

Update

All right, my plants got here and here's what my tank looks like.

Hope you guys like it

Now I just need to wait till cycling is done.......and for those plants to grow some

 

[ilovemydragongoby]

looks good! well done!

 

[FishEggs]

no no no it's all wrong. you totally have it set up in the wrong location. i think it should be against the wall next to my tv in my house. lol

it looks great. just need to wait til the plants grow in a bit and it will look fantabulous.

 

[libbyb]

I have sooo much to learn. Half of what I just read didn't make sense. Years ago, my planted tank did extremely well. I don't remember dry ferts and only made sure I got bulbs that said they were good for plants. It must have been "beginner's luck" if there is such a thing in this hobby.
Any recommendation for good books on this? I am also trying to read as many posts as I can. And research the internet.