New planted tank!

[phooka]

Hi. I am a n00b to these forums. I've had many aquariums in the past, the largest being a 55 gallon with a pair of tiger oscars. It has been about 15 years since I've had any tank at all though. My how things have changed. There's much I never knew before. There are so many new toys and things to buy!!

I decided with a new office rearrangement (I work from home) to jump in both feet with a new planted tank with some variety of fish. I'm really liking the discus I've seen. I bought a 75 gallon because I tend to do things in a big way even when I don't know what I'm doing. I have a EHIM canister filter, and now to my concern - I also bought a dual 65W CP light from Current USA. I didn't realize, from what I'm reading anyway, that the rating of these lights is actually much higher? I was shooting for a 1.5-2W / gallon rating but is this too much light? Or is it okay? Do I need a CO2 system or can I go with what have right now?

OB picture.

dale

 

[marchmaxima]

Welcome! You'll find lots of wonderful advice here. Don't be afraid to ask.

Hello to your dog too.

Lighting should be okay, wattage wise. You could pretty much grow anything with that I think but be sure to choose bulbs with an optimal kelvin rating to enable plant growth. Co2 injection will be needed with that amount of light, as will a fertilizing regime.

Be sure to post progress pics as things move along!

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

You may be OK with that light? But you may need slight dosing of ferts(unless your using some sort of soil)
Non CO2 methods - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report

Also if its seems like too much light, then you can make something to raise the fixture a couple inches higher above the tank

 

[phooka]

Actually I already have the substrate. I bought the aquariumplants.com substrate before I read here to find out it seems to be a repackaged product. I have no qualms with going with CO2. One of my hobbies is homebrew, I have several spare CO2 tanks and regulators.

You may be OK with that light? But you may need slight dosing of ferts(unless your using some sort of soil)
Non CO2 methods - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report

Also if its seems like too much light, then you can make something to raise the fixture a couple inches higher above the tank

 

[SpeedEuphoria]

Oh then your all set!!

You can try it w/o Co2 but, if you plant it 1st and crank up CO2 to get the plants going and figure out what ferts you need then add fish later you'll be good to go. Just remember you will need some ferts, get dry ferts

 

[newfound77951]

I don't think 2x65 watts over a 75 is going to be too much....CO2 may or may not be necessary but will probably help your plants out. I have a tank with a similar amount of light and the CO2 is not required for algae control but the plants grow much better with it. You should be able to grow most plants with the exception of very demanding high light plants and carpet plants.

 

[Purrbox]

I doubt that you'll find that you have to inject CO2 with 130 watts over the 75 gallon. You will almost certainly need to dose a full set of fertilizers including: Nitrate, Phosphate, Potassium, and a good micronutrient mix. For your size aquarium if you do decide to inject CO2, for your own sanity I highly recommend going with pressurized over DIY CO2. Even on my small aquariums, they became much more enjoyable when I removed the annoyance of DIY CO2. On larger aquariums, successfully implementing CIY CO2 becomes much MUCH more difficult and the long term expense is usually higher that just going with pressurized. You'll also want to look at purchasing dry ferts since they are so much more economical.

 

[phooka]

Well there isn't much to see. I finally filled with water today. I waited a few hours and checked parameters. PH 7.8 (we have a community well), Ammonia is .25, guess we have ammonia in the tap water. Is that good, bad or indifferent? The water was run through a canister type filter on the kitchen sink. The picture doesn't really show the color. It's just a cloudy white. No tannin coloring at all (at least yet).

I also have a piece of African driftwood. It was waaay too big to boil even in my half-keg brew pot. I turned the gas hot water heater on high (which is scalding hot fwiw), and did multiple soaks.

dale

 

[dskidmore]

Many municipalities use chloramine instead of chlorine, which contains ammonia. I personally like Seachem Prime for removing it, but most of the chlorine neutralizers work on chloramine too, just read the label.

 

[NeptuneJoe]

. You could pretty much grow anything with that I think but be sure to choose bulbs with an optimal kelvin rating to enable plant growth.

Elaborate, please. What would be a good kelvin rating?

 

[phooka]

Not that you can see anything.. but fish cam! (or lack there of - also lots of bubbles and cloudiness). http://www.everysky.net/fishcam.html

 

[Purrbox]

Elaborate, please. What would be a good kelvin rating?

In gerneral you are looking for a daylight bulb which would have a kelvin rating between 5000k-10000k.

 

[marchmaxima]

Neptune, you might find this article of value.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/articles/articles/36/1/So-You-Want-a-Planted-Aquarium-/Page1.html

It contains a great overview of everthing you're going to need to know. It gave me a good idea of all the things I needed to research when I set up my first planted tank.

 

[brutus]

will that fish cam show the whole tank if you move it back?

 

[phooka]

will that fish cam show the whole tank if you move it back?

yes, but the cam doesn't have great resolution (imho). i'm funny about camera resolutions. i'll try taking a pic tomorrow when the light is on. i'm feeling lazy at the moment

dale