Some questions on substrate and lighting.

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Alan79

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Oct 23, 2013
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393
Location
NSW Australia
I have 2 retrofit flourescent fittings for my tanks. One of them i bought with a 20W reptile light in it (says on the bulb for reptile use only). My other bulbs are 18W T8 bulbs. I'd like to know if the reptile bulb would be harmful to the fish or plants. I'd assume it's a more intense light or has UV aspects for the reptiles so would help the plants at least (i will be fishless cycling a tank soon so i can use the bulb for the plants before swapping for fish later if thats ok).

And my question with soil in substrates.
I already have a light layer of peat on the base.I have some scoria which is the closets thing i could find to Laterite) dropped fairly well spaced out. I have been adding filter sqeezings to this when i do water changes on a partly cycled tank which i have 2 small filters running in to build bacteria in both. I will add the second filter to the new tank when i get water in there.
I have some organic potting mix and some red clay thats exposed in my yard i plan to add to the potting mix. I'd like to know
a) What size substrate stones should i mix into the soil layer to alow for roots to growbest?.
I have these as my options
- Mixed grade river sand from very fine to about 4mm (i can sieve out a lot more of the very fine sand before i put it in the tank if need be as i remember reading that fine sand squashes roots)
- Some black river sand that is a pretty consistent 2-3.5mm. Or some larger stones that are about 4-5mm. I plan to have this on the surface.

b) What ratio of soil: Clay: Stones

c) How thick should my layer of black sand on top be?

The lighting aspect isn't that important right now but i'd like to use the reptile bulb if it's better. I'd really like to get a good idea on the ratio i should use in my subsrate and what size stones to mix with that layer so i can start it cycling and let a few plants begin establishing before they have fish to disturb them.

If someone has a link to a good article i'm happy to just read that if it saves someone the time of typing a detailed reply. I did read a good one somewhere but i lost the link.
 
The reptile light will not work to grow plants. It will heat your water up to. It is made for reptiles that like a lot of heat and can easily get to 100 + degrees. That would really raise the water temp. It is also not the right kelvins for plants. You need a bulb with 5500 or higher kelvins. Look for a daylight bulb. You can get the spiral daylight bulbs at Walmart or similar stores. No idea on the substrate.
 
I've been doing dirted tanks for years and honestly other than adding powdered clay lightly into the soil I don't add anything else. Rocks aren't needed honestly. I generally use an 1-1/2" of organic dirt and 1-1/2" of cap in my dirted tanks. I don't like having larger pebbles mixed into the cap because depending on the type of plants you use they get in the way and can make planting a pain IMO.
 
The reptile light will not work to grow plants. It will heat your water up to. It is made for reptiles that like a lot of heat and can easily get to 100 + degrees. That would really raise the water temp. It is also not the right kelvins for plants. You need a bulb with 5500 or higher kelvins. Look for a daylight bulb. You can get the spiral daylight bulbs at Walmart or similar stores. No idea on the substrate.

Thanks Wildrose. My current bulbs are insufficcient :facepalm: Looks like I'll have to ditch the reptile light and shop for some daylight bulbs. Now that it's sitting in a cupboard i will develop an itch to buy a reptile. I will look at upgrading to better LED light set-ups when the finances allow. I've had moderate growth from some low light plants with 5000 kelvin lighting but my lower leaves grey up a bit on my Cabomba. I've got about 1 watt per gallon at the moment which is already a little low.

I've been doing dirted tanks for years and honestly other than adding powdered clay lightly into the soil I don't add anything else. Rocks aren't needed honestly. I generally use an 1-1/2" of organic dirt and 1-1/2" of cap in my dirted tanks. I don't like having larger pebbles mixed into the cap because depending on the type of plants you use they get in the way and can make planting a pain IMO.

Thanks Rivercats. I did my first dirted 20g a few weeks back and mixed pretty much all of my larger pebbles into the lower layers and i do have a lot of trouble keeping plants in the substrate (i have a largish comet that tears a lot of my plants out while swimming which is no help either). I don't think i added enough potting mix either (1/2 river stone, 1/2 potting mix in a one inch layer). Will go for a deeper soil and clay layer with nothing mixed between today. Hopefully this tank won't have any issues with anchoring plants.
 
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