Xmas = new 75G questions for prepreation need some advice

[Drewbie]

Hello Smart Plant people.

I will be getting a new 75G 48x18x20 Tank for Xmas which I plan to have it become my show tank and new home for my Mostly Rainbows / Barbs / Gourami

So I have started the planning stages I have decided it will be 75 wide and that's about all I have decided so far.

I have a few questions that I could use help with or help finding good posts on.

1. Aquascaping I believe I will be using ECO Complete (dam its expensive at Big Al's Canada) as I like the look of the black contrast on the fish and plants.
My question is does anyone have any suggestions on creating a higher elevation for the back of the tank?

2. Lighting I am not a very handy guy so I don't want to mess around with electrical wiring. So my question is what would be a
good lighting source for this tank that is not going to break the bank. I would like it to sit ontop of the glass top (unless it is suggested I go open top.

3. Questions more local to Canada where on earth can you get dry Fertz and Good plants, Big Al's does not cut it
and I am not a fan of ordering from the internet.

Any advice would help.

 

[Drewbie]

For lights

Any thoughts on this and is this over priced or just me

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/BigAlsCA...teraqualightdeluxedoublelinearstrip484x65watt

 

[Drewbie]

come on people show me da love

 

[czcz]

Have never had a big tank, but HTH. Explaining your goals with plants (looking to help the Gouramis out with some floaters and maybe bring out more color with a nicer background for your Rainbows? Looking for a garden with tons of plants and hiding places? Mind CO2? Mind trimming a lot?) will perhaps help those folks when they get around to reading this thread, especially in regards to question 2.

1) Some folks build terraces or use dividers for their raised tank areas. You'll find good ideas for this from almost any site or book focused on Dutch aquascaping (like Aqua Botanic - Secrets To Dutch Aquascaping ) You could use the big mound of dirt method but that will usually settle, and faster rather than later if you uproot a lot.

Sometimes the easiest method is just to use some hardscape that doesn't move easily (like a corner barrier of rocks) and dump dirt behind it, though.

3) I am sending you on a journey of links but hope you do not mind: Check out the resources link at the top of this forum for a link to the old fertilizing sticky. That thread has some links to a few threads, including alternative sources for K, N, and P. "Flourish Comprehensive" is a good trace mix.

 

[brutus]

where in ont. are you?

 

[Drewbie]

GTA Brutus

czcz thanks man I will read it well....

 

[brutus]

yeah big als raised the price a lot from last yr on that fixture and the current extreme t5 ho .

 

[brutus]

ok im in the steel city.Hamilton

 

[Drewbie]

sorry as for goals I want to have a eye pleasing tank not looking to breeding tank

I am looking for a nice show quality tank defiantly want a carpet of some sorts
back ground and middle ground I have not decided yet,

For Co2 I will be doing DIY for at least a year

Trimming I dont mind trimming once a week or so...

No fears getting wet.

 

[brutus]

i buy fertz at a hydroponics store 4 dollars for 500 grams i also did diy co2 for a yr with good results

 

[czcz]

You know, when I get my first big tank I'll be tempted to make it a tank housing mostly Cryptocoryne species, which are commonly available at many LFSs and almost all mature to relatively large plants that would look great in the space of a 75 gallon. Like all plants the most important thing is simply to make sure it has food (nutrients) to grow, but Crypts are a little different than some in that they feed heavily from an ample root system and much prefer to be left alone (not trimmed, not moved), and so maintaining such tanks is less maintenance. Since you're willing to fertilize and trim I'm sure you'll be able to have a variety of plants or explore stem plants or ground covers or whatever else you'd like, but a 75 gallon with a bunch of C. wendtii and say C. lutea as a carpet would be slick and provide a nice foundation to play around (like hardscape), and the texture and variety of Cryptocoryne is quite beautiful. There are many other species of Cryptocoryne that range from absolutely gorgeous to super rare to pretty tiny, too.

For your consideration, here is Glenc's 75 gallon : http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f98/75-gallon-planted-discus-project-109198.html He hasn't filled in a carpet (yet?) and you'll find in the post he's drifting away from his (wonderfully aquascaped) stem plant tanks on this project tank for his fish, and he's keeping dosing and trouble down since he has plenty of work with the Discus. But I think you'll agree it is a very beautiful tank and garden and you'd never think he's not thinking much about the plants when you take in the tank. He's also keeping Anubias and Java Fern variants in there, which feed from the water column but are relatively (vs difficult stem plants) easy and don't need much light nor CO2 to look good.

If progressing with such a plan but with wanting the upgrade path to high light, you could perhaps either get a small footprint fixture (so you could fit another one if wanted) or simply get a quad bulb unit and only run half the lights. Or maybe use 50/50 actinic/daylight bulbs. This should let you play with DIY CO2 and plant choices and stocking while keeping the benefits of established plants (the Crypts), too.

Just an idea.

 

[Gunz05gunz]

As for lighting, if you are adding plants then read, if not, skip it. When you're picking out your lighting decide on what plants you make like. If you want some light intensive plants then know that you may need to spend some money on good lighting. On my first tank I had high light plants in there with the standard hood and they withered away. I then added a 2x65w coralife and a Hagen Glo t5 54w for about 3.4wpg.(the 65w @ 6,700k and the 54w @ 10,000k) The difference was huge and the plants flourished. But that will cost quite a bit.

You may be able to build the lights for your tank. I did that on my 90g cichlid tank and it was fairly cheap. The ballast was the most expensive part. It probably cost me less than $50 to build a lighting system with 2 48" bulbs. All that stuff can be bought at Rona/Lowes/Home Depot.

As for the fertilizers, I don't use them. Just injected CO2. I'm from Hamilton as well and Big Al's is the only decent place around. Try the one in Oakville, seems to be a larger store.

 

[ingg]

For your slope you simply slope the substrate. You can get a 2-3" difference just by pouring the substrate that way.

For lighting, I use a 4x54w T5 over my 75g. It runs on the higher light side. I have a Catalina Aquarium fixture over it, not sure of they ship to Canada or not.

I'd not recommend Eco substrate and no ferts if you plan a stem tank or higher light tank, but that is me. Even with crypts, you'll see the pinholes in leaves and such from potassium deficiency eventually.

 

[Drewbie]

For your slope you simply slope the substrate. You can get a 2-3" difference just by pouring the substrate that way.

For lighting, I use a 4x54w T5 over my 75g. It runs on the higher light side. I have a Catalina Aquarium fixture over it, not sure of they ship to Canada or not.

I'd not recommend Eco substrate and no ferts if you plan a stem tank or higher light tank, but that is me. Even with crypts, you'll see the pinholes in leaves and such from potassium deficiency eventually.

Is it okay to use Eco if I plan to use ferts?

 

[ingg]

Absolutely!

Eco complete does two things.

It gives you a substrate that has a high CEC - Cation Exchange Capacity. this in ayman's terms simply means it is able to absorb and retain nutrients for slow release, it is good for the roots of plants to feed from.

It also comes "pre loaded" with many of these nutrients. Mainly the micros, all those things you need in tiny trace amounts.

 

[dmoney87]

Is it okay to use Eco if I plan to use ferts?

Hey Drew I did up a FW 75, You can check my thread out.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...rk-in-progress-many-pix-i-prmomis-105299.html

Its alot of reading but theres some valuable info. Honestly I have to tell you if you want to do things right you my aswell go all out. Get the good lights, I went with the Current Sattellite 4 x 65w PC Dual Actinic Dual Daylight 10k 6700k fixture and its done me well. Also DIY reactor co2 is huge pain in the ***. Honestly Pressurized is the way to go. I have 20lb tank cost me 80 bucks cdn, 8 bucks to fill it. I havent had to fill it since august. Also I got the milwaukee co2 controller which is the best thing ever.. constantly monitors your pH level and flows co2 in accordingly. All you need to worry about is ferts. Which yes dry ferts are much cheaper. but AP.com (aquarium plants) sell "Total Ferts" which come in little pill bottle of about 70 tabs. Order 3 bottles to make it worth the shipping. (they are ALOT cheaper and you get alot more then with the API root tabs from Big Als here in canada) all you do is stick a tab next to each plant every 3 or 4 weeks and throw a couple loose ones in (where your fish wont try to eat them) just to dissolve in the water columb. I also built my own inline co2 diffuser thanks to sparkys thread which showed me the ways (which i have pictures off) for around 25$ at home depot. Compared to the $100 price tag from big al's not to mention i do believe mine works quite a bit better. Its also personal choice but if you like sand like i do instead of gravel. Flourite (which is still enriched with nutriants) makes a nice black sand. Short of that you could save yourself a TON of money if you went with white pool filter sand. So 30$ a pop for what barly a 15lb bag of eco or flourite? when you can get a whopping 50lb bag of white pool filter sand for yup a huge 9 dollars including tax. Lol. so 18 bucks and change you got yourself all the substrate you need. Its what I use and the plants and fish love it. I really wanted the black too, but it would have costed me almost $250 for the black sand because you want around a 100lbs for 75g. So I saved myself alot of money going with the PFS which I used on the pressurized co2 system. Oh and im not sure how the big al's are in GTA but A) They order different plants all the time at my Big Al's Usually only about once a month. Ask them when they usually get there shipments in and make sure to keep calling around that date so you can be first to get some. As the nicer onces usually go pretty quick. B) It might not work for you, but I asked the manager if He could special order me some plants if I found out the names of some types I liked. Also will do the same for me with certain fish. Its worth a try asking anyway. Short of that I wouldent be afraid to order plants online. I have been quite sucessful in ordering plants all the way from malaysia to here in Ontario on ebay. Just get the hardier types or the potted ones (you can always take them out later) Anyways if theres anything else feel free to ask, Glad to see another canuck getting into the hobby.

-davE

 

[Drewbie]

All thanks for all the suggestions. I will start up a new post after xmas of the build etc in order to share.

Dmoney87 I sent you a friend invite being so close I am sure we can share clips etc

 

[Drewbie]

Actually I have a question about the Fluorite as I found this on sale at Big Al's.

My question is do you have to put it in at 100% or can you mix it with gravel and if so what % would be recommended before losing its value.

 

[dmoney87]

Actually I have a question about the Fluorite as I found this on sale at Big Al's.

My question is do you have to put it in at 100% or can you mix it with gravel and if so what % would be recommended before losing its value.

Im not sure since Ive never done it. I dont think you would really loose much value of the flourite. It just may not look as nice and your thinking it will. I think the flourite will eventually settle to the bottom over time and the gravel will be on top. I would probably do a 60/40 flourite if I was going to do it at all. Or just straight flourite/eco.

-davE

 

[dmoney87]

All thanks for all the suggestions. I will start up a new post after xmas of the build etc in order to share.

Dmoney87 I sent you a friend invite being so close I am sure we can share clips etc

Yeah no problem, one of my amazon swords has already shooted out 6 new plants and I have another one doing the same. So if you like amazon swords Id be glad to share them with you. Either on trade or for just the cost of postage since I dont really have any room for them anyway. Ive just been throwing them in my goldie tank for them to munch on lol.

Im not so great at remember all the plants names, but Also I beieve my pennywort? the long floating pad type plant covering the top of my aquarium I also have an abundance of. I did have alot of hygro and scarlet temple aswell but they have been since removed.

anyways im sure well be in touch. Oh and fyi big al's here in london has a massssive 50% of everything in the store boxing day/week sale and i mean EVERYTHING from tanks to fish to food. Its a really good time to stock up. Im assuming yours in the gta would aswell.

-davE