McLumpy
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Just like many fishkeepers, I decided to take the plunge and begin a planted tank. My main goal is to keep this as low-tech and low-maintenance as possible.
So, here is my plan...
Maintenance:
Just like many people on here, time to perform weekly tank maintenance can be very limited due to hectic work schedules, family outings, etc. I decided today it was time to figure out a way to help minimize the amount of time I spend performing partial water changes.
On average, it takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to perform a thorough water change. Why does it take so long? One of the reasons is because I do things “old school” by using a bucket. However, that isn’t really as time consuming as vacuuming the gravel. Before I vacuum, I move the décor out of the way so that I can get as much food/waste particles out of the gravel. I don’t have a problem doing this, (although my fish don’t care for me moving their “homes” lol), but this only adds to more time spent on the water change.
The areas of the tank that seem to have the most waste particles are the left and right sides, (where I have large amounts of artificial plants and décor). After deciding to turn my tank into a planted tank, I wanted to keep the majority of my nice artificial plants in the rear corners of my tank to help hide the air hoses and such. This leaves plenty of space in the middle of the tank to add my live plants.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been researching undergravel filters. I have heard both good and bad things about using them. The biggest complaint that I found is that they don’t suck up all the debris. What I noticed is this occurred more frequently when an UGF was used in tanks >30 gallons. I strongly believe this is due to the powerheads not having enough suction to pull from the entire area below the UGF plate. Mainly the center area furthest away from where the powerheads are located.
With this in mind, I decided to purchase a UGF, but I went with the 15/20 gallon model. This will allow me to place one section on the left side and one on the right side of my tank. The total area on each side being covered with the UGF grates will be 12”x12”. What I’m hoping is that the powerheads will help eliminate waste in these areas and, if all goes well, reduce the time to perform a pwc by half. Since this will be a partial UGF system setup, I will continue to run my HOB filter, (for obvious reasons).
With the addition of the UGF, this would leave me to maintain clean gravel in the center of the tank. As this area will be filled with live plants, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Why? Because once the plants grow and their root systems make their way through the gravel, I will need to take extra care when I vacuum anyway.
This partial UGF setup may or may not be something that others have tried, but it seems logical. The 2 powerheads that I will be using are Penguin 550’s. I already have one of these and purchased my 2nd one today. I have been extremely impressed by its performance. It has a lot of power and isn’t very loud at all.
Below is a rough draft layout of my partial UGF plan.
Low-Tech Lighting:
Now for the fun part, maintaining a low-tech planted environment. Thanks to the great advice provided by the many nice people on here, I have purchased a new light fixture to replace my (2) mildly pathetic 15w fluorescent fixtures. My main goal with my new fixture is to be able to provide enough light to successfully maintain a steady growth of my low, (and possibly medium), light plants.
The light fixture that I finally decided on is the 48” Coralife Aqualight T5 Series Double Linear Light Strip. Unfortunately, the site where I purchased it from, (Big Al’s), didn’t have the freshwater version in stock. With that being the case, I decided to purchase the saltwater version. This model comes w/ (1) 10000K 28w T5 Bulb and (1) Actinic 28w T5 Bulb. I purchased another bulb, a 6700k 28w T5 Bulb, so that I can replace the Actinic bulb with that bulb and have a full 56w of beneficial light for my plants. That puts me at 1wpg and there will be no need to implement a CO2 system.
I only have a few live plants in place at the moment, but I will definitely be buying more at a later date. Surprisingly, the ones I do have are still holding strong under my old light fixtures. In fact, I noticed a new leaf spreading on my Amazon Sword!
I will keep everyone updated once I get my equipment in, get it setup, and test it out.
As always, suggestions and comments are welcome!
So, here is my plan...
Maintenance:
Just like many people on here, time to perform weekly tank maintenance can be very limited due to hectic work schedules, family outings, etc. I decided today it was time to figure out a way to help minimize the amount of time I spend performing partial water changes.
On average, it takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to perform a thorough water change. Why does it take so long? One of the reasons is because I do things “old school” by using a bucket. However, that isn’t really as time consuming as vacuuming the gravel. Before I vacuum, I move the décor out of the way so that I can get as much food/waste particles out of the gravel. I don’t have a problem doing this, (although my fish don’t care for me moving their “homes” lol), but this only adds to more time spent on the water change.
The areas of the tank that seem to have the most waste particles are the left and right sides, (where I have large amounts of artificial plants and décor). After deciding to turn my tank into a planted tank, I wanted to keep the majority of my nice artificial plants in the rear corners of my tank to help hide the air hoses and such. This leaves plenty of space in the middle of the tank to add my live plants.
For the past couple of weeks, I have been researching undergravel filters. I have heard both good and bad things about using them. The biggest complaint that I found is that they don’t suck up all the debris. What I noticed is this occurred more frequently when an UGF was used in tanks >30 gallons. I strongly believe this is due to the powerheads not having enough suction to pull from the entire area below the UGF plate. Mainly the center area furthest away from where the powerheads are located.
With this in mind, I decided to purchase a UGF, but I went with the 15/20 gallon model. This will allow me to place one section on the left side and one on the right side of my tank. The total area on each side being covered with the UGF grates will be 12”x12”. What I’m hoping is that the powerheads will help eliminate waste in these areas and, if all goes well, reduce the time to perform a pwc by half. Since this will be a partial UGF system setup, I will continue to run my HOB filter, (for obvious reasons).
With the addition of the UGF, this would leave me to maintain clean gravel in the center of the tank. As this area will be filled with live plants, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Why? Because once the plants grow and their root systems make their way through the gravel, I will need to take extra care when I vacuum anyway.
This partial UGF setup may or may not be something that others have tried, but it seems logical. The 2 powerheads that I will be using are Penguin 550’s. I already have one of these and purchased my 2nd one today. I have been extremely impressed by its performance. It has a lot of power and isn’t very loud at all.
Below is a rough draft layout of my partial UGF plan.
Low-Tech Lighting:
Now for the fun part, maintaining a low-tech planted environment. Thanks to the great advice provided by the many nice people on here, I have purchased a new light fixture to replace my (2) mildly pathetic 15w fluorescent fixtures. My main goal with my new fixture is to be able to provide enough light to successfully maintain a steady growth of my low, (and possibly medium), light plants.
The light fixture that I finally decided on is the 48” Coralife Aqualight T5 Series Double Linear Light Strip. Unfortunately, the site where I purchased it from, (Big Al’s), didn’t have the freshwater version in stock. With that being the case, I decided to purchase the saltwater version. This model comes w/ (1) 10000K 28w T5 Bulb and (1) Actinic 28w T5 Bulb. I purchased another bulb, a 6700k 28w T5 Bulb, so that I can replace the Actinic bulb with that bulb and have a full 56w of beneficial light for my plants. That puts me at 1wpg and there will be no need to implement a CO2 system.
I only have a few live plants in place at the moment, but I will definitely be buying more at a later date. Surprisingly, the ones I do have are still holding strong under my old light fixtures. In fact, I noticed a new leaf spreading on my Amazon Sword!
I will keep everyone updated once I get my equipment in, get it setup, and test it out.
As always, suggestions and comments are welcome!