75 galom tank rebuild

[Loukas42]

I'm redoing my 75 gallon tank that held two huge oscars and a large pleco into a planted tank. Any advice would be welcome. Im struggling on a lighting fixture. Idk how many watts is too much until co2. The fixture I'm looking at is a zoomed aqua sun 48 in. T-5 HO dual fixture with 2-54 watt bulbs. Is that too much light.

Thanks ahead! And like I said any advice or criticism is welcome and the oscars/pleco will not be going in this tank. Sorry for not stating that.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

That should be a great light fixture for a 75. You could get away without co2 and still grow lots of plants. The next thing to talk about is the substrate. What will you be using?

 

[Loukas42]

I was planning on maybe using eco complete and then cap it with something or dirt and cap it with something but honestly I don't really know yet.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

If it's going to be your first planted tank I'd recommend the Eco Complete but it could get expensive. They also sell it in a dry form that's less expensive, especially for a large tank. I forget the name but I saw it on Amazon and I hear some pet chain carries it. Might be worth a look. You have so many options depending on budget.

 

[Loukas42]

Yeah I know it's expensive but that's the route I will probably take. How deep would you reccommd the substrate being?

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I have mine sloped from the low point in the center front being around 2" all the way up to 5 1/2" in the back two corners. Kind of like a hillside valley. You can check out the pics on my profile or build thread to see how I chose to do it.

Most people, at the very least, go shallow in the front and deeper in the back. It serves two purposes: first it looks great, like the landscape is angled towards the viewer, and secondly in serves the plants as most foreground plants have shallow roots while background plants usually have large root systems to support taller plants. The substrate will be shallow for smaller plants and deeper for large plants. Adding pleasing curves just creates visual interest, as opposed to a flat bed of sand.

 

[Loukas42]

Yeah I'm gonna check that out. Sounds amazing.

 

[NexVobis]

For Eco complete check out petco.com. I got 5 20lb bags for 17.99. Maybe the sale is still on. Free shipping with $49+ orders

 

[Loukas42]

Wait 17.99 per bag or all together 17.99?!

 

[NexVobis]

Wait 17.99 per bag or all together 17.99?!

17.99 per bag

 

[Loukas42]

Okay haha thanks