My 65 Gallon Low Tech Planted Tank Journal

[dragonfisher33]

@Zimmanski, when you said "Well then looks pretty normal to me", did you mean it's normal because of the fact that i have a dirted tank topped off with flourite? or it's part of the cycling process? last time i check when i cycled, all my parameters are off the chart EXCEPT my pH.

ps. my tap water pH is roughly 7.2 therefore something is causing the water right now to rise in pH

 

[Zimmanski]

@Zimmanski, when you said "Well then looks pretty normal to me", did you mean it's normal because of the fact that i have a dirted tank topped off with flourite? or it's part of the cycling process? last time i check when i cycled, all my parameters are off the chart EXCEPT my pH.

ps. my tap water pH is roughly 7.2 therefore something is causing the water right now to rise in pH

Are you testing the tap ph after a 24 hour period of aerating? If you are then I'm unsure why it rose and hopefully someone else can think of a reason. As for the ammonia and nitrite looking normal to me, I say this because depending on the amount of ammonia in the tap a healthy BB colony in your filter should be able to convert it fairly quickly, for example I have .5ppm ammonia in my tap water but I can do large water changes in my fully cycled tanks and it will be completely gone in a couple hours. Cycling a tank with seeded filter materials is completely different than cycling with fresh media, in my newest tank(65g) I used 5 ceramic rings from my cycled 75 gallons filter and even with adding fish immediately to the tank it was completely cycled after 4 days

 

[Cardex]

Is I had to guess I would say its the rocks I had some cracked granite cobblestones that looked a lot like them and made my ph go way up

 

[dragonfisher33]

if that's the case i might have to take them out. i have some dragon stones but the color doesn't pop as much with the substrate. any rock suggestions?

 

[Cardex]

You can go with a hard water high ph fish like Molly's and not worry about it

 

[dragonfisher33]

You can go with a hard water high ph fish like Molly's and not worry about it

tanks for the input but i prefer not having mollys. they have large bioload. i'm going to replace those rocks if they're the culprit for the high pH with something else and try to have neutral pH. my current stocking plan includes threadfin rainbows.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Granite should be inert if I remember correctly

 

[Joefrommi65]

I am following also !!!!!

 

[dragonfisher33]

so to those who want to do a dirt tank here's an advice: GET SOME CLARIFIER!!!.

since i'm doing the tank with potting soil and fourite, both are notorious for being very cloudy regardless of the times you rinse them, i was recommended by someone at my lfs to get some clarifier. today is the 3rd time i'm doing a 90% water change and the water is still so cloudy. so i went to Petco and got myself a bottle of Aqueon Water Clarifier and applied the dosage they recommended. At first there seems to be no change whatsoever. 2hrs later, my water is at least 3x more clear than before. Kudos to Aqueon for the clarifier.

Now I'm back to my apartment and I'm looking forward to go back this weekend to see the result.

 

[dragonfisher33]

Granite should be inert if I remember correctly

yes it is inert. it passed the vinegar test. but i'm not sure if the vinegar test will also tell you whether the rock will change the pH or not.

i'm gonna bag a bag of tank water with neutral pH and put a piece of the same rock for two/three days. and then i will test the sample water and see if there's pH increase. Looking forward to see the result as well.

 

[dragonfisher33]

So i have one week to think/research about this topic: lighting. I know that my crinum needs high light, ludwigia repens would be really nice and red in high light, amazons get really big with high light, etc. so i'm thinking about upgrading the lights that came with the fixture (good old T12s) to some T5HO. but i've read that any tank longer than 24inches in depth requires VHO.

Would any T5HO fixture, for instance Zoo Med 36 inch T5HO with 2 T5 6500k daylight FloralSun bulbs, work with my 65gal tank?

Now that i think about it, i like the idea of being able to expand my plant list in the future to other plants that require high light even though most of my plants now, with the exception to Crinum, isn't that high-light-demanding.

Anyone with the suggestion? I hope Brian_nano and others with more experience in light fixtures can chime in.

 

[Jkeating8]

In a tank that deep I think you would need a 4 bulb t5HO in order to achieve highlight. Along with highlight though comes the need for co2. It's all about how far you won't to go. I went high tech and would never go back.

 

[Zimmanski]

In a tank that deep I think you would need a 4 bulb t5HO in order to achieve highlight. Along with highlight though comes the need for co2. It's all about how far you won't to go. I went high tech and would never go back.

+1, two bulb t5ho wont be anywhere near high light, probably on the lower end of medium. maybe a 4 bulb fixture or some high powered leds would get you closer

 

[dragonfisher33]

that's what i was afraid of, the four bulb fixture for high light. the only time i think about four bulb fixture is when you have a coral saltwater aquarium.

 

[Jkeating8]

http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-AquaS...qid=1371476158&sr=8-1&keywords=zoo+med+4+t5ho

 

[Jkeating8]

http://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-...t+t5+ho+4-lamp+4-lunar+aquarium+light+48-inch

 

[Jkeating8]

These are two options. Zoo Med would work fine I think. You need 4 Giesemann midday bulbs for it though.

 

[dragonfisher33]

These are two options. Zoo Med would work fine I think. You need 4 Giesemann midday bulbs for it though.

I was leaning toward Zoo Med from the beginning for my tank to be low to medium lighting. My tank is 36inches long btw. but in light of change of plan to have it go high ligh, i'm not sure about zoo med anymore.

 

[Jkeating8]

Yeah I wasn't sure. Haha. But aquaticlife from what I've heard is far superior to the zoo med. The 36 inch will be a little cheaper too. It's 300$ on amazon. Are you doing co2?

 

[dragonfisher33]

so here's the question: what makes a good light a good light? assuming everything is the same (bulbs, ballasts, etc), is reflector the main difference between the fixtures?