Pursuade me!

[Khij159753]

So i just upgraded my 29 gallon SW tank to a 90gallon. Now I have an empty 29 gallon tank.

Im considering making it a freshwater or freshwater planted tank. I'm looking for people who love freshwater.

I wanna hear your reasons for liking freshwater so much? I wanna hear why I should do regular or planted tank? What kind of fish could I do? How many fish could I do?

This is my first freshwater tank so ill have a bunch of questions but it can't be too much different from a SW tank. Mainly I want some experienced and or passionate about freshwater people to talk to about ways I could go with the tank.

Thanks a bunch in advance!
-Joe

 

[sedgy90]

Hi.

Definately get one. Obviously its your preference but I have had planted and not planted and prefer my planted (aquaskape) tank.

If u have sw chances are you have a lot of colours of fish so maybe try a large schoal of small fish for a change? Small fish makes the scale of the tanks and hardskape fab.

There are things to consider e.g. Aquasoil, lighting, co2 (I use diy co2) but its worth it.

I use thegreenmachineonline.com for everything. They are great.

Good luck.

 

[Khij159753]

Well I like a variety of fish so I was thinking a few groups or was also considering a predator tank. But most likely will be going with the variety of fish lol unless I can put a few different predators in the tank that will look cool.

What kind of things would I need? I have the tank, a heater, thermometer, powerhead if needed?, a bio-wheel penguin 150, and testkits for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and kh. And I have a 4 bulb T-5 high output light fixture. Would that grow the plants? It sure grows algea lol! And if you have an aprox cost I'd be looking at that'd be great!

The only freshwater I've came close to having is my dad used to own a 55 gal and I loved his little sucker fish (I think pleco) he also had oscars that were awesome. He had a black shadow knife he had angels and a couple smaller shark like fish. (just to let you know where I'm coming from)

 

[sedgy90]

Well I like a variety of fish so I was thinking a few groups or was also considering a predator tank. But most likely will be going with the variety of fish lol unless I can put a few different predators in the tank that will look cool.

What kind of things would I need? I have the tank, a heater, thermometer, powerhead if needed?, a bio-wheel penguin 150, and testkits for ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, and kh. And I have a 4 bulb T-5 high output light fixture. Would that grow the plants? It sure grows algea lol! And if you have an aprox cost I'd be looking at that'd be great!

The only freshwater I've came close to having is my dad used to own a 55 gal and I loved his little sucker fish (I think pleco) he also had oscars that were awesome. He had a black shadow knife he had angels and a couple smaller shark like fish. (just to let you know where I'm coming from)

I am sure the bulbs would be fine. Possibly too strong but a general rule is 2-3 watts per gallon of water. This isnt 100% accurate but its a good start.

Ada aquasoil is expensive £35 a bag i think but its worth it.

I make diy co2 and thats a small pot of yeast and a couple of bags of sugar every few months. Youtube diy co2.

I am sure ur heater and filter are fine. But as with co2 here is top end gear if u want it but its pricey.


I dnt know mch about predators apart from I tried a figure eight pufffer and it munched my neons in my last tank setup.

My tank has two 32w t8 bulbs on timers. 15:30-21:30
A led mooonlight bulb 21:30-00:00 (not essential but looks great)
Fluval u4 filter with my diy co2 fed into it to diffuse co2.
Heater.
Ada aquasoil large bag.
Ada aquasoil finepowder medium bag (better for carpet plants)
Driftwood and rocks for hardskape then the plants. Neons. Head and tail light tetras. Ottos and amano shrimp.
Weekly water changes are essential. With ada aquasoil once the layout is done it needs to cycle for a month before adding plants because of amonia. Then more time before fish.

Youtube natures chaos for inspiration and visit thegreenmachineonline.com for advice if you read up and are still unsure they will be happy to answer questions if u email them. But check the site first most of its there.

 

[sedgy90]

Oh and my tank has substrate supports. This is essential if you want to bank up your substrate.

 

[Khij159753]

Wow my brain just had an overload! Lol! So starting with WC, I can do once a week. CO2 totally confuses me. What is it? I'll start looking it up. The soil I can buy. That's fine. Everything else should be good

 

[Khij159753]

Oh and my tank has substrate supports. This is essential if you want to bank up your substrate.

What does that even mean? Would it be much cheaper and easier to do a non planted tank? Could i switch over later? And what are the benefits to a planted tank besides looking cooler?

 

[sedgy90]

Wow my brain just had an overload! Lol! So starting with WC, I can do once a week. CO2 totally confuses me. What is it? I'll start looking it up. The soil I can buy. That's fine. Everything else should be good

Plants need co2 for photosynthesis. Adding it into the tank massively speeds up the process. Plants are healthier, grow faster and create more oxygen which is great for fish.

What does that even mean? Would it be much cheaper and easier to do a non planted tank? Could i switch over later? And what are the benefits to a planted tank besides looking cooler?

Its easier to do a non planted but if you have time its worth it.
Planted tanks have healthier fish. I have never had to treat my fish for anything since going planted.


Substrate= soil/gravel etc if u use supports it will stop it all sliding down flat if you want a hill.


There are occasional problems like algae and slow growth and trimming but algae and growth you just experiment with light and co2 in first few months. And you get into a routine of trimming and get good at it quickly.

 

[Khij159753]

Plants need co2 for photosynthesis. Adding it into the tank massively speeds up the process. Plants are healthier, grow faster and create more oxygen which is great for fish.

Its easier to do a non planted but if you have time its worth it.
Planted tanks have healthier fish. I have never had to treat my fish for anything since going planted.

Substrate= soil/gravel etc if u use supports it will stop it all sliding down flat if you want a hill.

There are occasional problems like algae and slow growth and trimming but algae and growth you just experiment with light and co2 in first few months. And you get into a routine of trimming and get good at it quickly.

So the only thing I really NEED to switch over from planted and non planted is a different substrate? Do I really need to add co2 or will the plants get enough on their own and just not grow very fast?

 

[sedgy90]

I tried no co2 for 2 months and it was shockingly slow. Some even died. I found out some plabts can cope better than others with low amounts if co2. As soon as I added co2 the plants were growing better, greener and producing oxygen.

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. Sounds difficult but now that I'm starting to understand it's sounding easier. Plus I have time to figure this all out while my 90 is cycling and before I add my fish to it. So instead of using like an air stone can I just run these power heads I have?

 

[sedgy90]

Okay. Sounds difficult but now that I'm starting to understand it's sounding easier. Plus I have time to figure this all out while my 90 is cycling and before I add my fish to it. So instead of using like an air stone can I just run these power heads I have?

Yeah you dont need a pump or airstone. Filters or powerheads are fine to circulate. The plants make the oxygen. Are u thinking full aquaskape e.g. Perfectly planted underwater garden or random plants dotted round?

 

[Khij159753]

I'll probably start with some sort of logs and some rocks stacked into a cave type thing or something with a few plants here and there. And later I'll slowly add more plants.

 

[sedgy90]

Fab. Good luck. U tried youtube natures chaos yet? If you cant watch it all right now skip to the last five mins.

 

[Khij159753]

Can you post a link? It'll make it alot easier for me. So after reading online stuff I'm still a lol hazy on a few things. How do I do substrate? Do I need other chemicals for the plants or is co2 the only additive I have to give the plants? Where can I find some wood and rock for my tank? How can I sanitize it?

 

[sedgy90]

Can you post a link? It'll make it alot easier for me. So after reading online stuff I'm still a lol hazy on a few things. How do I do substrate? Do I need other chemicals for the plants or is co2 the only additive I have to give the plants? Where can I find some wood and rock for my tank? How can I sanitize it?

This shows you how to do everything Includig substrate step by step. Its best to watch it. Its hard to describe but not too hard to do.

You can add additives but they arent essential.

My wood is from a shop and soaked in water to make sure it diddnt bleed. My rocks are from the beach (not underwater just land near sea) and I put them in a bucket for a week with daily water changes and a scrub with a brush. Then boiled them for about half an hour in a big pan.
I did the layout of the tank then you have to run the tank for a month without plants and fish as I mentioned before coz of ammonia. This worked for me.

 

[Khij159753]

Ya I got the whole nitrogen cycle cause I run SW tanks right now. So does all the BB just stay on the filter pads? So always keep 1 of the 2 pads in the filter to prevent cycles? Obtuse how that works?

 

[Khij159753]

And thanks! I'll watch that video! hopefully this will all start to come to me. Got alot of time to read up. Probably won't even start for another month lol!

 

[sedgy90]

Ya I got the whole nitrogen cycle cause I run SW tanks right now. So does all the BB just stay on the filter pads? So always keep 1 of the 2 pads in the filter to prevent cycles? Obtuse how that works?

I have got to be honest thats gone over my head lol. BB? I rarely need to clean my filter as the water so far has been great. I check it when I change water but it never needs it.

Its really daft but that vid convinced me to aquascape. I never thought it was possible for a novice but I did it and am 100% glad I did. U learn so much so quick.

 

[meegosh]

You've got some good advice so far. The one thing with planted tanks though, you can do a nice low light tank with a stock setup or you can drop thousands of dollars (literally) into a planted tank.

The first place I would start off would be lighting. You said you have a 4 bulb T5HO fixture, any idea the watts and kelvin rating of the bulbs? T5HO's are a whole different animal when it comes to the WPG rule so figuring out exactly what you have will help in the long run. You want a kelvin rating around 6700k (full daylight).

Once you figure out how many watts you have over your tank you can then decide if you need CO2, ferts and what not. Basically, anything over 2.5wpg you will need CO2 to help combat algae.

With that being said, you can have a low light/low maintenance tank that runs on 1wpg. You can get by with swords, ferns, moss, crypts, etc. You can have a nice looking tank with little to no effort on your part.

The opposite end, which I did for a while, is a high tech/ high light tank. I had 3.5wpg over my 30g tank and had to do weekly trimmings of my stems. I had auto dosers that would dose premixed fertilizers in everyday and a pressurized CO2 tank. I easily dropped $400+ in that setup between tank, lights, co2 tank, ferts, dosers, pumps, reactors, etc.

I think you really need to decide how serious you want to take this. If I were you I would just set up a regular tank and just try throwing some low light plants in. You can use cheap playsand ($4/50lb) as a substrate and have a high tech tank. Substrates are a bit overrated, and over priced, in my experience.