All-In-One Planted Tanks

[Monochrome5]

Hi guys. I'm looking to turn my 8 gallon BioCube All-In-One system into a FW Planted tank. As you can see in my journal thread, it's previously been a SW reef and had many modifications. I decided to make a mock-up of the rear chambers (since no one here seems to have an AIO tank) and get some advice. What do you guys think about this set-up? Will the CO2 be alright back there? Or should I put it in a different spot? Also, I hear Chemi-Pure Elite is pretty much junk for FW planted as it buffers pH to 8.2 and that's not good. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks in advance!

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Co2 needs to be as low as possible, I'd put it on the front right so it's in firing line of the filter outlet and gets moved round the tank.

 

[Monochrome5]

If I put it on the right hand side it won't do anything. In fact, it won't even be under water... I probably should have added water level lines to give you more of an idea as to what water looks like in the tank... Let me do that quick.

 

[Monochrome5]

Here we go. The light blue indicates water levels. Chamber 1 fills entirely then spills over into chamber 2 where the water passes through my media rack. It then exits through a baffle at the bottom of chamber 2 into chamber 3 where it is immediately taken up by the pump and returned (via tubing) to my return head.

 

[Mikaila31]

You need to remove all the chemical media, both the chemi-pure and purigen.

 

[Monochrome5]

You need to remove all the chemical media, both the chemi-pure and purigen.

Alrighty. I heard Purigen was used in some planted tanks, but I've had quite a few people say no chemical media. So the media is out. Now I just need to figure out if that CO2 will work or not. I'm afraid it may all bubble out due to the waterfall effect that the chamber system creates. Any thoughts?

 

[Ps3Steveo]

I mean in the front of your tank On the right side so the filter outlet sprays towards it

 

[Monochrome5]

I mean in the front of your tank On the right side so the filter outlet sprays towards it

Ah. Gotcha. It will be the left side, but yeah. I know what you mean now. Underneath the return. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

[ian]

Purigen works well in a high tec planted tank, when dosing inorganic nitrate and phosphate. I use it as it keeps my water crystal clear. Brilliant stuff.

 

[Monochrome5]

Purigen works well in a high tec planted tank, when dosing inorganic nitrate and phosphate. I use it as it keeps my water crystal clear. Brilliant stuff.

I'll be dosing some ferts, plus this will be a relatively hitec tank since my lighting is designed for a reef. Maybe I should run Purigen? Ah. So confused ha.

 

[ian]

Purigen is a brilliant filter medium. There's quite a lot of planted tank keepers who use it. It's capacity to adsorb nitrogenous waste from plants is great. Since using Purigen, i don't get the film on the top of the water. The water is gin clear. It's a big yes for usage in a high tec tank.


ps, if you are using C02, you're going to have to dose some nitrate and phosphates.

 

[lljdma06]

He can totally get away with Yeast, though, right? Tank's only 8g. I've got my old nutrafin canisters lying about from my last CO2 scape. I got really stable CO2 levels.

Liz

 

[Ryan12]

i did yeast on a 10 gallon so i dont see why it wouldnt work for a 8

 

[StandbySetting]

I use it on my current set up, the best way to go about it is to set it up before you plant up, then work out how many grams of sugar you need and how many grams of yeast you need to achieve 30Mg/L, you're better off with 2 bottles also, divide the mass of sugar you need and put half in each bottle, do the same with the yeast, add the volume of water that you require also and at the same temperature, then replace each bottle every 7 days but stagger it so bottle one is changed mid week and bottle two at the weekend to try and maintain a constant CO2 flow, disconnect at night and always measure with a drop checker.

 

[SuperColey1]

I use carbon and Purigen. Carbon only last a day or 2 then becomes media with a high surface area. Purigen removes ammonia and makes the water like glass.

I use them both more for polishing than for filter bacteria etc.

The CO2 needs to be in the open water not in the rear chamber.

AC