I Need Advice Planning My New Small Planted Aquarium

[Ed Green]

Hello guys,

I have an arc Arcadia 35ltr tank with an Arcadia 11w Original Tropical Compact Lamp.

I have been deciding for a while how I want to stock it and recently discovered a love for planted aquariums.

I know my tank is small but want to get some advice on how possible it would be to go for something along these lines:

Small planted aquarium

another one

beautiful!

My tank is about these sizes - can you help me with the following:

Substrate

Whats best? Caribsea? At the moment I have a big bag of regular gravel but assume thats probably no use.

Lighting

the description of the light says its ok for tropical fish and plants but i know this is more plans than would be expected. I love the carpet effects of plants like java / hemianthus callichtroides and would want a whole carpet across the bottom. Will my lights be enough?? hope so

CO2

An alien area to me. Will i need co2 on such a small tank and if so can somone recommend a nice cheep option?

Cycling

How does this fully planted style of aquarium change the cycling process? I was going to opt for a fishless cycle but wont the plants suck all the ammonia out of the water before it gets chance to do its thing?


Im very excited about getting into this mini garden style of planted aquariums. Anyone out there got one and able to offer a newbie some help?


Thanks for reading!

Ed

 

[Underwurlde]

Take a gander at the pinned topic in the planted section about EI.

True, plants take up ammonia.... probably easiest if you fish-less cycle your filter first before anything else.

Andy

 

[aaronnorth]

substrate.
ADA Aquasoil or eco complete are considered the best substrates. They come with a high price tag.

light.
Buy another 11w light for it.

CO2.
to grow some of the more demadning plants like you have listed then yes you will need CO2.
You can get a pressurized system which is the best option for keeping it stable. Or i would reccomend daily dosing of easycarbo or seachem excel which is a liquid source of carbon.

cycling.
Most people "silent cycle" which means they plant as many plants as possible (75%+ substrate coverage). Then they leave the tank for a week or two and do 50% daily water changes. This means no algae spores or ammonia will be available hich may cause algae. After the two weeks, add a few small fish or shrimp, so that the ammonia spike isnt too much. Any that is produced will be quickly utilised by the plants, and the "Leftovers" will go towards the filter bacteria. It is important that you still keep the water changes up at this stage.

 

[Ed Green]

substrate.
ADA Aquasoil or eco complete are considered the best substrates. They come with a high price tag.

light.
Buy another 11w light for it.

CO2.
to grow some of the more demadning plants like you have listed then yes you will need CO2.
You can get a pressurized system which is the best option for keeping it stable. Or i would reccomend daily dosing of easycarbo or seachem excel which is a liquid source of carbon.

cycling.
Most people "silent cycle" which means they plant as many plants as possible (75%+ substrate coverage). Then they leave the tank for a week or two and do 50% daily water changes. This means no algae spores or ammonia will be available hich may cause algae. After the two weeks, add a few small fish or shrimp, so that the ammonia spike isnt too much. Any that is produced will be quickly utilised by the plants, and the "Leftovers" will go towards the filter bacteria. It is important that you still keep the water changes up at this stage.

Thanks aaronnorth thats a great help, I will double up on the lighting that I have.

Cycling - So I should be doing a full 50% water change daily for the first two weeks and then how long for once i have a few small fish/inverts in there? or is that something that water tests will decide? 50% daily for a month sounds like alot!

Again, thanks for that reply, and plantedbox.com looks fantastic, the Iwagumi aquascape is just beautiful. If only i knew how to get my hands on some Seiryu Stone!

 

[aaronnorth]

The person who created the scape is a member on here (saintly) so you can see some more of his tanks. He got the stone from a garden centre in Nottinghamshire, as it was dead cheap. They sell lots of different kinds.
If you do want seiryu stone then Aqua essentials sell small bits, but The green machine sell larger pieces but you have to visit their shop.

the water changes are a lot, but it is worth it and it is how a lot of people who plant their tanks start. I shall be doing it on a 240l in a few months so think yourself lucky lol. water tests will decide, once setup, run a 6hour photperiod as this limits algae growth also. After 2 weeks of daily w/c you can drop it down to 2 x 50% per week. Then down to 50% per week after a month. Once 1 month has passed, slowly begin to raise the photoperiod up to 8-10hrs.

 

[Ed Green]

The person who created the scape is a member on here (saintly) so you can see some more of his tanks. He got the stone from a garden centre in Nottinghamshire, as it was dead cheap. They sell lots of different kinds.
If you do want seiryu stone then Aqua essentials sell small bits, but The green machine sell larger pieces but you have to visit their shop.

the water changes are a lot, but it is worth it and it is how a lot of people who plant their tanks start. I shall be doing it on a 240l in a few months so think yourself lucky lol. water tests will decide, once setup, run a 6hour photperiod as this limits algae growth also. After 2 weeks of daily w/c you can drop it down to 2 x 50% per week. Then down to 50% per week after a month. Once 1 month has passed, slowly begin to raise the photoperiod up to 8-10hrs.

Haha yes I suppose I am lucky I only have a small tank to contend with. I dont mind the water changes but photoperiod, you mean have it lights on for six hours a day for a month then 8-10 hrs? sounds good.

Thanks for the info on the seiryu stone, ive never heard of aqua essentials - reallllly useful stuff - nice one.

Ed

 

[aaronnorth]

Haha yes I suppose I am lucky I only have a small tank to contend with. I dont mind the water changes but photoperiod, you mean have it lights on for six hours a day for a month then 8-10 hrs? sounds good.

yes

Thanks for the info on the seiryu stone, ive never heard of aqua essentials - reallllly useful stuff - nice one.

if you are wanting ADA aquasoil then you will have to use The green machine as AE have stopped selling it as it is hard to source.