New Tank - Advice Appreciated

[JohnB]

Hi

Its going to be a planted tank, with community fish (hoping to be able to stock a various levels within the tank (ie top, middle and bottom)

Would appreciate thoughts advice on:

General Kit
Media for the filter (has 4 baskets)
Lighting (hoping to make do with the setup provided as in 4 x 58W (232w) - 150cm lighting system - however lights - there is an amazing choice
Substrate
oh and anything apart from plant and fish i have missed ?

Thanks in advance

Rena Aqualife 200 x 50
Dimensions: 201cm W x 51cm x D 70,5 cm H
Volume in litres: 717
Volume in imperial gallons: 157


External Filter
1550 l/h External Filter Rena Filstar xP4


CO2
JBL Proflora CO2 Set Profi 1
http/www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/fish/technic...ories/co2/19466


Regards

John

 

[rabbut]

Test kits, Many on here use API, but I however recomend Tetra, mainly because I have read reports of them being more accurate than API, and also becouse I have found them an easy kit to use. I can't compair them to API though, as I haven't used them. API master liquid kits retail for arround £17, and do arround 700 tests. This works out cheaper than those horibly inaccurate strips, so two reasons to go with liquid ests rater than strips

Filter media, in order of the basket through which the water first flows (bottom on XP4) to the last (top basket)

Corse Sponge
Fine sponge
Ceramic/bio balls are equily as good as each other IMO
filter floss to polish

Carbon and other chemical media is rarely needed, so don't waste mony buying it unless you genuinely need it. LFS's will peobibly try to push it on you though, so be propaired

Lighting, should be fine for low light plants. CO2 would not be worth it IMO with such low lightling. I'd look to fit extra tubes, to boost the light to arround 3 WPG, then more plants will do well, and the CO2 stops becomming a waste. The hydor ballasts supplied with those tanks have reliability issues with T5 models, so I'd replace with an Arcadia luminare. T8 modles can have aditional tubes fitted to boost lighting.

Substrate, with planted tanks you will need a good substrate. Be prepaired to pay more than expected for this. Substrate is very inportant though. Aquagrit is very good, as is Tetra eco complete, or the JBL range also. ADA soils are the elete types, and would cost a couple of hundered pounds to fill your tank, so IMO they are not ideal for larger tanks. I'd personaly go with the Tetra range, at between £50-100 depending on the type

I have read may good reviews of those JBL CO2 kits, so that should be good Howeve, I don't use them myself.

You missed a bottle of ammonia off the list for your cycle. Don't let the LFS fool you into thinking that the tank is ready for fish after a week of standing, or after adding a bottle of "live bacteria" that would hae been dead for a long while by the time you get it home, as things will go wrong quickly if you follow the common advice recived from most LFS's. To read up on fishless cycling, read [topic="113861"]here[/topic]. To speed the cycle, ask members for some mature filter media [topic="150631"]here[/topic].

HTH
Rabbut

 

[manwithnofish]

Mr. Rabbut, any chance you could take a look at my Post to see if you could help me.

Tropical Fish Forums > Tropical Fish > New to the hobby -> "New to Hobby - Algae Problem"

Would greatly appreciate all the help I can get.