Plant Collections & New (2Nd Hand) Tank

[curlyriff]

Hey everyone,

I have posted this in the planted section too but thought it might be worth asking here as well with the few questions I have.

I have got myself a 350ltr Rena Aqualife 350 tank (120x51x71cm) with a Ehiem Pro II filter & 2xRena smart heaters with a load of spare bits and pieces for £100.

I am running 1 light unit with 2No. 30watt 10000k day white T8 bulbs and 2No. Arcadia Classica ocean moonlight for night.

I am not running CO2 and have a black sand type substra (this tank was 2nd hand and came with so not sure exactly what it is) but it seems to be growing the current plants fine etc at moment. I currently have the daylights on between 5pm & 9pm with the moonlights kicking in at 9pm till 11pm then lights out till next day.

Now I want to take all the old plants out and do a complete new scape. I am currently trying to find a 3D background to use in tank but because its 71cm it's harder to find one to fit. I will be running two air stones as for some reason I don't seem to be getting enough oxygen into the tank and the fish were swimming to top as if struggling to breath so I added 1 air stone and it seems to impove things but it is an old Whisper that is around 25 years old my parents gave me as a temperary fix. (Any ideas why I would be having problems also appreciated).

Anyways I have found those pre-selected plant collections where you pay for them with a schematic which makes sense to a newbie like me and it says it includes a guide for all the plants and looking after the scape etc but I was wondering if they are worth the money.

The main one I am interested in is this Running River. The reason other than price for the going with the grow it on collection is that my tank is about 4 times smaller than the suggested tank size so I should be able to plant it similar straight off as plant count is also around 4 times less. Also I will loose a little bit of the tank to the 3D background anyways.

Only problem is it doesn't say what any of the plants are so how can you tell if it is worth it or not and with the price it is I assume I need to find a piece of bogwood that suites the design (not a problem just need to cost for it).

Anyone got any experiance with these packages or anything I should be aware or need to consider before purchasing.

For the new Airpump I was looking at something like the Penn Plex Airpod 100 with two air stones. Any other options worth a look at & anyone got any good places to get some airstones or interesting ornimants (wood style or similar) that can hook up too instead?

Thanks for any help.

Kind Regards,

Adam

 

[Timmy_Bee]

i cant be much help with the plants im afraid, but i just wanted to say you got a good deal! all that for £100?!

As for the air pump, i know its a bit of a noob question, but do you have the filter outlets desturbing the surface of the water enough?
I angle mine up so its properly splashing out the water, then angle it down until it stops making splashing noises.

 

[curlyriff]

i cant be much help with the plants im afraid, but i just wanted to say you got a good deal! all that for £100?!

As for the air pump, i know its a bit of a noob question, but do you have the filter outlets desturbing the surface of the water enough?
I angle mine up so its properly splashing out the water, then angle it down until it stops making splashing noises.

Thanks TB,

Yeah all I was surprised too as the advert had no price with make me an offer and they needed it gone over the weekend ideally so yeah.

The outlet is running through the Rena Smart heater which means the flow is minimal at the top and that's why I want to introduce the Air Pump & Stones. Although I like the look too when it's done well.

I may remove the heater and move it to see if it helps to agitate the top of the water a little. Other than that I was thinking about adding a power head but they are costly and am trying to keep all the Kit under £500 total.

Kind Regards,




Adam

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Adam, sounds like a real find and good deal and I'll be interested to read your info better later when I have time and can interact more...

One immediate thought though is that another contributor to poor flow can be filter tubing that needs to be cleaned out if that's not been done in a long time. You can either get brushes on long spring wires or devise little cloths tied to strings connected to long straightened coathangers or such to get a strong cleanout (trombone slide cleaners are great too.) Anything slowing your flow rate and circulation can be a problem with gas exchange and bubbles aren't going to solve much. Also with used tank/filter combos you have to recalculate the turnover rate and check it as the original owner might have had no idea about obtaining 4 to 5x turnover rate, much less 10x for a planted tank, etc.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[curlyriff]

Hi Adam, sounds like a real find and good deal and I'll be interested to read your info better later when I have time and can interact more...

One immediate thought though is that another contributor to poor flow can be filter tubing that needs to be cleaned out if that's not been done in a long time. You can either get brushes on long spring wires or devise little cloths tied to strings connected to long straightened coathangers or such to get a strong cleanout (trombone slide cleaners are great too.) Anything slowing your flow rate and circulation can be a problem with gas exchange and bubbles aren't going to solve much. Also with used tank/filter combos you have to recalculate the turnover rate and check it as the original owner might have had no idea about obtaining 4 to 5x turnover rate, much less 10x for a planted tank, etc.

~~waterdrop~~

Cheers WD,

Yeah we realised that the way he put the media in was all wrong so redone that (wrong type in wrong compartment with sponges in wrong place). And we used new pipework for the tank as it came with some Ehiem stuff that he hadn't used as he kept the orignal Rena tubes on there.

I have increased my flow rate as much as possible and it seems to be running better than it was when the other guy had it although I don't think the filter will handle 10x. Not with 1 single filter anyways.

It is rated at 277gph pump output with 198gph Filter circilation so even with say 4 Pro II filters on that would only be around 792gph or 1108gph and 10x is about 960gph required (not sure if I should be looking at the pump output or circulation. Even the Pro III 2080 only has pump output at 450ghp which would still mean 2 filters & an FX5 output is rated at 925gph so would I be better of with getting something like that?

Sorry a little confused about the amount of flow and what is really required compared to on the market.

Kind Regards,

Adam

 

[waterdrop]

Where will the tank be situated? An FX5 can be pretty loud! WD

 

[ian]

Flow doesn't just mean extra filtration. It can mean via a powerhead. Take for example, my planted tank is 200l and the filter runs at 1000lph, I get my extra flow from a hydor koralia , which turns over 1500lph. It works out a lot cheaper than buying an fx5!

 

[curlyriff]

It is in the living room. I haven't noticed the noise on my friends FX5 and his is in his living room also. I have been looking into powerheads but it appears allot state around 6000 to 12000lph which to me would mean a flow rate of around 20x. Is there such thing as too much. I was looking at the hydor koralia Magnum 5 which on its own works out at 18x flow rate but I want to make sure there would be no dead spots.

Also I have been deciding what I really want to do with the tank and have been looking at Cichlids. Now this means removing all the plants, bogwood & current fish but I really like the colours. I know they are messy though so would my current filter be enough with a power head to help flow.

I can get my 3D background to hide everything but the power head to make sure it is situated in best place & also I have been reading up that plants such as Anubias barteri var. Barteri & Microsorium pteropus are normally fine in Cichlids tanks as they don't like the taste and are hardy plants that don't mind the higher PH levelsI have.

Can I use large pieces of bogwood for the smaller Cichlids like the Labidochromis caeruleus or Aulonocara baenschi or does it have to be rocks that the plants attach too.

I think the tank should be big enough to get a few in the tank and my water parameters from tap seem ideal for them. Is there anything else I need to consider?

I am going out tomorrow to look at different spray bar & power head options to go in the tank depending on cost and will also get rocks and plants etc should the Cichlids route be a good idea so any input would be good.

I will keep the current fish in tank while I aquascape and my local Maidenhead Aquatics said they would be happy to accept my fish and maybe even give me some store credit.

 

[waterdrop]

There are also just the regular little Koralias, right? You must be looking at the monster ones. WD

 

[curlyriff]

There are also just the regular little Koralias, right? You must be looking at the monster ones. WD

Yeah I couldn't find many of the smaller ones. In the end I picked up a small pond pump just to see how it works and which was £10 and turns around 1000lph and is attached direct to a spray bar. It also has adjustable flow control and just uses 4 small suckers to attach. It is only about 2" square so not big at all.

I also got a Tertatec 300 airpump and 2 airstones which have helped to keep the water moving and look quite good. My plants are slowly dying but I think that is down to a number of things. Nothing is being dosed in the tank at the moment, my lighting hours are probably a little short plus I switched out two bulbs to blue for moon light which I don't think do anything for plants.

Might have to see what I can do to help them grow again. I can see that some the plants have got new leaves coming through and the old ones are about 8" long and starting to drop. Should I cut the old ones of. About 8 old leaves to 4 new ones at moment.

Kind Regards,

Adam