Planted Tanks

[Chuka1212]

Ok, so I want to start a 100% live planted tank, but I am a little confused as to where to start. Here is my plan and let me know what you think (those of you that have planted aquariums). I also have a few questions.

Ok, I am setting up my 30 gallon aquarium. I have a powerfilter, an undergravel filter with a power head that will run on one side only, Two 15W flourescent bulbs, small-pebbled sized gravel, some driftwood, and the other usual items. I want to possibly buy some Laterite to put below my gravel. I want to make a homemade CO2 injector with a 2 liter pop bottle, connected to an airstone that goes directly into my power filter intake. And that is that... Let me know what will work, what won't and what suggestions you have or any personal experiences you have.

I would also like to know:

1) Does Laterite need to be replaced periodically?

2) How essential are trace nutrients for plants? If so, what nutrients do I need? (the amount available is staggering)

3) How essential is a method of measuring my CO2? Can I just sort of wing it with my home made system without worrying about having too much CO2?

4) I have heard that the undergravel is not the greatest choice for plants... should I just remove the power head and keep the grates, remove the whole undergravel system, or does it even matter?

Thanks so much in advance, I look forward to hearing some great info!!

 

[mibson]

Ok, so I want to start a 100% live planted tank, but I am a little confused as to where to start. Here is my plan and let me know what you think (those of you that have planted aquariums). I also have a few questions.

Ok, I am setting up my 30 gallon aquarium. I have a powerfilter, an undergravel filter with a power head that will run on one side only, Two 15W flourescent bulbs, small-pebbled sized gravel, some driftwood, and the other usual items. I want to possibly buy some Laterite to put below my gravel. I want to make a homemade CO2 injector with a 2 liter pop bottle, connected to an airstone that goes directly into my power filter intake. And that is that... Let me know what will work, what won't and what suggestions you have or any personal experiences you have.

I would also like to know:

1) Does Laterite need to be replaced periodically?

2) How essential are trace nutrients for plants? If so, what nutrients do I need? (the amount available is staggering)

3) How essential is a method of measuring my CO2? Can I just sort of wing it with my home made system without worrying about having too much CO2?

4) I have heard that the undergravel is not the greatest choice for plants... should I just remove the power head and keep the grates, remove the whole undergravel system, or does it even matter?

Thanks so much in advance, I look forward to hearing some great info!!

Hello,
1) you can get away with "two 15W fluorescent bulbs" but I would go with four 15w bulbs if you are using "regular" cheep fluorescents. If you get one 65w VHO florescent it will work much better, your fish will even look better and the initial cost will pay for itself with electricity savings over time.

2) trace nutrients are very important; keeping track of exact amounts is not possible without serious lab gear so a 35% change each week with redosing will solve that issue.

3) measuring co2 is a good idea at first to ensure you don’t over/under dose co2,..actually one 2L might not be quite enough for a 30g I find one 2L per 20g is required. And co2 levels that are a bit too low with lots of ferts can = algae issues...the surface agitation of you tank can DRASTICLY reduce your co2 so if you have lots of water moving you will need 3 or 4 liters of co2 bottles , with very little surface agitation 2L will work.

4) I don’t like under gravel filters, I would get rid of it and a power head is a great idea. Plants love lots of water movement. Be careful that you fish don’t get stuck to the power head filter. I have had this happen with smaller fish

If you run a tube strait into the power head you don’t need an air stone. If you use an air stone it will have to be replaced often as the small amount of "stuff" or flocculent from yeast aerosols will clog the airstone quickly..

A good rule is if your plants start to "pearl" half way through the day the amount of co2 is good. Pearling within 2 hours of lighting coming on can mean that you have too much co2 (as can fish gasping)

Run you powerhead on a timer with co2 injection so that you turn you co2 off when the lights go out and turn the co2(powerhead) on one-two hours before the lights go on.

Flourite/laterite is good stuff but not required if you use EI dosing (see pinned post above)

What micronutrients you need depends on your source water. Most tap water contains most of the micros required but I found great results adding Kent or Seachem Flourish (trace) nutrients.

check out gregwatson.com you can save a forture if you but ferts there.

I would consider using Black Flourite as your substrate, the finer the substrate the better for plants. With proper EI dosing you will never need to replace the Flourite substrate. (perhaps you could after 5-10 years but not needed)

Cheers!

 

[Chuka1212]

Thank you so much for the information, it was very helpful. I will get started tomorrow on my tank. I am not sure what pearling means, however... Is it when there are small air bubbles on the leaves of the plants?

 

[Rhea]

Yup, pearling is when you can see O2 bubbles forming on the plants leaves.

From your initial questions:

1) I would agree that having a fertile substrate would help instead of just gravel, something like laterite, or the tropica and seachem substrates (e.g. flourite). There's quite a few out there, depending on the look you want (and can afford!)

2) Trace nutrients are very important, I'm not sure whether you're planning for a fairly high or low tech approach? It may be worth reading around about EI and low tech to decide how you want to maintain your tank.

3) For measuring CO2 I'd recommend having a drop checker permanently in the tank, it might help you diagnose any algae or other problems you get, as well as being a way to ensure your co2 is actually getting circulated around the aquarium.

4) I don't have any experisnce with using undergravel filters, but I think generally opinion is to remove them completely.

Good luck, look forward to some pictures