Mermaid wrote:
Thanks to you all for helping me and giving me advice.
I guess I will be using Excel because I will not have the money to invest in
CO2.
My Tank is a 75 gal and I plan to use a Magnum 350 and my wet/dry trickle
with the bioballs submerged. That will give me somewhere to put my heater
instead of the tank. Unless they make heater cables for a 75? If you use
cables do you need any other heater? Does it have a thermostat?
Don't know what my tap water is. Going to have to get some tests for
freshwater if I don't still have them in the cabinet.
If I use my RO/DI unit then what buffer do I add to it. Someone told me that
the RO/DI unit would be good if I decided to breed fish.
Otherwise I guess I will sell it too. My husband will kill me on that one as
much as the unit cost.
They make heater cabels for 75 gallon tanks. I think you do still need
a heater because the wattage is low on the cables. The cables create a
very slow convective current through the substrate, keeping it aerobic
and bringing nutrients down to be trapped on the laterite where the
plant roots can use them.
As for RO/DI, how's your tapwater? If you have good tapwater, then
there's no reason not to use it since it comes with free buffering and
trace elements. :-) My tapwater is hard and alkaline, pH 7.8, tastes
bad, reeks of chlorine, and sometimes stresses my fish after water
changes. I wish I had RO, despite what Tom says. For breeding sof****er
species, RO/DI is very useful.
I looked up the buffer for RO/DI, and it's Seachem Equilibrium to give
some hardness, plus baking soda to give some alkalinity.
So as I understand that if you pack the tank with plants from day one you
can forget about cycling. Amazing. Even with having eventually angels?
Yep. BUT you still have to start with only a few fish and add fish
slowly. What's happened to me is that there are no ammonia or nitrite
spikes, and bacteria gradually build up in the filter. As long as I add
fish slowly, there's no real "cycle." There's actually a concept called
the Dutch Aquarium (very similar to the Berlin reef) where only water
movement is used, the tank is lightly stocked, and the plants provide
all of the filtration.
I have a powercompact lighting unit that has 110 watts. The bulbs are not
new and they are not actinic. They are daylight balanced.
I also have 1 strip 48" light that I thought I could add a plant light with.
Would that work?
Sounds like plenty of light to me. I personally prefer high CRI bulbs
to plant lights but if you don't mind the purplish cast they're good for
plants.
Also if I put 3" of gravel+flourite in the 75, how much do I buy?
Here's Seachem's recommendation.
http://www.seachem.com/products/prod.../Flourite.html
They actually say 2" rather than 3". I'm not sure why. I've had big
sword plants put roots all the way to the bottom in 3" of gravel/laterite.
Also, you have to rinse Flourite pretty extensively. Here's the best
instructions I've seen so far.
http://www.vickisaquaticplace.com/fluorite.html
Thanks for your time,
Paulette
wrote in message
ups.com...
Ditch the RO/DI idea. Plants don't care. They prefer harder water in
99% of the species and even those 2-3 plants will grow in harder water.
UFG's can and do work but they are not needed and plants will do fine
without them. I'd remove it and add Flourite with a little ground
peat(about 1 handful, per sq ft)
Focus on the plant's needs, light, CO2 and nutrients.
Good plant growth and lots of plant biomass = poor algae growth.
So add lots of weeds from day one.
I mean pack the tank!
Next, are you going to add CO2, or Excel?
And how big is the tank and what is the GH and KH of your tap water?
Regards,
Tom Barr
3rd annual Plant Fest July 8-14th 2005!
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