New to Freshwater

[drw94]

I have been keeping reef tanks for over 14 years, SPS, LPS, and softies. Recently the freshwater planted tanks have caugth my eye. I have no idea how to properly setup or maintain a fw tank. What type of equipment is need to successfully keep plants and also what about lighting requirements. i was thinking of setting up my 60 gallon as freshwater. The problem is that it is reef ready with an overflow. I know you want to keep as much CO2 in the tank as possible and a sump would airate the water alot. So is a sump acceptable or not.

As much info as possible would be great

Thanks

[pballafreak]

Hey, Im not sure on alot of those things, but I do know that around 5 watts per gallon is around the max you see alot. But it depends on the plants you want. You can get low light, medium light, and high light. Alot of times with medium and high light, you will need to inject Co2. Low light is normaly in the 2< wpg. Medium 2-3 wpg. And high light is around 3 and up wpg. I'm pretty sure thats around right, and differant people will have a little bit varying numbers. Also, as far as a filter, normaly people use a canister filter. Thats about as must as I can help.
HTH
~mark~

[Twitterbait]

If you do a sump system the just go with low flow or hook up a canister filter to the drain. What i would really recommend is simply put the Co2 diffuser right next to the return pump. that will mix it in with the water really well and give you good diffusion. 1 bubble every 3-5 seconds is good for any average tank of that size. i wouldn't go more than 100w of lighting on the tank.

[Wiskey]

First you need to ask yourself (and tell us) "How involved do I want to be in this tank?", "How much money do I want to spend?" and "What is my goal?".

Basically I see planted tanks in 2 realms, high tech, and low tech. There is some amount of grey area here, but it is sort of like saying "a suffusion of yellow", what ever you choose to do with it, its still yellow.

High tech:
Pressurized CO2 injection, you can use DIY (yeast method) but that is hard to get stable, and you really want to maintain CO2 at 30 PPM. To do this properly you should have a PH monitor and that won't work with the yeast method.

Liquid fert dosing: the more often the better, you would dose N,P,K,Fe, and trace, I recommend at least twice per week. How much is related to how much your tank uses, this will take a little getting used to. Phosphate and Nitrate are easy to dose, because you can test for them, but Trace, Iron and Potassium there is no reliable test kit for so they are kinda by feel.

Lots of light: Usually around 3-5 WPG, but that is a ruff guide, over your tank (assuming it is four foot long) I would think that 4*55W PC's would be fine provided they are in parabolic reflectors such as the ones sold at AHsupply, this makes a big difference. You want 5500-6700K light BTW (don't worry it doesn't look yellow in FW).

Substrate: The only thing I would even think about for a tank like this is Florite, Eco-Complete, or the Aqua Design Ammano substrates, but this can get expensave fast, so shop around.

Water changes: 50% or more weekly.

Low tech I played with high tech for a while, but I personally like this approach better, much more laied back, and it's how my 180 is setup.

CO2: None, or if you want an yeast CO2 setup, you don't need too much.

Ferts: None, see substrate.

Light: for your tank (assuming it is four foot long) the perfect thing is 3 or 4 NO 40W tubes. You can buy a shoplight at with a ballast that runs 2 bulbs for $12, the lamps will run you about $5 each and HD carries a bunch of bulbs that suit your needs, 5500K, 6200K, Grow LUX (I like those, but coming them with some others) ect. You will change these about every 9 months.

Substrate: Here's where the cost really drops, you want to use potting soil (1 inch) under a 1 inch layer of 2-4MM gravel. Potting soil is by far the best substrate I have ever used, and the cheaper the soil the better, you don't want anything like Miracle grow that is pre-fertilized for a number of reasons, just plain old store brand potting soil. (but do the cup test before use)

Water changes: The only problem with potting soil is that in the first 4 months or so it will yellow your water, really bad in the beginning, and it slows down with time. So you will want to do a few water changes the first week of about 50% then taper off as time goes on just to keep the water clear. Carbon will also help, some people once the soil calms down, don't do changes for months on end.

If you want to do a Low tech tank, I highly recommend Diana Walstad's book, "The ecology of a planted aquarium" it is by far the most informative book on the subject I have ever read, and you will get allot from it.

That is a basic overview, answer the 3 questions, and we can start getting to details

HTH,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

BTW, the over flow problem is easy to get around, my 180 has one, but how we get around it really depends on what you expect out of this tank.

Whiskey

[drw94]

I want this tank to look really good. Faily easy on maintance and up keep. I already have a CO2 system from a previous reef tank, I also have 2 96 watt pc from another tank. I ahave a tendancy to challange myself, and have been looking into Discus aswell. I look at themy 60 gallon and it has a crack near a seem, so I am going to buy a new tank without and overflow. With the potting soil as substrate how long does it last for? Do the weekly additions of ferts keep it going? Also what are the benifits of each type(low vs. high tech). All the input has been very helpful. The funny thing is I can keep the hardest SPS coral with ease, but i will kill a goldfish in days!

[drw94]

The three questions- I want this tank to run on autopilot. Weekly and monthly maintenance is what I want. Money is not to much of an issue. I do the know the most expensive is not always the best. Goal is to maintain a heathly environment for plant and fish aswell as being appealing to the eyes.

[Wiskey]

The funny thing is I can keep the hardest SPS coral with ease, but i will kill a goldfish in days!

Stop putting them in your reef tank

The advantage of low tech is it runs itself. All I do is about every 2 weeks get in there with clippers and trim down the shrubs. I also do my water changes too of course.

The advantage of high tech is you can keep a few more really high light types of plants, although some of the lower light ones don't fare well, and your growth rate will be such that you can watch the plants grow.

My tank (as if you are taking my advice you probably want to know how I do) is a suffusion of yellow, as I put it earlier in the thread. It is low tech except that I use CO2, I don't have a monitor though, I just run a constant low level (about 6PPM) to help the plants out.

Pic if you haven't seen it. This tank is lit by 6*55W PC lights in AHSupply reflectors. It is a standard 180 6*2*2. If you want to know more about it, I have a 32 page build thread that details every success and every problem, along with all the equipment, fish, setup and bolt in the stand and hood.



What size tank are you getting? I highly recommend a tank at least 18 inches deep, my all time favs for tank size are oceanic 58 standard 75, standard 120 and standard 180. I like them due to their proportions, their depth V.S. hight V.S. length.

Whiskey