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| ADA Power Sand |
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| Fish-n-pups |
 Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Forum Regular
Joined: 02 Feb 2010
Posts: 778
Location: orem
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Now I am a bit confused. I thought planted tanks almost required no water movement. OR, do you mean something different by circulation? I'll have my filter going. Water changes I'll keep up on.
I have the one clown pl*co. Just one of those that stays small. Had her almost a year now and she's done great, hasn't grown much if at all and is about 3 inches long. The kid is very attached to her, so she'll go along with some driftwood. Then I'll find some Ottos' when it's time and add several of those.
Is it a given that planted tanks have algae? What does "getting algae", look like?
ERiK - do you recommend anything else (I can buy Locally) to go with the power sand, under the Amazonia? I know ADA caries a bunch of things, but I don't think I'll be putting in another order. |
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| ERiK |
| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Posts: 1405
Location: Salt Lake City
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Planted tanks do best with good water circulation - just not a lot of surface agitation. You need the circulation to move nutrients and CO2 around. You minimize surface agitation to prevent de-gassing of CO2
Power Sand Special has everything you need to go with your Amazonia. Maybe later, if you have heavy root feeding plants, you can add some root tabs that are specially designed for aquariums.
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 Nature Aquarium Club of Utah, Growing Utah's Aquatic Community |
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| HashBaz |
| Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 13 Feb 2008
Posts: 1504
Location: Lehi
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| Fish-n-pups wrote: |
| Is it a given that planted tanks have algae? What does "getting algae", look like? |
All planted tanks have a little algae if you look hard. "getting algae" is a shortened way of saying "getting algae problems" There are TONS of different species of algae so algae problems come in all shapes and sizes.
_________________
- Loren Sackett
Link to 75g planted tank: http://home.comcast.net/~lorensackett/ |
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| endgin28 |
| Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:08 am Post subject: |
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Fryling
Joined: 23 Jan 2010
Posts: 62
Location: sugarhouse
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The water circulation issue is a little confusing. My tanks currently run not only fairly powerful filtration units for their size (my twenty gallon has a filter "rated" for a 60 gallon tank, my 32 gallon cube a filter rated for a 100 gallon tank), but each one has a Hydor Koralia powerhead to keep the water circulating and the plants grow much faster for it. My cube has almost 700 GPH of circulation when you add the filter and the powerhead together. (its almost reef ready!!!) When your filter capacity is low relative to the size of the tank, adding powerheads are a very cheap upgrade, versus buying a larger canister filter.
You will often see that you don't want to agitate the surface of the tank because it will outgas co2. This makes a lot of sense when your co2 production is limited (DIY yeast CO2). When you have a pressurized system with essentially infinite CO2 capacity, I prefer to have some surface agitation and just crank the CO2 up to compensate for the inevitable loss of CO2. The advantage there is that you get strong gas exchange (I.e. extra oxygen), and break up unsighty surface film, while maintaining ideal CO2 conditions for plant growth. When I first started using pressurized CO2, I ran one of my tanks (the 29g) at about one BPS (bubble per second- the normal way of measuring CO2 delivery). I had nasty surface film and while I was at near ideal co2 level according to my fish behavior and a drop checker my plants grew relatively slowly. When I added a powerhead and altered the filters flow to agitate the surface a bit, I needed to increase the CO2 to 3 BPS. The plants went completely insane, and the shrimp and fish were fine and happy, even though I was pumping 3x more co2 into the tank. This increased growth was probably a result of mutliple factors (better co2 and fert distribution) and getting my fertilization to a consistent level, but having better water movement
definitely helped.
The high gas exchange level helps at night when the plants respire (they actually use oxygen after the lights go off). This respiration of the plants is one of the reasons that alot of people have their pressurized CO2 systems on a timer, basically following the photoperiod. Theoretically, at night when both plants and fish are using O2 the fish could be harmed because of low oxygen levels. With decent water movement and gas exchange, it should not matter. Don't worry about a DIY CO2 causing respiration (lack of O2) problems at night- their just isn't a big enough swing to matter for the fishes health. Just to be fair there are planted tank people who run CO2 24/7 to no ill effects for plants or livestock, but I would have to say that the 24/7 approach seems like a waste of gas at night.
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Never let a sense of morals keep you from doing whats right. |
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| Fish-n-pups |
| Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:17 am Post subject: |
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Forum Regular
Joined: 02 Feb 2010
Posts: 778
Location: orem
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Ok endgin, you are being so helpful and informative and I hope you don't mind me picking your brain over the next many weeks, but now I'm in that WOW stage. I still have a lot to figure out.
What I planned on was the filter I have Penn Plax Cascade 1000, it runs 265 GPH. So not great at 4.8 turnover. I have no power head. I have a spray bar if that would help or a directional spout?
I didn't plan on using CO2 at all, hoped to get by without it, may have been a stupid thought.
I haven't thought of buying a power head, but that may be my next step. Sounds like a good idea.
I have to go. But want to learn!
Thanks |
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| endgin28 |
| Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 9:31 am Post subject: |
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Fryling
Joined: 23 Jan 2010
Posts: 62
Location: sugarhouse
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Don't worry, you are off to a good start! Don't worry about going completely nuts on hardware yet- I am a gear junkie and run a "high tech arrangement", you can assemble things over time a necessary. I don't like it when people think they are stupid when they are trying to learn- that is the furthest thing from being stupid!
Get the filtration, heating, and lighting systems arranged in a way that is effective and easy to manage. Make sure that you will be able to access things that require periodic maintenance, like you filter. Get your Amazonia/Power Sand laid in to your 55, with a gentle slope from front to back. Hardscape it the way you want, with pre soaked wood, or rocks. Play around with the arrangement a bit, until you get a look that you like. This stage can go fast or slow...
Assemble the plants you want to use for the start, with lots of fast growing stems like the Myriophyllum Mattogrossense, like we talked about. Once you have enough plants to have a fairly heavy initial planting, plant and dunk. Give yourself a month with a short photoperiod. Then start adding your add fish, increasing your photoperiod, and start dosing. Let the plants tell you what they need, before your spend a fortune.
If you want, add a carbon source in the future. DIY CO2 is cheap, but a pain. Pressurized CO2 is expensive up front, but relatively cheap to maintain and it is the best system overall, IMO. Seachem Excel is relatively expensive to run, but requires no hardware. Or you can just let the substrate and atmosphere provide the carbon and accept slower growth. You don't NEED a carbon source, but it does help.
Plant and dunk it when your ready, without carbon, and see what happens. If your plants stunt or your get bad algae, invest in carbon. I didn't have a carbon source right off the bat, like most people, I started out on a budget and I assembled more equipment over time.
Like, I said don't worry too much about powerheads and stuff, at first get the plants and dunk it. The powerheads are a tool that really helps the most, once the tank is full of plants and water has a hard time flowing from one side to another.
If I were to prioritize what helps a planted aquaria look great it would be
1. substrate
2. light
3. carbon
4. dosing
5. flow
I am sure this list could be debated but you already have 1 and 2 which is better than I started with. Let me know when you are getting ready to plant, I'll get you set up with some trimmings cheap.
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Never let a sense of morals keep you from doing whats right. |
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