New plant tank..kinda

[Russell F]

Hello...

I am setting up a 20long as a plant tank...

A few years back it was a somewhat successful tank but failed in the end due to my absence(was gone off to school and mom didn't fertilize, change water, etc..etc... even though i had set it up for her...because i did exclusivly reefs at that time)

I am setting it back up for myself now, but i wanna try it a alittle different this time..


the old setup was as follows:

-Standard 20 long (12x12x30)
-2x20watt flor. hood with only one light on (1 watt a gall)
-Fluval 103 with submerged spraybar (no surface aggitation)
-a fine gravel substrate(2-3mm) about 2.5-3" thick with laterite on the bottom
-no co2 system
-fish..1siamese algae eater, 2 cory cats, misc tetras and such..medium load but not heavy
-Heavily planted with low-med light plants. My crpyts did excelent even after the rest perished, but the rest survived over a year or more
-water changes 10% every week when i was home

That setup worked alright, plans did good for a while but most of them died after a year or so...

In the new setup i want to still not use co2, if possible, though i could do a diy system...
Okay, now to current ideas and questions..


1. In the old setup i had a dual tube hood with only one light on, Would i need CO2 if i ran both lights (2w a gal)? or would it cause probs with algae?

2. On the substrate, i've read about soil/peat/humus etc being used under a thin layer of gravel. How would a method like that work in this tank? How would i go about it? Is there a website on this method?

*In my area it is almost impossible to get florite, oynx, etc without a long drive or $$$ shipping cost, would like to avoid anything too pricey, on a budget...

3. What additives or fertilizers would you recomend? In the previous setup i used FLourish, and chealated iron.

4. I plan on reusing the mechanics (Fluval 103, 100w ebo-jagger), But are there any changes that could be benificial?

5. I'v forgotten my old planting, it was mostly low-med light plants. But i would enjoy any recomendations, as i want this new tank to outdo the old one...

6. Fish.. will probly just be tetras or similar, and a light load at that...

Sorry for long post, but thanks for any and all help!! Hope i gave enough info and asked enough questions, I'm open to anything and willing to try anything...

Thanks!! Russell

[djlen]

If you planted it very heavily with stems and other nutrient eaters and shaded it with more nutrient eating floaters like water sprite and salvinia(I love salvinia....a great little floater) you might be able to get away without CO2, although I wouldn't count on it being easy. 2 watts/gal. is fairly low light, but it's a short tank and the lighting will be close to the plants. Newly set up tanks are almost always subject to one algae bloom or another anyway.
I'm skeptical, because I've heard so many stories of problems, early on, with algae.
Anyway, load it up with as many of the nutrient hogs as you can, and give them a few days to establish themselves and start fertilizing N,P, and K as well as Traces. All of the ferts you'll need can be gotten through the SeaChem line. It's a bit expensive, but convenient and easy to dose. They even have Flourish Excel for Carbon supplementation in lieu of CO2. If it was me, I'd start with a bottle of DIY CO2, load it up with plants and then after it was established try weaning it off the CO2 in a few months.
I like Flourite substrate. It's expensive(but IMO, worth the money). If money is an issue you could mix one bag of Flourite with Schultz's Soil Conditioner or Profile(either name is the same stuff) which is a fraction of the cost of Flourite. It is available at many nurseries.
Some people are mixing/layering different materials to provide substrates, but I like the one complete substrate myself.
I'm sure others will chime in with other ideas and opinions. If you have more questions feel free to ask. We are all learning from one another here.
BTW, welcome to the board. :)
Len