new to site and FW planted tanks

[MichaelTX]

I have been reef keeping for several years and recently had a major death of my all my tanks. I had several from 10 gallon all the way up to my 100 gallon reef. I know have a small 20 gallon reef.
my mother had a compnay come in while I was out of town and rework my 100 gallon tank as a FW planted tank. and it looks great. it has 100 watts of 6500k PC that was on my reef tank. textblast sand and flourite mix for substrate, several plants that I have know idea what they are. and most of the fish have yet to be id'd becuase of all the hiding places in the tank LOL
I look forward to all the information that everbody has to offer..
so who can name some of these plants that I have in there :D

thanks
Mike

[Starry]

The one on the very right, with the big wavy leaves is Aponogeton ulvaceus. It looks like you have some kind of Echinodorus on the left. The pic is quite fuzzy, can you post something a bit more clear or close-up?
Better get started learning about planted tanks because there's a lot to know. Good luck

Edit: try www.tropica.com if you want to try ID'ing them on your own. My website below may be useful as well.

[MichaelTX]

yeah I have been doing some research on it all since I came back and it was setup. I didnt even know about it till I got home.
I have noticed that everything that I want to keep out of my reef you want in a planted tank.
ie
CO2
nitrates
phosphates
potassium
iron
just to name a few in reef these things are detrimental. so I have a lot of things to learn about it.

I do have a line of flourish products that the compnay left for the tank including a tab of some sort to go into the substrate.
I have found out that to plants on the far left in the picture are
far left red amazon sword and next to it is a green sword. there is howthorn(?sp) , java fern those are the ones I have been able to ID today. I am going to the company tomorrow to get a list of what they have stocked in it.

thanks for the advice this is completely different than anything I am usta.
Mike

[anonapersona]

100 watts on 100 gallons may not be enough.

When you check with the company that did the set up, you might want to ask about the lighting requirements of the plants they used.

[MichaelTX]

I didnt think it really was from my reefkeeping so I ordered some more lights I going to add another 220 watts there is actually 110 on there now.
is that closer to a planted tanks wattage requirments in general?
I havent been able to get aholt of the company yet but still working on it.
Mike

[djlen]

Mike, how deep is your tank(top to bottom)? Is all your lighting going to be PC fluorescent?
Since you are new to planted tanks, I would suggest that when you get the other 220 watts, you use that and take off the 110 that are on the tank now. You can add them all later, but 2 watts/gal. will grow the plants you have in the tank now and the likelihood of your having algae problems will lessen quite a bit with 2 watts as opposed to 3 per gal. initially.

The tank looks great.....good luck with it.

Len

[MichaelTX]

just use 220 watts over it instead of the 330watts. suprise I still think of that being low considereing the light I had on the tank before was 2-250 wattt mH and 220 watts of PC.
this is going to take some getting used to. LOL
the tank is 60"x20"x18" I beleive those are right.
is there any benifit to have normal fLorescent lighting along with the PC and is there any benifit to atinic lighting in the planted aquaria. I know there are big benifits on a reef tank but not usre about FW tanks.?
thanks for the help
Mike

[Robert H]

I would go with your original plan and have the 330 watts. Actinic has no benefit whatsoever for freshwater plants. A full spectrum light is best for growth and bringing out colors, something around 6500 kelvin.

You should think seriously about a C02 system. If you come from the reef world, I am sure you are used to equipment and the cost involved. In fact you may already have a C02 system from the marine??

Once you address light and C02, the rest is pretty easy. If money and time is not an issue, don't cut corners. Don't go half ***. Get yourself a nice system: around 3 watts per gallon of fluorescent light, and a reliable pressurized gas C02 system. Do you have a UV sterilizer left over from your reef tank? You can use that to prevent green water.

[djlen]

My opinion only........get 6500K daylight for plants. The plants will love it.
When I said to go with the 220 watts/gal. I meant it as a starting point. Keeping plants and learning to balance the tank, takes time and experience. I've seen more people jump into too much lighting initially, have a ton of issues with algae, and get discouraged. There is a HUGE difference between 2 watts/gal. and 3 watts/gal., especially if you're not going to use CO2.
Down the road, after you get your feet wet in FW planted tanks, you can add the extra 110 watts and you'll know what you're doing.

Len

[MichaelTX]

thank you both very much.
I dont have a UV becuse I was mainly reef and it kil alot of the plankton and good stuff in the water so I never used one. but that I got this tank I will look into it for several reasons.

the CO2 I dont have either I tried it when I forst got into reef tanks and it went haywire and I gased everything to death needless to say I never did that again. I will look into it what are pros and cone of not useing CO2 to useing it??

the lights are 6400k that I have now and ordered the same thing so that should be ok. now to figure out what to do with all the atinic replaement bulbs that I have LOL


again thank you guys
Mike

[Timmain42]

Mike:

Just out of curiousity, what was the name of the company who retooled your tank while you were gone?

[JLudwig]

the CO2 I dont have either I tried it when I forst got into reef tanks and it went haywire and I gased everything to death needless to say I never did that again. I will look into it what are pros and cone of not useing CO2 to useing it??


Count me as another vote for staying with 220W... 3 watt per gallon is too much for someone that doesn't have a grip on the basics... with 330W by the time you get around to reading everything you need to know you won't be able to see plants because of algae. Not to take a shot at reefkeepers (my wife keeps one and I help out) but they are a _lot_ less maintaince and not as difficult (softies at least) as a high light freshwater planted tank... reefs benefit most from underfeeding, lean water, and very small gradual changes, maybe you've only dosed kalkwasser... planted tanks need tinkering at least once a week, usually more..

The lights are the engine in the tank and unlike reefs as you have pointed out you need to keep macronutrients (N/P/K) at proper levels... you can't starve algae out of a planted tank, you can only outgrow it. With 330W you would need a CO2 system, and add traces, a nitrogen source, a potassium source at least three times a week, and do a 25-50% weekly water change. The plants will quickly strip the water clean of these nutrients, it is important to replace them. At 2 wpg the fish will provide N/P, you only need to add potassium and traces (once a week most likely), plus you don't *need* a CO2 system. CO2 will improve growth rates in the lower light setup, but it becomes essential (not beneficial) as lighting levels are increased. At no point can any nutrient (including carbon) be the limiting factor in plant growth - to keep a healthy planted tank the plants must only be limited by light. If the lighting isn't as intense, the demands on the other thing are not as intense either.

Hope that makes some sense.

[MichaelTX]

I was trying to get of Hi tech. hitech said the guy was off today that does taht sort of thing. and would be back tomorrow. so I ask him if they had a list of what he put in the tank. it was actually an individual that done it that she hired instead of a company. I guess she didnt want me to know that someone else instead of a company done it. I dont know why I guess she thought I was going to be mad about it.

and beleive it or not it makes perfect sense JLudwig. I have been doing a lot of reading it almost makes me think I was starting me reef the amount of material I have been reading and will contiune I am sure as it goes along.


BTW are there any small plants that are good for a foreground most of the plants in the tank are large stem plants and no mid range to small plants in there>?

thanks
Mike