New to the Planting thing

[Gerdie]

I'm setting up my first planted aquarium. Right now I have an empty 29gal sitting in my DIY stand. I'm adding the substrate today to let the water settle. I'm using black onyx sand, I have 2 33W "Brightsick Plant Lights" which equals just under 2.3 W/Gal in my DIY hood. I have a small CO2 system. One of those natural plant systems I bought online. I have all the necessary fertilizers & supplements (at least I think so). Does anyone have any suggestions for plants? And also, I'm fishless cycling, should I add the plants before, during or after the fishless cycle? Thanks....

Also, some suggestions on where to buy fish/plants/both online??? Mainly the plants.

[jeffro426]

Well it really depends on what kind of fish your going to keep...certain fish will maul certain plants so its always a juggle to get a good balance. It sounds like you are set up pretty well and are off to a good start. I would recommend picking your fish first, then picking plants, unless your going for just a planted aquarium not caring about what kind of fish you have.

[djlen]

Plant as heavily as you can afford, give them a week or so to establish themselves a bit, and add fish a few at a time and you won't have to worry about a 'cycle'. The plants will take care of that. With 2.3 watts/gal., the more plants you can get in there the better.
I'm not familiar with the CO2 system you refer to, but you want to get that up and running as soon as you plant and try to get your CO2 up to 20-25ppm.
Many people have have good luck ordering at Aquabid. I think many of the people who sell there also offer 'start-up' plant assortments. You might consider that initially.
I've never bought fish on line, but I'm sure someone will help you out in that department. I think buying fish locally is the better way to go because of stress issues and also, in many cases they will be better acclimated to the water conditions in your area.

Len

[Tempest]

I think what Djlen is trying to tell you is that you don't really need to do a fishless cycle for a well planted tank. *However*... If you wish to do the fishless cycle with ammonia, it is best not to plant the tank until the cycle is finished because the plants will suffer greatly from algae due to the high ammonia. :)

[Gerdie]

Maybe a little of a problem. Got my onyx sand in and I filled the tank ~40% and skimmed as much of the dust off as possible. Ran my first water test and this is what I got:

PH: 7.4 - 7.5
KH: 286 ppm (16)
GH: 340ppm (19)

Will this narrow down some of my choices on the plants? As for fish, this is kind of my plan right now. I'm going to start out with (not all at once) a school of Rasboras (5-8), albino cories (3-5), and wanted to add a couple Rams, Blue if possible (haven't found any yet) but have found bolivian Rams. Then there is a few more ideas after that. But with my PH levels, I'm unsure about the Rams now. It was also suggested in the General forum a couple days ago for some cockatoo Dwarf Cichilds, but I don't know enough about them to know prefered water parameters.

Also, here's the link to Big Al's for the CO2 system I got:
http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=19237&category_id=1557&pcid1=1537

It's basically like a DIY that's not really a DIY...

[promethean_sprk]

With hard water and high ph you'll be able to put in some black mollies for algae control. You might also look into smaller rainbowfish like the neon rainbow. They're generally tolerant of hard water. Bronze cories breed for me in water like yours, but I've found the albinos to be much weaker. They seem to get finrot and other problems very easilly.

My water is about the same as yours, I use a DI column to cut the hardness to 120ppm and ph down to 7. CO2 will take your ph down a little too.

[NGerdes]

[i]My water is about the same as yours, I use a DI column to cut the hardness to 120ppm and ph down to 7. CO2 will take your ph down a little too. [/B]



Pardon my ignorance, but what is a DI Column???

And what will this water do to my plants??

Would the fact that I took the tests right after I added the water to the new sand and it was still cloudy and dusty have any effect on the readings?

Thanks for the help...

[Gerdie]

Sorry, just realized that the my post above was under my old name. Didn't even realize that it still worked after this long....

[promethean_sprk]

A DI column is the "Tap Water Purifier" from AP. It contains two ion exchange resins that absorb all positive and negative ions in the water, basically removing all hardness. A new column gives KH 0, GH 0 and PH ~ 6.5. I cut this with tap water to produce a happy medium, kH and gH ~4-6 and ph 7.

The cartriges are expensive at 20 bucks, but fortunately they can be recharged with lye and muriatic acid for about $1. One cartridge makes 30 or 40 gallons for me. Supposedly the resin is good for hundreds of charges.

Most municipal water is very hard/alkaline so that it won't corrode pipes. That means to get a good PH/kH/gH you need to either buy or make water with those properties.

There's a big comprehensive guide to DI columns and some unconventional uses at http://www.reefs.org/library/article/g_deutschmann.html

Careful changing the chemistry. I did 1 15% water change per week with DI water until the water was how I wanted it. Nothing bad happened, even the crypts were fine. If you did a 50% water change to halve your hardness, you might float a bunch of fish and melt some plants.

[Gerdie]

I might have to try that. But for the record, will the plants have problems with this kind of water?