Beginner Overkill

[FASTRAKR]

I guess I'll start off by introducing myself.

My wife and I are new to the aquarium hobby and are currently setting up HER new tank. The tank is a 30 gal glass tank with a 150W heater and a aquaclear 300 filter. Natural gravel substrate with kitty litter underneath that. She decided she wanted to go planted and since the used tank I got her had incandecent lighting she needed a new canopy. She got talked into this from BigAl's:

COMPACT FLUORESCENT STRIP LIGHT- 36" 110W (BLACK) - BULBS INCLUDED!



Our new Compact Fluorescent Strip-Lites are the latest design and feature an electronic ballast that is UL® Listed for outdoor use. Of course you can't use these strip-lites outdoors, but by having an outdoor rated ballast that is fully "potted" guarantees that it will easily survive high humidity locations. The included GE® 9325° Kelvin 55 watt lamp is brand new and has the same color output as the GE® Fresh & Saltwater lamps we put in all our lights. It is an excellent tri-phosphor lamp with high output and a beautiful color for fresh or saltwater aquariums.
Price: $199.99
ASWO#13152
STATUS: In Stock

Is this overkill or not?

The worst part is she had already bough some plants that day.

We haven't got a whole lot of $ for this new hobby (newlyweds/new homeowners) and just wanted to make sure we weren't jumping in too deep. The aquarium has been running with the incandecents canopy we had for the last two days because I didn't want to run the new light and risk not being able to take them back

Thanks,

FASTRAKR

[OrionGirl]

Uhhhh...Yes and no.

You can have a planted tank without the high watt lighting. You just have to get low-light plants, such as barteri, anachris, water sprite, crypts, ect. These plants will be fine with about 1-2 watts per gallon.

The problem with getting the high watt lights is now, the limiting factor for plant growth will be nutrients and CO2. It's an expensive spiral to get into.

I guess I wouldn't go with the expensive lights until you've mastered the low light plants management. High lights can result in some serious algae issues, which are difficult to combat. The balance of light, nutrients, and CO2 is very important, and easier to learn about one step at a time. I have about 1.75 watts per gallon on my tank and have found that there isn't much I can't grow. Some might not flower, or it might not need trimming weekly, but it is healthy and attractive. I supplement the CO2 with a yeast DIY, and fertilize every other month. It's not a jungle in my tank, but it's healthy. To me, that's worth more than saying I have to trim plants each week or they swamp the tank.

[MrGoodbytes]

Hey welcome to the hobby.
I am from Ontario too, an I haven't needed to do it yet, but I find it would be most economical to order some things from the US, at least for lighting. What you got, excluding the canopy, would have cost you about 65$US + S&H from aquarium hobbyist supply. You would have had to make a DIY hood and canopy, but it seems to be worth it.
Just a suggestion for next time.

[djlen]

There are a bunch of other issues you'll need to address with regard to fishkeeping. How new are you to the hobby? I don't want to scare you, but to help get off on the right foot, you need to know a few things about he quality of your water. Have you cycled the tank? Do you have any test kits for pH, nitrates, etc.?
Fill us in on your experience so we can help get you started the right way. You may want to post things on the Newbie forum where they can be address in a way that you'll understand.
Lighting may not be the thing that should be your priority right now.
Len

[Starry]

I'd go somewhere in-between the incandescent (I hope you realize that's useless) and the overkill. You should return the new PC kit - that's way too much light and too much money, especially for starting out. Mr Good above beat me to it - take a look at AH Supply (www.ahsupply.com). I got my PC kit from them (and I'm in Canada too). Try to aim for about 60-70W-ish for your 30G. This will let you grow most things, and it's still manageable.

Too bad your canopy is incandescent. This would be tricky to retrofit with a PC kit. So maybe try to get a used fluorescent canopy (which probably wouldn't provide you with enough light) for cheap $$, then retrofit that with an AH supply kit. Another thing you can try is to get PC bulbs that screw in into your incandescent canopy. I've heard of people doing this and it sounds amazing, but I don't have experience with this at all. Maybe look around at Candian Tire or Home Depot in their light bulbs section and see if they have any like that.

The problem with going low light is that you're not going to be satisfied growing just Anubias, Crypts and Java fern. Anubias and Crypts can both be tricky to start out with by the way. So, eventually you will want more light anyway. Aiming for about 60-70W PC will let you grow lots of plants and the hardest thing you might have to do is DIY CO2, which is pretty easy on a small tank. My DIY Jell-O recipe lasts at least 1-2 months and takes only 5 minutes to prepare.

Well, that's about all I can write before Friends starts. I'm by no means an expert, but I'll try to answer other questions you may have. It's also a good idea to become familiar with plants - learn scientific names as much as you can. Good places to start are www.tropica.com and my website http://aquaplants.web1000.com

In response to djlen's post above - If you don't know what he's talking about, then you definitely need to read up before getting fish. The good thing with a planted tank is that you're not quite as dependent on bacteria to "cycle" wastes (ammonia and nitrites). With a decent amount of light and lots of easy, fast-growing plants (I can give you suggestions if you want), you can add a few small fish right away and keep an eye on water quality. Do frequent water changes until things are totally under control. Just make sure you have lots of plants that will actually grow rather than wither away and never add a lot of fish at once.

[Aries]

I agree with the light too much for your $ right now. Take it from my experience (or lack of for that matter). I had a similar set up and it went bezerk with algae of all types. Now with the help of the guru's here, it is getting under control.

Start with keeping fish alive, then move to plants is how I did it. Believe me, two heart felt losses in one tank can be bad (fish and plants).

Just my $0.025

[FASTRAKR]

Thanks so far, but I need more info so I'll give you more of a bio on the two of us.

She has a little background on the hobby. Her mom has 3 small tanks and both of her sisters have tanks, but nothing special.

I am totally new to the hobby if you don't count the single goldfish I had for 7 years that I got when I was nine.

The Setup we have is a used 30G with 2" of natural gravel and about an inch of kitty litter. AC300 filter, 150watt heater, cheap used plastic incandecent hood(came with the aquarium), glass canopy that can't be returned now because I had it trimmed to fit the aquarium and 110watt high output compact lights still in their box.

The tank was filled on saturday and the plants (few stem plants and 3 potted, names to come) were added sunday as well as 2 blue guppies and 2 ???. The tank is crystal clear and the fish seem to be doing great. We don't have a test kit yet so I can't give you any real numbers.

Is there anything else we need right now?

Update:
My bestman (Big B) just left, we had him bring over the 24" t-8 bulb and hood from his 55g for comparison purposes. The 110W is blinding, the t-8 seemed dull but it is only a single bulb, plus we brought in one of the new 48" lights from my garage with twin t-12s and it seemed the best but the guppies didn't look as vibrant.

HELP!

[carpguy]

I'm likewise a relative newb, and also recently set up a 30g planted tank (about 5 weeks ago). Just a few items I thought might help.

I built a canopy for about $40 (US) and added a 2x36w kit from AHSupply for about another $80 (US). You'd need access to some tools. Glass cover is still in place to keep humidity out of the lamps. Ballast mounted behind tank.

Your bulbs aren't an ideal color for plants. They'll grow, but less efficiently. Shouldn't be that much of a problem with so much light, but plants prefer warmer light, say 6500k to 5000k area.

With that much light you'll need to stay on top of ferts and should look into CO2. Algae can be a problem if one element is allowed to be that far out of balance with the others.

The AquaClear 300 is going to produce a lot of surface disruption and make keeping C02 in the water difficult. I went with an AC 150 in an attempt to minimize the current. (You don't need a big biofilter in a planted tank, its primarily going to be for mechanical).

I'm about to start DIY CO2. The filter beats the daylights out of any stem plant in the area. I've inserted a algae scrubber pad into the waterfall to try to dampen its force -- it works pretty well but needs regular attention. Regret not springing for small canister. This has been a serious problem as far as the aquascaping.

So far I'm very happy with my tank, and I hope you will be with yours. The area I've neglected the most and am having the most trouble with is the ferts and CO2. I figured it was sort of complicated and I could pick it up as I went along. Starting to see spot algae. Plants are growing but not really thriving. The more problems you can solve from the outset the better.

Good luck with it, enjoy, and welcome to AqC :D

[Starry]

Originally posted by FASTRAKR

The tank was filled on saturday and the plants (few stem plants and 3 potted, names to come) were added sunday as well as 2 blue guppies and 2 ???. The tank is crystal clear and the fish seem to be doing great. We don't have a test kit yet so I can't give you any real numbers.

Is there anything else we need right now?



You need one thing - a test kit. Crystal clear water doesn't tell you anything about your water quality. In fact, it will get less "crystally" and better as your tank ages. Your best bet is to get a combination one to start, one that has different tests. The ones you will need for sure are for ammonia, nitrite, pH and KH (carbonate hardness). Anything else that's in there you can also use for the heck of it. I'm also assuming you have a hose or some kind of gravel cleaner.

Now, this is what you need to do - frequent water changes. As long as the 2 ??? fish aren't too large or messy, you shouldn't have any casualties from ammonia poisoning. Use your ammonia and nitrite test kits - anything above zero calls for a large water change. In time your bacteria population will grow to take care of wastes, or your plants will take care of it if they're healthy. In the mean time, do daily tests, frequent water changes. I'd do about twice a week, anywhere from 30-70%. BTW, water changes will not slow down your "cycle." It's the best thing you can do for your fish right now. Also feed lightly for a while. It is pretty much impossible to starve a fish. Very possible to kill them by overfeeding though.

As for the plants - get more cheap, fast-growing ones. Pretty much anything cheap will be fast-growing. Look for hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum), water wisteria (Hygrophila difformis), Limnophila and Elodea/Egeria/Anacharis. That way you won't lose a lot of money if they die, and they will be more likely to grow and purify your water. Your pH and KH kits will work together to determine the amount of dissolved CO2 in the water (more one this when you're ready :) ). Also, if KH is too low (2 or lower) or too high, you might have problems with plants. In any case, don't fiddle with the pH. Don't buy any of the things like pH Up or pH Down, they're useless and lead to trouble. Whatever pH comes out of your tap will most likely be fine. As far as light, I'd look into those PC bulbs that screw into incandescent sockets.

Anyway, this is enough for now. Monitor ammonia and nitrites, do water changes and feed lightly. Do you have any chemistry/biology background? It would help a lot, but is not necessary. Let us know how it develops.