New to FW,just a few ??? on a good set up

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anonapersona

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Mar 7, 2003
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the perfect tank

The perfect tank would have 100% Flourite substrate, about 2.5 to 3.5 watts per gallon, 6700K full daylight spectrum, a canister filter with 5xvolume, pressurized CO2 injection (might be too much for this size tank, unless you have a calcium reactor set laying around also!)

The 65 watt PC is perfect. Just over 2 watts per gallon = moderate light.

Now you can go to the plant places and look at low to moderate light plants. Let me switch computers and I'll give you a few sites to look at.

Meanwhile, if you wanted to go to 2.5 watts per gallon or 3.0 watts per gallon, could you put that together from parts on hand?

Take a look at the AGA Showcase, and see what sort of tanks apeal to you. Crowded with colorful plants, the freshwater version of a coral tank, or lush and green. slice of nature?

The sparkle of MH is hard to beat, the Amano tanks often have that, but even 150 watts over 29 gallons is a lot of light. You'd have to be pretty sharp to keep that balanced, or else algae takes off.
 
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ozzy

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Jul 19, 2003
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The perfect tank would have 100% Flourite substrate,
How did do ya think,in reef we do 4-6 inches
as fare as lighting,how about this pc system ,not to bad for a plug & play light,plus it gives me about 4.48 WPG.
You can not use straight RO water. ,this may explane some of the problems I had along time ago with a small FW set up
Only a SW guy would have a compact flourescent "just lying around"
you have no idea LOL:p ,I set up a 20 gallon tank for my sister with stuff just laying around
If you are willing to use soil as a substrate and willing to use CO2 then you can use really high light which allows for any plants you want
so .....mmmmm
soil or flourite ?????
 
A

anonapersona

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Mar 7, 2003
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My 29 gallon

I have 3 to 4 inches of flourite in my 29 gallon. I think that was 3 bags of Flourite. Flourite is better than soil if you might be pulling things up and moving them around. If you will leave it all alone, soil is fine. I decided that as I'm still learning, I was likely to need to move things around, as indeed I have, every few months something is pulled or moved around.

And I disagree with the "soil plus CO2 allows you to grow anything"... CO2 and fertilization allows you to grow anything with enough light, soil is not the "substrate preferred by the experts", Flourite is. Flourite is the best, any other substrate is up for debate, who knows what is in this soil or that soil, enough Iron? too much copper? some sort of chemical that you are not aware of? Flourite is foolproof, it takes the substrate out of the equation.

Find your way to the AGA showcase and see what the entries there use. Find the Aquatic Plant Digest and see what they recommend when asked.
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2 x 65 is too much -- gonna be an algae machine too easily. Especially with the reef type bulbs those usually come with, wrong spectrum, too blue, too high K.

1 x 65 is about right if you can get the right bulbs. I have a 55 watt retrofit by AHSupply in my standard hood light strip, it is fine, could be a bit brighter, 2 x 36 might have been better.

What sort of hood do you have now? AHSupply.com has great retrofit kits and the reflector is outstanding. It really boosts the light that gets into the tank.
 
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