What I need for a planted tank

[momar]

As I sid in another thread, I'm planning on making my 96l and 60l tanks into full-blown 'planted tanks'. All the informations seems a bit overwhelming, but as far as I know, for each tank I will need:

CO2 injection (was looking at the Red Sea Turbo CO2 Biosystem - can't afford a pressurised system ATM)
Something to monitor CO2 levels
Liquid and tablet fertiliser
Lighting of about 2 watts per gallon (I was thinking a 15w T6 bulb on the 16gal with a reflector, and 2 18w bulbs with reflectors on the 96l (Juwel Duolux)
Plants

Is this a good selection of equipment? Have I forgotten anything?

Any help or advice anyone can give will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
momar

 

[Marinemom]

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test Kit.

Marinemom

 

[djlen]

With 2 wpg you really don't 'need' CO2 although it will aid in growth. If you do decide to go with CO2 injection, you don't need anything special to monitor that other than knowing your kH and pH and the relationship between the two. Once you know them you can type them into the calculator found here: www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm
On that page you find a link for Chuck's down loadable calculator. Very handy for calculating CO2 and also for fertilization dosages if/when you start with them.

Get back to us and let us know more about your tank like substrate, filtration etc.

Len

 

[Hannys_Papa]

Well...
i'd say (unless i read your post the wrong way - didn't read your previous one) the lighting you mentioned isn't really enough.
At least if you are aiming for 2wpg. (15W over a 60L=16G => less than 1wpg).
Of course this might not matter if your plants are choosen accordingly.

Light is always the most important thing. Had to find this out the hard way.
The problem is also that with small tanks you usually need more light than expected.

I am (as an example) currently running a 10G (~35Liters) with 40W compact flourescent light. No CO2, just regular fert dosing and no algae problems to speak of. When i "only" had 20W over the tanks hardly anything grew (lot of plants died, turned to mush) - there just wasn't enough light.

And yes i know... the gravel is hideous !!!

 

[Ms.Bubbles]

I've grown lots of plants in a 10g with "only" 15 watts of fluorescent lighting. My low-light plants ( java ferns, java moss, anubias and cryptocorynes) only needed about 1.5 watts per gallon to grow well. No C02, no ferts required, although I did add a few drops of Flourish Excel at water changes.

Momar, you'll need about 25 watts on your 16 gallon to grow most of the low-light plants and about 40 watts on the 96L/25 gallon. If you stick to low-light plants, no C02 or ferts will likely be required if you feed your fish well.

 

[momar]

If I use reflectors won't it double the light output?
The substrates are plain 3mm gravel. 16gal has a UGF and soon a power filter. 25gal has a Juwel filter with wool, carbon, nitrate removal and 3 sponges.

 

[Hannys_Papa]

Reflectors sure help - but don't double the light output.
Depending on the type/ quality of the reflector they can do little or a lot... but people still count in terms of "wpg" even with a reflector.

 

[djlen]

If I use reflectors won't it double the light output?

No, not double but a multi faceted, polished aluminum reflector is said to increase the light by 40 to 60%. AH Supply claims the with the proper placement of bulb under their reflector you get a 'light output' that is 62% greater than a flat reflector.

The substrates are plain 3mm gravel. 16gal has a UGF and soon a power filter. 25gal has a Juwel filter with wool, carbon, nitrate removal and 3 sponges.

If you start dosing extra nutrients for your plants you will want to take the carbon out of your filters. Also, I'm curious as to what you mean by 'nitrate removal'?

Len

 

[momar]

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Originally posted by djlen:
Also, I'm curious as to what you mean by 'nitrate removal'?

It's a green sponge made by Juwel which is claimed to grow more bacteria or different bacteria - I think it's supposedly 'seeded' with something - and the whole point of it is to remove excess nitrate. ATM (just tested the water) nitrate is at around 10mg/l (I will be changing 40 % of the water tomorrow, so this is towards the end of a water change cycle if that means anything....and the tank is fully stocked). So I don't really know how well this sponge works.

So, to recap, i need:

CO2 injection (was looking at the Red Sea Turbo CO2 Biosystem - can't afford a pressurised system ATM) depending on lighting
Liquid and tablet fertiliser
Lighting of about 2 watts per gallon
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater Master Test Kit or similar
Plants

If I kept with the 15w bulb + reflector on the 16gal, would that be ok for lower light plants?

 

[Marinemom]

That will be less then 1 watt per gallon.The only plants that I would recommend with that lighting is some java moss and some java fern. You might get away with some form of anubias too.

Marinemom

P.S. If the lighting is that low the use of co2 will not be necessary.