Changing from reef to planted aquarium!!

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FishRules

Registered Member
Sep 27, 2005
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Helloo Guys,

Iam new to the forum and to the whole planted aquarium thing.I kept reef tanks for about 5 years.My store only sells Saltwater stuff(no FW). Until recently,I was out of town when I came across an aquarium shop with this amazing tank full of plants ,cardinal tetras and pair of angels actually it looks so beautifull I decided to change my reef tank into a planted tank.
My tank is 80g lit by 2x150(will be placing the bulbs with osram daylight 5200k)
30g sump.Should ditch that?Since I keep reading that I should not disturb the water surface.
2 powerheads.
Now here is my plane,
having 2-3" of finest gravel I could get.
filling the tank half with tap water and half with RO water tsince my tap water is littel hard.
Change the powerheads to a cansiter filter and hagen402 powerhead.
am I heading into the right direction?I am still reading as much as I could and am not sure but really it doesnt seem to be hard compared to reef tanks :joke: .

As for the CO2 injection I am not sure yet I want to start slowly so not to miss things up.I may add CO2 injection in the future.
Any advice would be appreciate it.Thanks in advance,

Sam
 
with an 80 g you might need the co2 for your plants, some people dont though. it sounds like you are doing alot of research which is good. co2 can be pretty pricey. just research the plants you want to use and make sure you dont get any fish that may eat them, unless you are going for that. most likely not though. the wattage of your lights is good too. amke sure you sue fertilizers also, all plants neeed food including aquatic plants. there are tons out there, just see which one you like. have fun and good luck.
 
Thanks,

What would happen if I didn't get CO2 ?Would the plants die or start yellowing?
About the sump.Should I be able to use it here or not?

thank you once again,

Sam
 
If you're going to use 300w on an 80g tank then I would really think about injecting CO2. That's a fair amount of light so the plants will need a good fert routine, a carbon source and weekly 50% water changes to reset the tank. As for the sump, well if you don't inject CO2 it will make no difference if you have surface agitation since your water CO2 levels will be at equilibrium with the air. If you go high tech and can minimize surface agitation then go for it. If you don't inject CO2 maybe only run one of the 150w lights.
 
FishRules said:
What would happen if I didn't get CO2 ?Would the plants die or start yellowing?
About the sump.Should I be able to use it here or not?
Sam
Click to expand...

You do not need CO2 unless you have lots of lights (3 watts or more per gal). If you have lots of lights and no CO2 you will get LOTS of algae.

You do not need the sump, just keep it. It will work well for an African set-up someday if you change again.

You had a reef but no calcium reactor?? Would that not have had a CO2 tank??
 
What type of lighting is it? 300W for 80gal is 3.75w/gal, that's a fair amount of light! I'm barely at 3wpg and inject CO2. Seems to me if you can afford the reef tank, CO2 injection shouldn't be a problem.
To the point, it's all about balance. Light drives the system. The more light, the more nutrients the plants use (and obviously the faster they grow...generally speaking). Too much light and the plants use up the available nutrients. Some nutrients can be transported within the plant so if it can't get them from the environment, it can move them from another part (older growth) of the plant. Some nutrients are not mobile and the plant can grow, but is comprimised. Either way, the former - transport of nutrients from old growth results in the older leaves dying off...or the latter - comprimised growth results in a weaker plant unable to utilize nutrients as a healthy plant would... the uptake of nutrients is slowed and algae can take advantage and start to grow. The obvious solution is add nutrients including Carbon (CO2). Btw, some nutrients are found in hard water (Mg,Ca), I wouldn't worry too much about "softening" the water.
Different plants utilize nutrients at different rates. Obviously more plants use more nutrients. More living organisms in the system produce more nutrients. Did I mention balance?
If you're not into CO2, I would do as reiverix suggest, run one light and see how things progress. You could certainly (for your own curiosity) try it w/o CO2.
Sounds like you're on your way with doing the research!

You are heading in the right direction!
 
Last edited:
beviking,Thank you so much you sure cleared up lots of things for me.
Tanker,No co2 reactor was in my reef only kalkwasser with topoff.
Great info guys I really am thankfull. :D

Will try with no CO2 for a while and see how thing goes.If I start having algea problems will start injecting CO2.For now I'll keep reading,reading and reading.

Sam
 
Tom Barr aka plantbrain here on this board has done the work figureing out what and how much to feed plants. Details can be found here.

Wrap your brain around that for lots of trial and error avoided.
 
I'm assuming it's 2 x 150W MH's. With MH lighting, I think you're going to want to run CO2 - if you imagine your tank as a car, light is the gas pedal, CO2 and ferts are the gas; you're going to be stomping on the gas, you want to make sure you've got enough fuel in there.
Planted tanks can be nearly as complex as reefs - think of it as learning a whole new science. If you feel like doing more research, try checking out www.plantedtank.net , www.plantgeek.net , and www.aquaticplantcentral.com for loads of good information.
 
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