First planted tank

peleg38

peleg38

AC Members
Sep 28, 2004
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Vacaville, CA
I recently returned to the hobby about six months ago and have become utterly wrapped up in it. I have a 40g with a UGF, penguin 330, and lame plastic plants. I am also moving and have taken the opportunity to completely re-arrange my tank and make it into something special. I'm going to get a filstar xp2 and an inline heater to avoid having much in the tank itself. Anyway on to my question. I'm going to go with live plants and I would like to see if you guys think my ideas will work. The plant won't be anything fancy (amazon swords, micro swords, anubias, java fern, java moss, corkscrew vals mainly). I'm going to put down a layer of peatmoss covered by either (opinions please) 60 lbs or 75 lbs of flourite. I'll be making a 96w enclosure from ahsupply. My biggest question is can I get away with no CO2 or will I have algae problems. The proposed bioload is pretty big (3 discus, 1 ram, 5 cories, and a small school of tetras). Will a large bioload help with the CO2 or will it not really have an effect. I've been reading a lot so this plan is getting to be final and I would love to get some feedback.

Thanks,
Pelegro
 
Fluorite is a great choice of substrate. I'm not completely clear, but are you getting rid of the UGF? I've no experience with them, but I do use Fluorite and I would imagine that a UGF would make the water pretty dusty.

Looks like some nice plants, but you have easily enough light to explore some higher light plants if you want.

IMO, you will need CO2, you've got a lot of light over your tank. Probably about equilavent to 3wpg by the rule of thumb. The wpg guide is for watts of normal T12 fluorecent light, PC lights put out more light per watt than T12's, plus the AH kits come with excellent reflectors, so yeah, lots of light.

Read through the stickies and have fun.
 
I've got AHSupply's 2x36w over a 30g and had chronic algae problems until I added CO2, at which point they got much better almost immediately. Very night and day.

I think you're looking at too much light to try and get away without the CO2. And you'll be happier with the results once you bite the bullet.
 
Just my opinion, but 3 Discus is a bit of an over load in a 40. When they grow out they can reach 10" - 12" across. I would re-think adding any schools of fish in with them. They need a lot of room.
If you plant heavily and shade the tank with floaters, you might be able to eventually get away with no CO2. I say eventually, because new tanks are so prone to algae issues that you will probably struggle mightily for a while until it matures. CO2 would definitely be a help in your scenario.
I would go with the 60lbs. of Flourite and lose the UGF. It will be of no assistance in a planted tank.

Len
 
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