New 100 Gallon- Advice?

Bree7

Bree7

AC Members
May 22, 2010
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Hey, guys!!

So today I picked up a 100 gallon long acrylic tank. I got it all cleaned up and I love it! I'll be stocking it with 6-9 (I already have 6). I'm basically looking for ideas on plants and aquascaping. I'm very new to planted tanks, so try to keep it simple for me
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I'd like to use white sand, and I would LOVE part of the tank to have some grassy plant or green ground cover moss. I've ordered some Manzanita wood for the tank, and I have slate that I'd like to use to build some kind of wall where the plants would be raised up a level (if that makes any sense) but I'm looking for ideas on plants and where to get them. It would be a very low tech setup, just some easy plants that will look great but still fill in pretty dense. Hopefully some color and I'd rather not have to set up Co2, but we'll see.

I need to know:
what kind of bulbs to get, what wattage, and where
what plants to get, where to get them and how to arrange them
any ideas or suggestions you have for the aquascaping it
what kind of substrate I need
what maintenance I'll need to keep up on
mainly, the basics, and any tips you want to throw in!


I'm on a pretty tight budget, but I'd love to get some ideas here
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Any pictures you want to throw in of setups you think I'd benefit from seeing or gaining ideas from would be much appreciated!

All plants must have to be discus-safe and tolerant of temps up to 86*!
 
What lighting, if any, came with the tank? I'm not familiar with standard acrylic tank sizes, what are the dimensions? I like my T5 HO lights, for low light shoot for 1-1.5 (or so) watts/gal as a rough guideline.

Anubias or java fern tied to wood is nice, for me moss catches quite a bit of debris, nice for shrimp not for discus & like cooler temps long term I think. Sword plants need a root tab & room to spread out, many get LARGE. Stem plants are iffier, really dense (pretty) they can hold debris too, I just vac the heck out of mine.
Crypt. spiral is what I have in pots with my discus. They grow but I think it's very low light & not the heat that makes them less than wonderful.
 
Hey Bree7!
Everything depends on what you want to do. Since you don't want to get into CO2 (I don't blame ya!) I would go with a low tech setup.
Lighting: If you want cheap, take a look at your local Home Depot and such and look for some shop lights. I would suggest getting either a T5NO (NO=normal output) light fixture, a couple of T8's, or a singe T5HO fixture hung above the tank.
Substrate: Pool filter sand, play sand, small grade pea gravel and turface are all really cheap but don't contain any nutrients for plants. Some somewhat exspensive substrate that do contain some nutrients are Eco-Complete, Flourite, and other plant substrates.
Plants: Some low light plants are Anubias, java ferns, Cryptocornes, swords, Cambomba, and some Rotalas, just to name a few!
Bulbs: The wattage of bulbs doesn't matter as long as it matchs the ballast. The most important thing about the bulbs is the kelvin. You are going to want the K at around 5,000-10,000k.
Read up on everything a whole lot before you start, as I have just touched up on the basics.
Hope that helps some!
Jake
 
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