New to planted tanks

Z

zachofalltrades

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Mar 30, 2009
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So a little background about myself, I've had aquariums for about 5 years, starting with freshwater, have been doing salt primarily for a few years, and have had a 125g fresh running for about 6-8 months. The tank was setup as an oscar tank, but his Jack Dempsey tankmate went renegade one day and the wound got infected and the oscar died :*(

So now all that is in the 125 is a one-eyed common pleco (no horror stories, I think he was born that way) a synodontis euptera catfish, a silver dollar, and another small unidentified catfish. The tank has around 3" of medium gravel I was about to take out but I figured I'd check on here first. I figure I'll have to put some flourite down, but should I reuse my gravel on top or put sand on top?

For lighting, I wouldn't even really count what I have on the tank (3x26w CFL) So I'm totally open to suggestions here. I don't want to run CO2, and would like to hold off of fertalizers until I think I have the hang of things so I want to go low-light. Do we use a WPG rule? I read somewhere a while back that it was like 1.5-2.0 wpg for low-light planted tanks. Budget control is an issue for lights, but DIY skills is not an issue. Any cool DIY lights I should know about? I actually runn a 4x 4' t8 fixture over my saltwater that's overdriven.

So in summary answers I'm looking for is should I get rid of any of the afformentioned fish? What about that gravel? And am I on the right track for amount of light I'd need? I figure like 200 watts or so, just trying to figure a cheap way to do that. Oh, and anybody implore a false wall to hide equipment? I don't have the tank heated right now, but it get's to around 60 in the winter if I don't so I might have to do that...
 
the silver dollar will eat plants, they might not eat anubias or other tough leaf plants but i know they eat plants. not sure about the other catfish you have.

you cant use diy co2 on a 125g tank, 40g is pushing it with diy co2.
you can always use 4' t-8 bulbs or use shop lights over the tank with 6500k daylight bulbs for now and get 1-1.5wpg on the tank.
if you have gravel in the tank it should be fine, 3" is alittle thick so you could take some out to get 2" or leave it alone, it should be fine either way.
you can use root tabs for ferts for now.
you will need to stick to low light plants like
crypts,swords,java ferns,anubias, and some other stem plants that are low light.
 
Yeah, I could move the silver dollar to another tank. I didn't plan on using CO2 yet, so that's not a concern. 2" though? That's the first I've heard outside of the 3-5" range most places I've read.
At any rate I'm trying to find the most economical way to go, and I'm thinking mixing about 6-7 bags of eco-complete with some play sand I have to get around 4" of a 50/50 mix. It'll be expensive to buy all of the eco-complete up front, but all of the inexpensive alternatives I've seen people try in one place gets bashed in another.
 
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