FW planted tank ?

[Angela Short]

I have a FW tank in the girls room now and have a duel 65 watt PC ballast I am not useing. Could this be used for a FW planted tank? What par bulbs should I get to go over FW? I have old 10K and 03 actinics but does FW need new bulbs like SW? And how about those orange and blue rocks, will they have to go? I know nothing about FW planted but think they are cool if you are going to have a FW tank to have some real plants growing. But I totally do not want a lot of headach and fooling with it if its a lot of work.

Sad thing is I killed the goldfish I took on when my 29 reef went to my freinds house. The fish lived through huricane Katrina, no food or power for 2 weeks while they evacuated and came from a tiny fair bowl her daughter won the fish from about 4 years ago. When they cleaned the tank they tore it compleatly down and scrubbed everything (like I use to do before I knew what a cycle was) and totally killed any bio. They give it to me since they didn't have room for 2 tanks and was attatched to "survivor" to babysit for them and I have killed her within a month :(. How do I keep a full blown reef thriving (for the most part) and kill a stinkin goldfish :lol: We still haven't told the little girl yet. One of those do we tell her or lie and get a new one.... I feel awfull! But now that the tank is in the girls room they want to keep it up. Any FW advise out there? Thanks!

[pitbullpooch]

I dont know much but as for the lighting you will want the bulbs to be new or not to old just like for a reef. you will have major algae trouble when they get older. my wife had a planted tank so i dont know to much but i do remember the lights getting old and she had alot of algae so she had to replace them and thats all i know :)

[Tomoko Schum]

You can use your 10K bulb, but the standard is more like 6500K to 8000K. I don't like giving a rule of thumb, but generally you will need 2 to 3 watts of PC lighting per gallon depending on the type of plants you wish to keep. There are shade lovers and sun worshippers among aquatic plants just like corals. Sun lovers are more colorful and flashier looking but they require more care and lighting. They need to be fertilized more and CO2 injection is a must. Shade lovers are lot more lenient on their requirements.

Here's some pretty pictures that you can look at and figure out what kind of tank you might want (Aqua Design Amano's site):

http://www.adaeuro.com/gallery.asp

Here's a site with some great information:

http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/

Being a Takashi Amano's interpreter/translator, I should be able to share what I have learned over the years. I also keep both planted aquariums and reef tanks.

Tomoko

[Angela Short]

Thanks, I figured that was the case. Didn't really want to spend money on the thing :lol: May wait on the lights to see if the girls even care about the tank long term.

Anyone ever seen or know anything about those new glow fish? Suppose to have DNA from corals in them and not fade like the old colored glass fish would. Kinda pricy for a glorified danio (sp?) though but they are the neatest FW I have seen. But I always kinda wanted guppies and never had any growing up.... Hmm what to get. Its a 20 tall. FW can be kind fun because the fish are cheap!

[fishdoc11]

Nice info Tomoko:)

[Tomoko Schum]

Thank you, Chris.

Fish does a lot better with plants in the tank because plants clean the water for them and produce oxygen (the same basic idea as having macroalgae in a refugium.) If you have a really basic light for your 20 gallon tank, I'd put some plants like Java ferns, anubias and cryptocoryne which are shade lovers. They should do okay if you have one of those stock light that often comes with a tank set up. Fish look better with some light over the tank, too.

Tomoko

[Angela Short]

Thanks for the info tomoko!

[turboex901]

angela, the glowfish have primate dna implanted into them. odd, i know! also on the subject of planted tanks you can get by with very very little. on a 29 you could use 2 regular incandescent bulbs from home depot if you really wanted. when i had a planted tank here was my setup. 46 bow, eheim canister, coralife SINGLE 96 watt 6700k powercompact, river rock on top of silica sand for the substrate (50lbs of each was 4 bucks at HD) and a few petco plants for 3 bucks each. it is an awesome aspect of tank keeping because even with my low tech setup the plants would grow about an inch a day! its great for people with as little patience as mine. instant gratification. also paying 89 cents a fish and having a school of 30 cardinal tetras and not exceeding the bioload was a cool sight to see. i had about 150 bucks into this not including the tank but that was plants, fish, equipment etc. some people go all out with metal halides, co2 injection etc and have amazing setups but ive seen peoples 29 gallon tank with less than 75 bucks invested start to finish that are amazing as well. planted tanks arent like the reef world. cheaper is better sometimes. heres some pics when my 46 was 3 weeks old. keep in mind these plants were 2" tall 3 weeks prior. HTH<~~~steve

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c134/turboex901/tankfs005.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c134/turboex901/tankfs003.jpg

[pitbullpooch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9484741#post9484741 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by turboex901
on a 29 you could use 2 regular incandescent bulbs from home depot if you really wanted. actually now to think about it all my wife used on her 29 was the 6500k pc screw in bulbs that screwed into the hood that came with the tank so that would make it pretty cheap when it comes to replacing the bulbs.

[Angela Short]

SO 130 watts of PC is overkill for a 20 ;) I may clip some cuttings from the creek in the back yard. It has something growing in it that looks just like the stuff they sell at petsmart :lol:. I guess I will try some hot pink, yellow and green fish also.

[kev-dog1]

I've got 4 of those glo'fish in a 3g Eclipse, they're the 'damsels of FW' - active and indestructible.

[SRT80]

yea, i seen the yellow and pink/red lookin' ones at AC Wednesday, very bright.

Steve

[pitbullpooch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9486083#post9486083 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
SO 130 watts of PC is overkill for a 20 but atleast with that much light you will beable to do alot of fragging :lol:

[turboex901]

yes that would be overkill angela, once you exceed roughly 2 watts per gallon (thats actually a viable measurement in planted tanks, unlike wpg in reefs) you really need to start thinking about co2. youre plants will be in overdrive trying to photosynthesize all that light and wont have the co2 to burn up. a homemade yeast/sugar/2 liter bottle reactor would do well on a 20 gallon. you should check out the theplantedtank .com or .org i forget but tom barr has an excellent beginners writeup. he's the randy holmes farley of the planted world if you will. i also have some nature aquarium books by takashi amano if you were interested in borrowing. hth<~~~steve

[SRT80]

i was wanting to add some live plants to my 29 gal. now that I have a spare 65 watt pc fixture. I know I bought a bunch of those bulbs in the package from walmart one time and they grew like weeds with normal gravel. But, would I have to change my gravel out with fertilizer? I would just want easy plants like the ones listed above. Just to give a more natural look. If changing the gravel out is a must, I probably wont do it.

Steve

[turboex901]

steve, i wouldnt say its a must but they may have trouble rooting themselves down in a coarse style gravel. my reccomendation to you would be remove the decorations and push all the gravel to one side then do about a 2" layer of sand (play sand at home depot). then cover the sand back with gravel and push it over to the other side and repeat. voila, you now have a sand bed with a decorative gravel top coat ready for some serious plant growth. the worst thing that will go on is that the tank will be cloudy for about an hour. scroll back up and see my old planted tank and look close at the substrate. that was sand and then river rock. hth<~~~steve

[Angela Short]

Thanks for letting me borrow the books Steve! Looks like you can get as involved with FW as you can SW with C02 injecting and all :lol: Sean at Emerald bay is getting in some of those neat glow fish for me in a few weeks if I don't kill the little tetras I picked up tonight.