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Can it work or can you help? Nube with ???

Discussion in 'Are you new to aquatic plants? Start here' started by Aquatroy, Mar 31, 2009.

  1. Aquatroy

    Aquatroy Junior Poster

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    Greetings, Great site and I need your help. Out of all the tanks in our house, Wifey wants me to convert a 72g Bow into a full blown planted tank (its close to her perch on the sofa) She wanted to convert the 125g but that's not happening, and a little large for our first attempt. Now Im just and old school fish farmer, I havent seen a test kit in years (just a little taste tells me all I need to know) so all of this is over my head, but I am reading and learning lots...

    Back to the project, 72g all glass with the built in corner overflow unit with a Amiracle trickle/wet/dry filter/sump. I rounded up two Coralife FW double 48 T-5 strips with 6700k's and Colormax full spectrums. At 28 watts@bulb that should give me1 1.5 wpg. I plan on using Aquasoil for substrate, with a small gravel cap.

    Will the lighting I have available be adequate or ????

    I have been told I cant do this with the wetdry, that I wont have enough CO2 avail for plant and that a CO2 system wont work as it will be lost in the sump. is this accurate? Has anyone ever converted a canister with this type of overflow?? OR has anyone had success/luck when using the above W/D? can it work if I cap the sump?? Thank you for your suggestions and assistance, in advance..
     
    #1 Aquatroy, Mar 31, 2009
  2. shoggoth43

    shoggoth43 Lifetime Charter Member
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    You can use the wet dry. There are a few threads kicking around here about it. From what I remember reading you just want to seal the bio tower as much as possible to retain your CO2. If you can seal the sump as tight as you can that would be better. You will also want to reduce the waterfall into your overflow. 1" seems to be a good number from the threads. I've also read a few where they sealed the sump and the overflow as much as they could and ran an airline up from the sump to the overflow so any air dragged into the overflow came from the sump.
     
    #2 shoggoth43, Mar 31, 2009
  3. Aquatroy

    Aquatroy Junior Poster

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    Thanks Shag,Previous threads seem to make sense for adding CO2 But what if we decide to stay low tech, and not add a CO2 system. Would it still be necessary to seal the sump to capture natural gases???

    Oh and she went and set it up, what do ya think?

    IMG_0578.JPG

    IMG_0574.JPG
     
    #3 Aquatroy, Apr 2, 2009
  4. shoggoth43

    shoggoth43 Lifetime Charter Member
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    Well... I'm envious. I just don't have that kind of space for that right now. Surface turbulence is where you'll get your greatest gas exchange. If you're going to dose excel or something like that you won't need to worry about it since it won't outgas. It probably won't hurt to seal the wet/dry in the even that you decide to move to gaseous CO2 later on.

    -
    S
     
    #4 shoggoth43, Apr 2, 2009
  5. Carissa

    Carissa Guru Class Expert

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    If you're not injecting co2, the more circulation the better. That's how co2 will get replenished. With 1.5 wpg you could stick with low light slow growing plants and have a nice, easy low maintenance setup. You will be limited in variety but you can still get lots of nice stuff for low light.
     
    #5 Carissa, Apr 13, 2009
  6. Gerryd

    Gerryd Plant Guru Team
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    Hi,

    Your choice of lighting is fine. We find out daily that we need much less than assumed. It is easier to add than reduce. If you can mount the lights to adjust the height, that would be even better. Light drives plant growth and nutrient requirements such as c02 and macros/micros. The higher the light the harder to provide stable and sufficient of these things to the plants. They then suffer and algae can develop.

    I ran my 180 for years with and without c02 using a wet/dry and sump..

    When running c02 it does help a lot to seal the wet/dry/sump and reduce the 'waterfall' in the overflows.....

    If you have a good diffusion method and good flow you will be fine with the wet dry. Just may need to use a bit more c02 with this config.......as opposed to closed loop canisters..........

    Once you decide to go c02, choose a method that will deliver good c02. A DIY reactor would work fine for you, or a couple of diffusor disks..........

    P.S. Can I rent some space in your fishroom :) Very nice!
     
    #6 Gerryd, Apr 13, 2009
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