New Tanks Advice

[ojfish247]

Goals;

- Heavily Planted Tank, maybe jungle style.
- Fast and Healty Plant Growth

New Tank

- 48x18x24 (around 63G)
- 4 x 38w T8 - 2.5w/g
- Pressurised CO2

I used to keep a planted tank which I got rid of about 2 years ago and have been itiching to get back for ages! So, this time I thought I'd do it correctly doing as much research as I can before even a small splash!

A few questions which I'm unsure on;

- What substrate?

- How to cycle my tank to be up and running as soon as possible?

Thanks for any help

Russ

 

[Gerryd]

Hi Russ and welcome,

If you are going to have any plants rooted in the substrate, it is better IMO to have an enriched substrate in addition to using EI to dose the water column. This gives you some leeway with water column dosing and provides plants with two nutrient sources...

If using only anubias and ferns (java, bolbitus) for a jungle look, then it is not as important and the substrate can be whatever looks best to you...

Can you mount the lights so that you can increase/decrease light if desired? You may want to investigate this.

How do you intend to inject c02 to the tank water?

Filtration, powerheads, fish type and load, etc, etc, etc.

The more info we have the better advice you will get. Don't be afraid to provide detail and elaborate...

Personally, I think cycling with fish is easiest.....Or using substrate from a mature tank or a mature sponge or two will also help.

Remember you need nh4 to get the cycle going..

Hope this helps.

 

[ojfish247]

Hi Gerry,

Thanks for the reply.

A bit more info;

The tank I've bought will have the lights attached to the hood, so won't be able to move lights. There are 2 banks of lights, so all I will be able to do is have 2x38w or 4x38w (inc reflectors). I'm a bit worried I'm going to have too much light from what I've been reading. I'll have about 2.5w/g. I want to go down high plant growth, but obviously don't want to induce imbalances causing algae.

I've got an A D&D all in one, regulator, solenoid, etc which I've used in the past to inject CO2 (not sure what type of regulator, type 1 or 2). I have had problems in the past with inconsistent plant growth, and algae issues, which I think might be down to circulation. I was thinking of aiding this by buying a circulation pump/power head. Looking at your tank in your profile, those extra funnels, what are they? Can you advise on any good ways to help circulation? Going to get a glass diffuser, again, not sure best type.

Load wise, relatively low. I started the hobby with just fish and became drawn into aquascaping. So, maybe some cardinals, ottos, shrimps, not sure. I what to make it aesthetically pleasing so more on what looks right plus functional fish rather than anything else.

Substrate wise, I don't have any other tanks or sponges, so will be working from scratch. So could do with some advice on best substrates and methods to cycle. I was just looking at your profile tank and, a) looks amazing, and b) like the black substrate. What are you using?

Thanks and apologise if I'm asking noddy questions.

Russ

 

[ShadowMac]

if you are using a canister filter I would recommend an inline atomizer to dispense your CO2. It has knocked the socks off of my inline reactor and glass diffuser, great distribution, tiny bubbles like a fog spread everywhere. My tanks aren't as big as yours, so circulation will be important. I use koralia pumps on my tank.

ADA aquasoil is the best substrate you can get, IMO and others opinions. It is expensive, but anything worth doing is worth doing right.

If you have some friends who have tanks, getting a hold of their mulm, the junk from their filters could aid in the cycling process. I have used seachem stability, but don't know if it works because I didn't really push the cycling process with sensitive fish nor did I test while using it, but it is supposed to speed up the cycle.