Substrate and Lighting advice for a new 75G setup

[Whiskey]

Hello all! Long time no type.

After 5 years of waiting I'm finally in a place where I can setup the 75G tank I've wanted.

My questions are:
1. I have a 4x54W Tek T5 retrofit kit leftover from before, but after looking at the lighting chart it looks like that would be WAY too much light. What do you think? Is 2x54W T5 HO With individual parabolic reflectors really enough to light a tank this size? The lights will be about 4 inches off the water, the tank is 20" Deep, 18" Wide, it will be about 20 inches from bulb to substrate once all is said and done.

2. Substrate,... I've always liked Florite Red, but it seems things like Fluval Stratum are gaining quite a foothold now, and some people are going back to inert pea gravel stating that substrate offers little benifit! What would you do? Is Fluval Stratum good? Is it worth the extra cost over Florite Red? Is Florite Red even worth the cost?

Tank Details:

• 
  Size - 48" long by 20" tall by 18" Wide
  I will use the EI method of fertilization
  It will be CO2 injected
  I will end up with a Magnum 350 to defuse CO2 (The bottom mounted impeller makes it a nice little CO2 reactor)
  I will have a Fluval 204 and Ehiem filter as extra filtration, the 3 add to flow, and also provide redundancy in-case of failure
  I plan to keep a Glosso or dwarf baby tears foreground, with crypts, and a variety of stem plants.

Thanks for your help and opinions everyone!
Whiskey

 

[Htomassini]

The flourite unwashed is good for the lower 1.5" for the top 2" I like the mr aqua stuff. We use it at our tanks with awesome results. It grows stuff in low and highlight. It does not compact yet it allows roots to penetrate the pellets. I can post pics of the results.

And glosso needs a fine substrate. Gravel will not work.. Unlike the Ada stuff it does not release ammonia. So you will have to seed your filter. I do not recommend the magnum for the co2. They get very noisy as air gets trapped.



Henry tomassini
www.theplantedaquariumstore.com
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Whiskey]

Thanks for the help Henry.

I'd love to see the pics your talking about - and get an idea for what the Mr. Aqua substrate looks like.

Does the Magnum 350 get even louder than your standard inline CO2 reactor? I could always build another one of those and just drive more water through it, but I was hoping to kill 2 birds with one stone as it were.

The more I look around the more I think 4x54W is the proper choice for this tank. Hoppy's chart is great, but it leaves out one important factor, the width. I think when he talks about 4 bulbs, he's cramming them all together and taking the light measurement right underneath, where I would be spreading them across 18" so I'm not sure that his measurement applies to me directly. In fact it seems like his measurement of the light levels with 2 bulbs would more accurately reflect the light levels I will have given my spread of light. I also decided to review AGA contest tanks, it seems that at least 4 bulbs across a 18" width is the norm, with many people using 6 bulbs.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,
Whiskey

 

[Whiskey]

Okay, I think I have a plan.
Instead of the Magnum 350, I will use a quiet one pump that is rated for 550 GPH, after head loss through all the 90 deg fittings that should give me 300-400 GPH.
I will make a CO2 reactor, 4" diameter and the pump will power that, the water will output through a spraybar at the bottom.

For filtration I will use the Fluval 204, and the ehiem I already have. Between all three I will have a healthy turnover of around 10x.

I will use the florite substrate, in red because my girlfriend and I both like the color - plus I like the weight of this substrate, the fluval stuff keeps letting my plants get uprooted, and I was never very fond of the Eco Complete.

Lighting I will use 4X54W t5 pending a final light approximation test, to get a 12 hour total photo period I plan to stagger the lights, each set of 2 on for 8 hours with a 6 hour overlap.

Hmmm, maybe I should do a build thread with a few pictures? What do you think? Is there already enough of those floating around?