jayne
Member
Hello All
I am in the process of having a large tank/cabinet set up in my dining room.The tank is 8'x3'x3' and will have two towers connecting to an undertank sump for filtration.
After much thought and discussion with hubby we have decided that we definitely want the tank to be a planted community tank for small fish.
We currently have several tanks including a 4'x2'x2' planted which contains mainly things that are easy to grow such as vallis,anubias,java fern etc.This tank does not have Co2.
As far as the new tank is concerned we just don't know which way to go.We both love to see planted tanks but we are first and foremost fishkeepers and so the option of a beautifully aquascaped tank with just two or three large groups of fish does not appeal.We want a softwater community tank where we can keep our favourite chocolate and licorice gouramis,rasboras,dwarf loach,ottos,dwarf cichlids,corys and add to them when we do our regular trips around the country visiting shops (we also have a quarantine tank!)
I love the slightly overgrown jungle look where you can spend ages watching and suddenly a fish appears as if from nowhere through the undergrowth and I suppose that we could just upgrade our existing plants into the new tank but I'd love to have a go at something a bit different and so I'm considering Co2.
Then there's the question of light.We were thinking of 4 x 150w metal halides but I'm wondering whether that would be enough or would 250w be better.
We don't really want to go too far down the high tech route,but it would be lovely to have the opportunity to try something new so I'm hoping that you may be able to offer some suggestions.
We have bought 16 bags of caribsea ecocomplete live planted substrate so I'm hoping that will be OK Other than that we are open to suggestions about all the hardware etc.
Here's a quick pic of our current planted tank - very basic but we (and our fish) love it
I am in the process of having a large tank/cabinet set up in my dining room.The tank is 8'x3'x3' and will have two towers connecting to an undertank sump for filtration.
After much thought and discussion with hubby we have decided that we definitely want the tank to be a planted community tank for small fish.
We currently have several tanks including a 4'x2'x2' planted which contains mainly things that are easy to grow such as vallis,anubias,java fern etc.This tank does not have Co2.
As far as the new tank is concerned we just don't know which way to go.We both love to see planted tanks but we are first and foremost fishkeepers and so the option of a beautifully aquascaped tank with just two or three large groups of fish does not appeal.We want a softwater community tank where we can keep our favourite chocolate and licorice gouramis,rasboras,dwarf loach,ottos,dwarf cichlids,corys and add to them when we do our regular trips around the country visiting shops (we also have a quarantine tank!)
I love the slightly overgrown jungle look where you can spend ages watching and suddenly a fish appears as if from nowhere through the undergrowth and I suppose that we could just upgrade our existing plants into the new tank but I'd love to have a go at something a bit different and so I'm considering Co2.
Then there's the question of light.We were thinking of 4 x 150w metal halides but I'm wondering whether that would be enough or would 250w be better.
We don't really want to go too far down the high tech route,but it would be lovely to have the opportunity to try something new so I'm hoping that you may be able to offer some suggestions.
We have bought 16 bags of caribsea ecocomplete live planted substrate so I'm hoping that will be OK Other than that we are open to suggestions about all the hardware etc.
Here's a quick pic of our current planted tank - very basic but we (and our fish) love it