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New beginning-Re build of tank

S

sr20det

Member
Joined
2 Oct 2009
Messages
696
Location
East London
hi folks, been a while since i last posted.

Been busy with life, as well as reading on what I should be doing.

I am planning to re-jig my setup and a pointer here and there would be lovely.

Anyhow, I want to keep budgets low.

Plan:

Empty my current tank.
Dump UGF and gravel.

Replace with Cat litter from Tesco (washed) (I was gonna go to Akadema, but this does seem cheaper), and covered in a sand, preferably a black sand??? Play sand seems the cheapest route?

I have a heat mat designed for reptiles, and wondered if I could place this beneath the tank? Heat to the roots of plants? Is this worth while?

I plan to try th fire extinguisher CO2 route.

I plan to also set up my tank to only run the bubbler at night? I say this as I reckon my tank is heavily stocked. Mostly my guppies bonking to great numbers, but some how some perish. Mind not seen any babies for ages. I put this down to lack of hiding cover for the babies. 1 cory, and 2 Ancistrus. Could I add Shrimps, I would love too?

My lighting is weak I would have thought, I have a sigle tube light, 30w white, beleive it is a T5. Standard Arcadia light unit. I doubt this is sufficient. My tank has a hood, and cannot have a open tank due to kids, so need lights to add or replace that I can fit to the current hood. Only thing I have seen so far is LED tube lights, which suits me? Anyone have any recomendations?

Now t what I would like, in an ideal world I would like a carpet, but it has to be easier to grow as opposed to Gloss, which my understaninf needs light.

My water is hard, London water, which I treat with stress coat. Current fish are fine with this so ideally would like to stick with this. RO isnt viable at the mo. Its the reasons I have avoided man Amazon based fish.

Any words of advice, appreciated?
 
Hello mate,

Dump the UGF
Get yourself some cat litter or sand :D
Dose EI
And for sure go for the FE co2 its worth it 100%.

What size is your tank? 30w could well be enough. Glosso is a real easy forground plant IME, but also consider a low tech carpet of moss, if you get enough to start with its near enough an instant carpet, also it won't need a ton of trimming.

If you want to keep the budget down work with what you have, if the light is low then get plenty of low light stems mosses ferns and some crypts, if you don't have to change the light save money there and instead concentrate on flow and co2.

And I've keep a Pair of Apistogramma cacatouides in london water fine so don't be put of, just make sure you acclimatise all fish properly. Unless buying from an importer in wich case yourll be needing RO.

Cheers
 
Annnnnnd corydoras are an Amazon fish :D.

A lot of fish in the hobby are from slightly acidic waters but have been breed for years in our country so are a lot hardier than the wild types still chilling out in peru and brazil haha
 
hello there, first thing i'd do is start using Seachem Prime rather than Stress Coat - it's a LOT cheaper! If you get your co2 distribution right you might be able to grow glosso! Otherwise dwarf hairgrass is pretty reliable. There's a school of thought that says with the right co2 and ferts you can grow most things without needing massive lighting, so i'd concentrate on that before shelling out on new lights. Hope this helps! Matt
 
Hi folks, many thanks for the replys.

The light isnt bad, I will take a pic, and see if I can post it up, give an indication of the light. I do make the assumption its bad, but it may well be sufficient. I have another ligting unit so could add another tube. But the idea of lower cost LED running alongside what I have is a thought. It might provide the extra light I am looking for?

I have seen a lot if LED strips on the bay of e, more interested in the SMD type, as I could wrangle that to my current hood as its flexible? Not sure if they are any good however?

I have always used stress coat as a chlorine remover, never tried anything else so will look into Seachem, always thought stress coat was well priced?

With regards to the corys, yeah they are hardy little numbers, i did have pygmy ones at one point but they didnt last long, had 6 which all just dissapeared in a matter of weeks. Peppered/Albino variety always did better i found. I have gravel, and i understand it isnt ideal for them.

I like a black subtrate, ideally sand to cover the cat litter. Anyone tried anything similar? Dont mind the normal golden look mind.
 
Prime works out REALLY cheap because you only need something like 0.5ml to treat 15l of water! I've got a 500ml bottle that i've been using for two years and i've hardly used any!
Not sure about capping the cat litter - never done anything similar, but i think you might end up with the litter migrating to the surface as the smaller sand particles fall through it! You might be better using something like aquatic compost as you'll then also have a nutirent rich substrate but i'm sure someone with mroeknowledge will advise on this!
Cheers
Matt
 
bigmatt said:
Prime works out REALLY cheap because you only need something like 0.5ml to treat 15l of water! I've got a 500ml bottle that i've been using for two years and i've hardly used any!
Not sure about capping the cat litter - never done anything similar, but i think you might end up with the litter migrating to the surface as the smaller sand particles fall through it! You might be better using something like aquatic compost as you'll then also have a nutirent rich substrate but i'm sure someone with mroeknowledge will advise on this!
Cheers
Matt
Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought Cat Litter being a clay, had a high CHC content therefore able to retain nutrients better then say soil?

Your probbably right though, about sand filtering down, might go for a coarse larger granual sand, which may help it stay at the top?
 
You will be forever finding bits of cat litter on the sand it'll look crap. Sorry :(

I'd say if your dosing EI, go for Sand, with a layer of jbl aquabasis plus, some people using just sand sprinkle some plant food granules under it ill come back when I find the name its something like osmote lol.

How big is your tank?
What filters are you running?
Will you be dosing EI?

Cheers
 
I beleive (not 100% until i measure tonight) but 36" tank (36x12x15") making it a 90litre I beleive.

I am running a new (just replaced last month) external 3 filter tier 1200lph with UV lamp filter. Its pretty good :). Its not set to create surfice movement but does produce a strong current under the surface. I do run a air pump mind currently. Plan was to either ditch this, or set it to run at night only via a timer?

I will indeed be dosing with ferts, not decided which is best as of yet?

:( about Cat litter, I dont mind sand, but want a good base for growing hence both.
 
Wouldn't worry about the airstone at all - doesn't really give any advantages (if your CO2 is on a solenoid). I have tanks with JBL Aquabasis+ and sand and i'm pretty happy with it, and as far as the ferts go dose EI - way cheaper than proprietary brands!
Hope this helps,
Matt
 
30w should be ok, maybe replacing the bulb if its an old one.

The flow is ok for the tank too. So you should be okay. What outlet does it come with? Jet type or spray bar?

Go for EI salts mate, there mega cheap, and ferts like TPN+ are basically ei watered down a x times the money. Its simple to do and work out, Fluidsenser online have a calculator you can use to work it all out anyway.

Plenty of people have succes with just sand when using EI, but as a back up root tabs or plant food granules are good enough, or a layer of aquabasis plus.

Your probably better having the co2 on a timer and ditching the air pump, someone else might chime in and say otherwise, but as far as I'm aware there's no need for it.
 
It came with a short and long spray bar, i opted for the short, and direct it down and towards the front glass of the tank, creates a clockwise current, but in turn direct flow on the surface that way also.

I change the bulb yearly so thats prob due a change soon.

El does sound up my street so will look into it.

I have duckweed at the moment, which strides at the moment. I like it, even though it hard to get rid off. Mind without it, I would prob have Algae issues.

I like the idea of having the co2 on a timer, but I still need to get the bits for this (FE, valves, tubing, diffuser) and once I do, the strip down begins.
 
sr20det said:
I like the idea of having the co2 on a timer, but I still need to get the bits for this (FE, valves, tubing, diffuser) and once I do, the strip down begins.
Click to expand...

That's the best way mate, don't rush into it get all your kit ready and when you have start a journal :)

Always best to have co2 come on around 2hours before lights on, and off 2hours before lights out.

Keep us up dated pal.
 
nayr88 said:
sr20det said:
I like the idea of having the co2 on a timer, but I still need to get the bits for this (FE, valves, tubing, diffuser) and once I do, the strip down begins.
Click to expand...

That's the best way mate, don't rush into it get all your kit ready and when you have start a journal :)

Always best to have co2 come on around 2hours before lights on, and off 2hours before lights out.

Keep us up dated pal.
Click to expand...


Thanks buddy, will do some reading tonight around the FE co2, and try order some bits.

The journal sounds like a plan.

For a green carpet,

There Glosso, Dwarf Hairgrass, i did know of another, Pennywort of some sort, in an old mag I was reading. Supposed to be a easy carpet and easy grower. I like the idea of mosses too, any suggestions so I can read up?
 
You could try glosso, get a pot see if its cool with the light if not pull it out and try moss,the glosso won't die it'll just keep growing skyward haha,

For mosses I done well with xmas moss, also java would be good, there was someone selling a huge portion of java on the sale thread. Probably at the bottom of the page or 2nd page now.

Dwarf hairgrass is would look great, I tried some hairgrass in my nano, orderd one pot from tgm and picked one up in LFS unluckily I got them mixed up one grew tall and the other grew low and spread haha, so makesure you get the right one for the foreground :)

I got a cheap lunapet FE from ebay, they have a shop, you can get them with a solenoid to switch the gas off. Was hard to find FE's round our way, Romford Fire integrity was best for me, by the ice rink, was about 25quidd and has lasted me months and still going strong.

Cheerss
 
nayr88 said:
You could try glosso, get a pot see if its cool with the light if not pull it out and try moss,the glosso won't die it'll just keep growing skyward haha,

For mosses I done well with xmas moss, also java would be good, there was someone selling a huge portion of java on the sale thread. Probably at the bottom of the page or 2nd page now.

Dwarf hairgrass is would look great, I tried some hairgrass in my nano, orderd one pot from tgm and picked one up in LFS unluckily I got them mixed up one grew tall and the other grew low and spread haha, so makesure you get the right one for the foreground :)

I got a cheap lunapet FE from ebay, they have a shop, you can get them with a solenoid to switch the gas off. Was hard to find FE's round our way, Romford Fire integrity was best for me, by the ice rink, was about 25quidd and has lasted me months and still going strong.

Cheerss
Click to expand...

I have tried a few plant in my time, and failed, Vallis was one, just didnt grow tall. I then tried Java Fern and Java Moss, as appaently they did well in low lights yet it seems to prodice loads of small stems and attach itself to stuff and break off, but never grew big, just stayed small.

Java fern did well in my tank, but just grew into massive clumps as opposed to carpet or attach itself to anything. Was lovely but didnt grow the way I wanted, guess it may have needed to be netted down to something.
 
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