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New member, lots of questions

N

Neil_1984

Seedling
Joined
19 Oct 2016
Messages
3
Location
Sussex, UK
Hello everyone,

I have been reading various posts on this site for a few weeks as I'm planning to build a planted tank so thought I'd sign up and get some opinions.

I've had a tropical tank before but not planted and had a go at a marine coral tank (hence the lights below).

So far, I have the following items ready -

120cm long (47") x 38cm wide (15") x 70cm deep (27") Tank

Maxspect Razor LED lighting 180w 1500k

36 litres of ADA Aquasoil amozonia (9 litres is amozonia powder)

Co2 art regulator with precision needle valve
Co2 art bubble counter with check valve

JBL CristalProfi E1901 Filter - 1900l/h

Hydor 300w inline heater

Wave maker

Co2 tester with 4dkh liquid

Sera 1000 co2 inline reactor

Some small sections of bog wood


I plan on having a banked tank with a green carpet with bog wood sections.

Can anyone give some advise of the equipment I have and a good carpet plant suited to a newbie.

I know the Maxspect lights are marine specific but I've seen a few planted tank projects using them with good results. Is anyone on here running them and if so, what setting % are you using with what times.

Thanks in advance,

Neil
 
Hello Buddy and welcome to the forum. You seem to have all the equipment you need right there. As for lighting, very generally speaking people tend to go for lower K lights. Not that it affects growth more to do with having a more natural colour. One of the first things you will have to change your thinking coming from marine is more lighting is better. In the case of plants more lights =more problems UNLESS You have everything else in order like flow, CO2 and nutrients.
Don't be afraid of turning the lights down, you can crank them up later on as you get more confidence and things are going well.
 
Hi and welcome

New here and the hobby myself, but been doing lots of reading here and else where.

What's stands out to me is the flow you will get from you filter plus the inline reator might not be enough.

The rule x10 rule of flow to tank capicity your 300l tank would ideally need. A flow of 3000l/h. Read about lots of issues with regulating CO2 levels and plant growth etc and many of them do than to get sorted by increasing the flow. Plus what the manufacturers claims and what the filter does does seem to vary a lot.

So a power head may be advisable

Yep I'm the noob giving advise :rolleyes: so someone will chip in and correct me

Zeus
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

Thanks for the warm welcome

averagewhitebloke,

Agreed, the lights were not run at 100% even on my coral tank. These lights you can adjust the white and blue independently and there is 6 time points. I've found some setting from another planted tank set up so I'll start there.

Stu_,

I'm after a grass look carpet, I like the look of eleocharis sp. mini. I also (now you've posted it) like the look of the Micran. Monte Carlo.

Zeus,

I've got a CP 40 wave maker with controller which would give massive amounts of flow on full power. It's capable of moving 17500 on full power.

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated
 
Neil_1984 said:
I've got a CP 40 wave maker with controller which would give massive amounts of flow on full power. It's capable of moving 17500 on full power
Click to expand...

Must admit that's one item I haven't read up on - yet :facepalm:
 
From my memory, 'wave makers' were originally termed because they caused a wave like surging motion in marine tanks.
IE a power head run via a electronic timer capable of setting the on off times in individual seconds!
I bought one around 25 years ago, cost a fortune & I could never work out how to set the timer... probably still got it somewhere.
Anyway, I think the term has changed over the years and is generally use to describe a powerful or adjustable flow power head ?
 
Correct, my cp40 has a controller which has various wave patterns with 10 different power settings. It also has a constant flow option, the main benefit of this over a powerhead is that it has a much wider flow area and can move a much greater volume of water then a single power head. Have a look of YouTube for videos on the cp40 wave maker.
 
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