Hello! New member looking for some advice on my new set up. I have loads of questions and a lot to learn so hoping you can help me out
I've had aquariums for about 10 years but previously kept American cichlids in a 500ltr that I shut down when we moved house. During lock down I got really hooked on aquascaping videos on YouTube (in particular George Farmers tanks) and as a result I have bought my first tank in quite a while! It's an EA Aquascaper 600 with a Twinstar 600SM II (which I want to get a dimmer for) and Oase Biomaster Thermo 250 which has stainless steel lilly pipes with a skimmer top. At the moment it is an empty box while I do a fishless cycle but I have used some of my old hardscape that I kept (knew I wasnt ready to leave the hobby!) which you can see I have glued and adapted in the box of the tank, I have a lot of river cobbles too that I might use but might keep it to the wood. The back piece of wood will sit higher when the substrate is sloped up. Long term the tank will be home to a small group of Red Eye Red Tail Puffer Fish and a school of Galaxy Rasbora.
I am planning to run this as a low tech tank with no Co2 but I want to use Tropica Aquasoil and dose with Tropica Premium. My hope is that by having a quality light combined with good substrate and fertilisers, while I wont be able to match a high tech tank with Co2 I should be able to achieve a good tank? As for the elephant in the room - the reason I am not going for Co2 is that I've run out of money for this tank... but also my wife is far from convinced that having a presurised canister in the house is a good idea and when I used the words 'hack' and 'fire extinguisher' in the same sentance, I was told a firm no.
For plants I am trying to work out what my best options would be - I quite like the foreground and midground plants but not sure what I want to do other than the Pennywort. Does anyone have some suggestions?
Foreground
- Micranthemum Monte Carlo
- Marsilea Hirsuta
- Helanthium Tenellum 'Green'
Midground
- Cryptocoryne Albida 'Brown'
- Hygrophila Pinnatifida
- Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Background
- Hydrocotyle Leucocephala
Epiphites
- Small species of Buce
- Small species of Anubias
- Bolbitis Difformis Linea
- Fissidens moss
- Flame moss
I might use the bigger Hydrocotyle on the front left of the tank and the smaller in the back right to try and create some depth with the two similar plants but I know the H. Leucocephala would take a lot of trimming at the front. I've seen some successful low tech tanks use Monte Carlo but I might opt for Marsilea Hirsuta as a safer option? I'm planning on using the Monte Carlo on the open area in the front right then the Helanthium closer to the wood.
The biggest concern I have is that I am headed for a big algae breakout by using too powerful light and too many nutrients through my substrate and tap water. Do you think I am right? And if so, how should I manage that? What sort of timings should I use for the lights and what percentage should I set the lights to? My tap water is not great which is one of my concerns. It has a neutral ph but is quite hard, the hardness is also quite stable (I forget how this translates into Kh and Gh), we also have quite high nitrates which runs at between 20-30ppm out of the tap. What do you guys think will be the result of this?
Lastly, with the substrate should I just stick to the aqua soil or should I put something like Power Sand under it? And also should I cap aqua soil with some kind of sand?
If you have read this far much appreciated and looking forward to any help I can get
thanks Andy
I've had aquariums for about 10 years but previously kept American cichlids in a 500ltr that I shut down when we moved house. During lock down I got really hooked on aquascaping videos on YouTube (in particular George Farmers tanks) and as a result I have bought my first tank in quite a while! It's an EA Aquascaper 600 with a Twinstar 600SM II (which I want to get a dimmer for) and Oase Biomaster Thermo 250 which has stainless steel lilly pipes with a skimmer top. At the moment it is an empty box while I do a fishless cycle but I have used some of my old hardscape that I kept (knew I wasnt ready to leave the hobby!) which you can see I have glued and adapted in the box of the tank, I have a lot of river cobbles too that I might use but might keep it to the wood. The back piece of wood will sit higher when the substrate is sloped up. Long term the tank will be home to a small group of Red Eye Red Tail Puffer Fish and a school of Galaxy Rasbora.
I am planning to run this as a low tech tank with no Co2 but I want to use Tropica Aquasoil and dose with Tropica Premium. My hope is that by having a quality light combined with good substrate and fertilisers, while I wont be able to match a high tech tank with Co2 I should be able to achieve a good tank? As for the elephant in the room - the reason I am not going for Co2 is that I've run out of money for this tank... but also my wife is far from convinced that having a presurised canister in the house is a good idea and when I used the words 'hack' and 'fire extinguisher' in the same sentance, I was told a firm no.
For plants I am trying to work out what my best options would be - I quite like the foreground and midground plants but not sure what I want to do other than the Pennywort. Does anyone have some suggestions?
Foreground
- Micranthemum Monte Carlo
- Marsilea Hirsuta
- Helanthium Tenellum 'Green'
Midground
- Cryptocoryne Albida 'Brown'
- Hygrophila Pinnatifida
- Hydrocotyle Tripartita
Background
- Hydrocotyle Leucocephala
Epiphites
- Small species of Buce
- Small species of Anubias
- Bolbitis Difformis Linea
- Fissidens moss
- Flame moss
I might use the bigger Hydrocotyle on the front left of the tank and the smaller in the back right to try and create some depth with the two similar plants but I know the H. Leucocephala would take a lot of trimming at the front. I've seen some successful low tech tanks use Monte Carlo but I might opt for Marsilea Hirsuta as a safer option? I'm planning on using the Monte Carlo on the open area in the front right then the Helanthium closer to the wood.
The biggest concern I have is that I am headed for a big algae breakout by using too powerful light and too many nutrients through my substrate and tap water. Do you think I am right? And if so, how should I manage that? What sort of timings should I use for the lights and what percentage should I set the lights to? My tap water is not great which is one of my concerns. It has a neutral ph but is quite hard, the hardness is also quite stable (I forget how this translates into Kh and Gh), we also have quite high nitrates which runs at between 20-30ppm out of the tap. What do you guys think will be the result of this?
Lastly, with the substrate should I just stick to the aqua soil or should I put something like Power Sand under it? And also should I cap aqua soil with some kind of sand?
If you have read this far much appreciated and looking forward to any help I can get
thanks Andy