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Spare Plant Tank

johnny70

Member
Joined
1 Dec 2007
Messages
637
Location
Bakewell, Derbsyhire
Hi have a spare AquaOne AR620, sat doing nothing in the garage, I'm thinking of setting it up to hold and grow on the many plants and cuttings I take, now, it has a built in trickle filter and I will add some powerheads for flow, lighting is built in PC, not sure of the size but there won't be any high light plants in there:) what sort of temp can I get away with for setting the heater too? I don't want the expense of heating the water constantly if I can set lower. 18/20c????

Will be dosing my homemade mix of ferts and easycarbo, no co2.

Any thoughts?

Need a nutrient rich substrate was thinking of tetra plantcomplete and silica sand

Any comments welcome, did I miss something

JOHNNY
 
I can't really help but If I were you I would approach it as a hi-tech green house, using clay pots holding AS, co2 kept high good light and a pair of internal filters. I've seen Malaysian aquascapers do it like this as a store for rare plants and as a way of keeping costs low and as far as I can tell it works really well.
 
another question,

if i have the lights on overnight when the electricity is cheaper is this going to muck up the growth of the plants?
 
Not at all, provided they don't receive any natural light during the day. Infact, my tank's lights don't go off until 2am anyway and my growth is always good. Just consider it as a normal planted tank but without the hardscape. Like all planted tanks as long as you're as strict with your maintenance as you would your normal tank you'll be fine!
 
Hell, I tell you what, I'm inspired...
Loads of light, loads of co2 and ferts... Plant harvesting time!
 
Hiya mate, as long as the plants get the same amout of light at the same time of day every day then they will be fine.

Dunno if i'd bother potting them, roots often get damaged when removing the rockwool so i'd just have them growing in a decent substrate and the roots will be far greater and give the plants a better start. If your thinking about not having a substrate then go for the pots but it wouldn't be my choice. I suppose if dose heavily enough with water column fertaliser the you'll be ok. You could have "cups" full of a decent substrate and pot them in there, this would allow good growth and the ability to move them around etc. I've used shot glasses for single species before and it worked well. Infact i grew a tiger lotus this way and it effectively dwarfed the plant and it essentially transformed it into a nano plant ;)
 
Thanks Dan, my thinking behind the Rockwool was one the roots are protected and when I uproot to re plant then they wont be damaged or tangled

JOHNNY
 
You could also just put Aquasoil into those mesh pots to allow the water to flow and the roots will bond into the substrate. If you needed larger pots you could use the small mesh pond pots too.
 
Yes thats another possible solution, I have a ton of old Tropica pots I can use too, will need to work out what the cheapest way to fill them is, I'm thinking pond compost atm

JOHNNY
 
I will be sorting this out soon :D going to go with a pond compost and sand to grow them on in, nice and nutritious for them.

No I want to be doing as little as possible with the tank as regards to dosing ferts, can I add just once a week? in dry salt form instead of already prepared mixes? I wasn't planning co2(yet) but if I did i could run co2 24hrs a day without worrying as there will be no fish in there. what sort of setup would I need? FE setup ? just a dual reg, and a diffuser? advice welcome

JOHNNY
 
Co2 2 is a definite pal, plants need carbon. One big dose of ferts once a week might be ok, there's nothing better than little and often though IMO. A dual reg from Aquatic Magic would do the trick and it has a solenoid if you require one, i run 24/7 with fish and it's fine, the cost of FE's is small so i don't mind the "wastage"

HTH

Dan
 
ok thanks chaps, I wanted it to be as easy as possible, so I can just sort out once a week as it will be away from the rest of my tanks.

cheers
JOHNNY
 
Hmmm.... well if I have to dose everyday so be it :) See how LondonDragon gets on with the auto feeder that may be a way to go. just a cheap reg and FE to find then ;)

JOHNNY
 
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