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what to do

matt hodges

Seedling
Joined
17 Oct 2007
Messages
2
Location
kent
hello All,

I currenlty have a 350l tank with plants in. I have flourite as my substrate and light which give me about 1 WPG. I have 2 external filters and use HMA and this system has been running for about 12 months.

After seeing George Farmers presentation at the FBAS in october it inspired me to change my tank a little as it is looking a little bit unloved at the moment.

THE PLAN
1) I have a 2KG FE now to rig up. Can anybody recommend a good regulator and bubble counter.
2) Is it worth me taking all the plants out and starting again or working on what i have got.
3) I am going to get some T5lighting to up my WPG to 2.2 WPG. Will this be ok.
4) what ferts do i need to use
5)I keep discus in there so is there any plants i cant have because of the high temp and my water is hard rather than soft.

sorry for the question

regards

matt :lol:
 
HI Matt,

Welcome on board, glad to see more people inspired by the festival :)

As to your questions

1) I have a 2KG FE now to rig up. Can anybody recommend a good regulator and bubble counter.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CO2-Doppelmanomet ... dZViewItem

I can highly recommend these regs. Bubble counters are pretty bog standard, if your LFS is half decent got one from there if not either from the same guy as the reg or from here

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... th=196_199

2) Is it worth me taking all the plants out and starting again or working on what i have got.

That up to you really, depends if you want to change things significantly or not. It is often a lot easier to start again though.

3) I am going to get some T5lighting to up my WPG to 2.2 WPG. Will this be ok.

Sounds ideal. Don't forget to get plant tubes, the Arcadia plant pros or Giesemann midday or aquaflora get good reviews.

4) what ferts do i need to use

As a minimum you'll need a form of Nitrogen and Phosphate and a trace mix. Most people get Potassium Nitrate (KN03) for N and nono Potassium Phosphate (KH2P04) for P. Then a dry trace mix works out cheapest. You can also have Potassium Sulphate (K2S04) if you need to dose more K (potassium) but generally this isn't necessary. You can get all these from Aquaessentials, might as well get the bubble counter from AE at the same time :)

http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.p ... th=145_146

5)I keep discus in there so is there any plants i cant have because of the high temp and my water is hard rather than soft.

Shouldn't be to much of a problem but others will help more specifically on that. I'm sure the whole 'discus-warm water-plants' issue has come up before, there might be a thread on it if you look in the general section :)

Hope that helps

Sam
 
To add to Sams post,

read up on the estimative index (EI) method of fertilising the tank.. we have lots on the forum about it. it will take out all the guesswork. You can then use the calc in my signature to calculate how much you need to be adding.

One note on that.. if your going to use 2.2wpg of T5, thats pretty high, T5 is much more powerful than the T8 equivalent, sending out much more light per watt, and therefore, the wpg rule is somewhat out of kilter. for 2.4wpg of T5, i find the need for about TWICE the recommended dosing as per EI.
 
Sam

thanks for the info and amswers.

matt

I have T8 and T5 tubes. I have 76 watts of T8 and 110 watts of T5.

thanks
 
matt hodges said:
I have T8 and T5 tubes. I have 76 watts of T8 and 110 watts of T5.

thanks

I always treat T5 as being 1/3rd higher wattage than they are. But every setup differs.. just keep an eye on your plants, theyll seen tell you if theyre lacking in a nutrient.. if your dosing EI and theyre deficient, then the system is being driven harder than your dosing for, so just add more. Your plants are your best option in fine tuning, dont be scared to add more than you need, far better than not adding enough.
 
Hi Matt

My top tip if using EI is to ensure CO2 is a stable 30ppm.

Check out Clive's great article here - http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=467

I've had great results using Tropica Plant Nutrition+ liquid exclusively. This contains all the nutrients you should need. Aqua Essentials sell it too.

With this CO2 doesn't have to be as high as 30ppm, as long as it is a stable 15ppm+.

Dosing 15ml per day would be fine for your tank. Changing a 1/3 or so of the water every week.

It's the simplest fert dosing method I've ever used and I've used it on four different set ups now with varying lighting, plants etc.

You can adjust the dosing as necessary, of course.
 
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