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haha, its alright Josh

Haha, if by She you mean me, then She is a He :an!gry lmao I was only looking for a few plants, not a heavily planted tank, as the main attraction I want is the piece of wood and the fish, I just wanted the plants to make it a little more natural and fuller, plus give the fish places to hide, play, and everything else they get up to I seem to have created some controversy with the lighting I have, so to clarify I have the following: The rearmost bulb is the smaller 23.5" which is a Aqua One "Tropical" tube, it comes in a pinky coloured packet and says Tropical on it, it does not give the light spectrum on the packet.. The middle tube is the same type, Aqua One "Tropical" but is 30W and is 36" long, The frontmost tube is a Aqua One "Sunlight" tube, also 30W. The main problem I was having is that the tank was incredibly dim and was difficult to see anything beyond half to two thirds into the back, especially during the day as there is alot of reflection off a fully curved tank. The plants I think I will try to grow is a long amazon sword (and maybe a couple of different colours) along the back walls, and some lower shrub type plants in the front, im the first to admit i dont know much at all about plants so I am sorry about the lack of names or exactly what im looking for :-? I have read a fair bit and ive learnt there are two main types of planted tank, high spec and low spec, from what Jennifer was writing about in the plants section there was a fair bit of information required so I will do my best to give what is needed now. Tank : UFO 880, 305L, Substrate : Black fine "midnight" gravel. approx 3-4cm covering across the entire floor (26kg in total) Fish : 2x Tiger Barbs, 4x Odessa Barbs, 2x Angels, 1x Geophagus Jurupari, 1x Geophagus Surinamensis, 1x (large) Clown Loach, 1x Bristlenose Pleco, 1x Redspot Pleco, 2x Opaline Gourami, and 1x Male Black Swordtail. Filtration : CF1200 and Eheim 2213 External Canister Filters Flow : Good througout the tank, the CF1200 spraybar points downwards slightly from the top just under the water level which gives good movement throughout the tank, the plants that are currently in there all sway slightly as if in a breeze no matter where the fish push them around to. Co2 - None yet however depending on how this planting thing works out I will go for a Sodastream setup with regulator - only plan on having it on during the day. Ferts - None yet, but again as per above.. UV Filter - Running constantly. Lights are currently running on a timer - from 0700 to 2200, only due to working long hours, hardly ever get to see the tank if they are much shorter than that Sooo... Reccomendations for a lowtech, low level planted tank? Although I love P44's tank, with the insane amounts of beautiful plants, its not quite feasable in this situation. Thanks for everyones help

Hey thanks for the info, I ended up getting the aqua one lot because I wanted to see my tank, may upgrade lights later if necessary for the plants to really flourish, Speaking of plants, where to get decent plants from? my lfs has very little in the way of plants im looking for

cool, all my LFS has is aqua one T8's, they reccommended a redish one for the small tube, and a redish one for the rear most large tube, and a daylight tube for the very front, they are aqua one brand and thats all i saw they had?

update: dont know what it was, but a razor blade sorted out the majority of it, obviousally did this before I filled the tank etc There is still a tiny bit on the glass that i missed :an!gry :an!gry :an!gry but its not too noticeable.. thanks for everyones help on this

Hello again everyone, my UFO880 has three lights in it, 1 24" bulb at the back and two larger ones at the front, the two at the front go however the rear one is empty and I want to go and buy a tube for it, I am planning to have some plants along the back wall (maybe some swords?) and some smaller shrub type plants at the front, and other various plants (im not sure what yet) I do have a blue 24" bulb that goes but it makes the tank go incredibly blue and it looks wierd, I was told blue is mainly for saltwater, is this true? Thanks I am planning on going Co2 (with sodastream :happy2: :happy2:) however obviousally I need to get the lighting right first. Can anyone advise on what lighting is best for viewing and plant growth? The tank is very deep and viewing is difficult due to glare, so more light from the tank would help combat that too which would be excellent. Thanks!!

orange

Its called "Midnight" gravel, similar to the Midnight Express stuff, i bought it off trademe from petstuf101 ltd, they are a store but im not sure exactly where they are located, hamilton? i think..., i have their contact details if anyone is interested? Weathers turned to crap so I might wait before washing up the rest of the gravel.. If you buy from these guys it pays to measure the amount, the last sack i have that says 10kg on it, actually only has nine, they sent me 2kg extra to compensate for it though which was great customer service on their behalf, and good for me too!

great thank you I will upload some pics as soon as ive done it should be tonight all going to plan.

Thanks, theres only 15kg in there at the moment and its looking very shallow.. is there any precautions etc regarding adding substrate when theres fish in the tank? Removing the rocks and the wood wont be a problem.. though I may only remove the little rocks and start to bury the bigger rocks a little bit, give it more of the natural look..

Rock wall is almost all of the left hand side wall, theres approx 10cm from the front edge in towards the back corner where theres not rock wall, and the entire right hand wall is just glass, though it looks incredibly reflective The tank is a UFO880 - 305 litres Hehe, they are my latest additions and I love them Yes, Im looking for plants that arent extremely "stemmy" like the ones that are in there at the moment.. they are ok at the moment, but they get big and ugly really quickly... plus being such a tall tank i think the lower shrub type plants look the best.. I want something like swords in the background and a nice short broad sort of plant in the foreground, maybe with a few bits and pieces added in, how deep a substrate should I have? its not very deep at the moment... and im thinking its too shallow, ive got another 10kg bag sitting here, but ive already got fish and wood in. lol any ideas / thoughts??

Hey all, ive been talking for a while now about my "new tank" and I finally got it, now ive got some pics for all the people who I promised photos to. :lol: Im extremely happy with my tank, it looks a million times better in real life (a fully curved face makes photos extremely difficult) but as always im still looking for ways to improve so please let me know your opinions! Here are the pics :happy1:

thanks guys, that makes me alot more comfortable, i will be transferring all the water that i can into the new tank, and have the filters running on the new tank, (filters being the one that comes with the tank (eheim 2213) and my original cf1200,) the cf1200 has been running for 6months on my existing tank, and the eheim has been running for about the same on my new tank, all should be goooood

thats amazing, well done!

certainly does, however there was no fish in there when it appeared? - it was already on the tank when the current owner bought it, prior to her owning the tank there was only lizards.. anyway ill give the razor blade a go

Thanks guys, I thought possibly a calcium build up, but where from? It was on the tank when it came from the person who kept the lizards, I will certainly give the razor blade a go, I was a little worried about the green scourer.. Dont want to scratch it any more than it already is on a side note, is there a way to partially hide or lessen the appearance of a scratch? something aquarium safe? Ive got 26kg of midnight express gravel so that might bring the substrate up high enough to cover them... fingers crossed!!

this setup has been running approx 6months, prior to that it was used for lizards, aparantly the marks were there when the current owner bought it from the person with the lizards, and prior to that it was a new tank..

ok, thanks

fish are currently in my 620t, soon to be in their ufo

certainly is, has been running on the ufo880 for the last 6 or so months, the cf1200 is established running on my ar620t pretty much all thats new is the substrate (25kg midnight express silica) and 2 thirds of the water. aparantly it does, but its pretty expensive, $60 dollars for a product that i wasnt sure if i need or not seems a bit steep,

thanks phoenix44, so you think I should buy the startsmart? I would be introducing fish pretty much straight away. so it would cycle..

Hello everyone, my new tank has a milky sort of stain on the inside of the tank, the current owner has had a go at scraping it off with little or no success, just wondering if anyone has come across this? what is the best idea to clean the inside of a tank with? I was told warm salty water and a harsh cloth (eg one of those green scourer things) but i dont want to add more scratches etc than there already are.. heres a pic of what is on the glass: yes the white on the left is what im talking about :)

excellent :happy1:

new tank will be setup and heated when it arrives. The tank comes with an eheim 2213 filter that is currently running on it, which i will make sure stays running until i get the tank (then theres only a few hours tops with it being switched off). The tank the fish are coming from is a 135l.. plants and driftwood will stay in there, the new tank will have new wood and rocks.. and plants when i get all my co2 gear. ( :happy1: ) sooo... if I filled the new tank up two thirds, heated it, and had the heater running, when its all up to temp moved the fish over and then moved the water from the 135l into the 305l, put both the eheim 2213 and my cf1200 on the 305l, would that be ok? add some extra stresscoat?

ok... , my lfs said i need to add startsmart, as there is no bacteria in the gravel, new water, etc etc, he said the bio load on a filter (even if it has been running) will be too high and send the tank into a crash?