Wahoo! New Planted Tank (~300L). Diary and Advice Please

[bobo]

Heya,

I had to get rid of my tanks as I moved overseas, but am back now, and have lined up: 120cm x 45 x 55(h).

So am busy planning it now and would welcome ideas.

It's going to be a heavily planted, low maintenance tank.

I will add photos as I go through the process of setting up the tank.

Planning:

Substrate

I was planning on Dalton's aquatic mix. With some kind of sand on top.

1) How much Dalton's should I place down. How much sand on top of it? I can't remember.

2) Is sand ok if you have burrowing fish? I'm worried about the potential to mix up the Daltons.

Lighting

Coming with 2x55 of 6500k lighting.

Additives

Will dose PMDD, Excel (dose each day or every two days)

Filtration

How important is this on a heavily planted aquarium? On my last planted aquarium the canister filter broke, and I switched to the hooded filter and noticed no difference to the tank. What volume of movement should I be looking for 3x? 6x?

Flora

Thinking of a Tiger Lotus focus. Densely planted with them; may look cool? Thoughts?

Do the red Tiger Lotus need higher light and supplementary iron?

Fauna

Really looking for ideas here. (which have to be vetoed by my wife)

She likes bettas, killifish (I've never kept them), angels (I'm loath), discus obviously(pricey -not a good match for a low water-change aquarium?), colourful tetras.

At the moment I'm looking at:

1) Male Betta

2) 4 Female Bettas - I was hoping this would work in a heavily planted environment? Reading up on the combo yields mixed reports and a lot of hearsay.

3) 1-2 schools of small fish such as tetras. Active, colourful, schooling ideas would be appreciated?

4) Siamese Algae Eaters

5) Some kinda bottom dwellers, such as cories, or loaches. Ideas?

6) Can killifish go into this environment?

Any other fishie ideas and comments on stocking would be appreciated

Setting the aquarium up

What's a floating plant I can use in the aquarium until the Tiger Lotus start doing well? Or would you recommend stem plants to suck up the nutrients.

Would you cycle with a school of the tetras?

Will post photos on the weekend once I start setting up.

Cheers!

[Ismart120]

I can't answer a lot of this (at least not correctly) but;

siamese algae eaters can get quite large, so keep this in mind when looking at some of the smaller tetras (neons and grown SAEs don't always mix well from experience) and they can be a bit jumpy so could upset smaller centre piece fish such as betta. Just something to be aware of

Loaches would be good in terms of activity and keeping things like snails down, chain loaches would be good in terms of size with bettas, and ina big enough group, should minimise any potential nipping (something that could happen). Angelicus, striata, yoyo etc loaches could work if you wanted bigger ones.

In a heavily planted tank, ottos could work well in keeping algae more manageable, just need to watch out for tankmate size is all. I'd recommend a bristlenose too to help with this, there are some nice ones around too so its not just acting as clean up.

For floating plants, indian fern in its floating form can work well, I'm sure someone else will be around with a better option though

[alexyay]

Oh yeah - SAEs are way to boisterous for bettas. Killies are usually very shy and probably wouldn't work with the fish in there. Be prepared to have to move the male fighter - it *can* work but it typically doesn't - and in sororities you would probably want at least 5-7 female bettas.

Burrowing fish love sand - my daltons actually got mixed up with the sand when we filled the tank so it does get a bit cloudy but it doesn't seem to mess up too much. I'd say at least 1.5" of sand above the daltons just to be safe

Unless I had a very low bioload, I'd never use an HOB on a tank bigger than 90L. They simply don't get enough water movement (especially in deeper tanks) and aren't nearly as efficient as canisters. On a tank your size I'd probably have two small canisters as the fighters won't appreciate much flow and a strong canister will probably create too much flow. Or a canister and an HOB (I'm planning on doing this on my 140L so I can grow plants out of the HOB too). Filtration is just as important - the only benefit of a heavily planted tank is that the plants eat up the nitrates which is the last of the filtration process anyway. They don't help with the nitrites/ammonia.

I personally cycle fishless - I just chuck a raw prawn in there (in some pantyhose so that it doesn't create a mess) and let it rot until the tank's cycled. That or I just use filter media from another already cycled tank (people are usually willing to give you some if you want).

[Morcs]

Unless I had a very low bioload, I'd never use an HOB on a tank bigger than 90L. They simply don't get enough water movement (especially in deeper tanks) and aren't nearly as efficient as canisters. On a tank your size I'd probably have two small canisters as the fighters won't appreciate much flow and a strong canister will probably create too much flow. Or a canister and an HOB (I'm planning on doing this on my 140L so I can grow plants out of the HOB too). Filtration is just as important - the only benefit of a heavily planted tank is that the plants eat up the nitrates which is the last of the filtration process anyway. They don't help with the nitrites/ammonia.

Then you havent used an aquaclear 110

I used to run 2 of those badboys on a 75g that housed big messy cichlids such as oscars. Awesome turnover, grunty, good capacity and a breeze to maintain, extendable intakes for deep tanks too.

Better options than most very average canisters IMO (such as sunsuns, aquaones etc..) Good surface movement enables you to inject large amounts of Co2 safely aswell.

They make great refugiums when modded too , and if the flow is too great, just buy a spare impellor and cut a blade or two off

Small canisters such as the Eheim 2213 or 2215 are excellent and simple but i wouldn't run one of anything near what they say they are rated to - a 2213 is brilliant on say a 40-80L tank even though it says its rated to nearly 250L... You want good water movement all around the tank to distribute nutrients and co2 (and oxygen) evenly.

[Morcs]

Hey Tim long time!

I answered a few for ya.

Heya,

I had to get rid of my tanks as I moved overseas, but am back now, and have lined up: 120cm x 45 x 55(h).

So am busy planning it now and would welcome ideas.

It's going to be a heavily planted, low maintenance tank.

I will add photos as I go through the process of setting up the tank.

Planning:

Substrate

I was planning on Dalton's aquatic mix. With some kind of sand on top.

1) How much Dalton's should I place down. How much sand on top of it? I can't remember.

2) Is sand ok if you have burrowing fish? I'm worried about the potential to mix up the Daltons.

Lighting

Coming with 2x55 of 6500k lighting.

Additives

Will dose PMDD, Excel (dose each day or every two days)

Excel will cost $$$$ in the long run!

Filtration

How important is this on a heavily planted aquarium? On my last planted aquarium the canister filter broke, and I switched to the hooded filter and noticed no difference to the tank. What volume of movement should I be looking for 3x? 6x?

10x. bearing in mind that most advertised flowrates are measured without media, so 10x+ is what you need to aim for.

Flora

Thinking of a Tiger Lotus focus. Densely planted with them; may look cool? Thoughts?

Do the red Tiger Lotus need higher light and supplementary iron?

Does look good. Give them root tabs / fert balls. Low light or high light they seem to grow well.

You can train them to grow tall or short so could aquascape them if you have a bunch together, especially of different colours

Fauna

Really looking for ideas here. (which have to be vetoed by my wife)

She likes bettas, killifish (I've never kept them), angels (I'm loath), discus obviously(pricey -not a good match for a low water-change aquarium?), colourful tetras.

At the moment I'm looking at:

1) Male Betta

2) 4 Female Bettas - I was hoping this would work in a heavily planted environment? Reading up on the combo yields mixed reports and a lot of hearsay.

3) 1-2 schools of small fish such as tetras. Active, colourful, schooling ideas would be appreciated?

4) Siamese Algae Eaters

5) Some kinda bottom dwellers, such as cories, or loaches. Ideas?

6) Can killifish go into this environment?

for schoolers go 1 variety and go lots of them, looks more impressive then mixes. Larger species such as colombians look great too, though even those are bigger you'd want 40+ to look impressive!

Any other fishie ideas and comments on stocking would be appreciated

Setting the aquarium up

What's a floating plant I can use in the aquarium until the Tiger Lotus start doing well? Or would you recommend stem plants to suck up the nutrients.

Stems stems stems. look on trademe for the selections that guy in catebury does really cheap. Throw them all in and let them grow whilst your slower growers acclimatise.

Would you cycle with a school of the tetras?

Yes. 5-6 in a tank that size will do no harm. Just increase your stocking gradually once you get past the initial cycle

Will post photos on the weekend once I start setting up.

Cheers!

[bobo]

I can't answer a lot of this (at least not correctly) but;

Thanks for the info: re SAEs. It's a shame; I do like them

[

in sororities you would probably want at least 5-7 female bettas.

Could go that high -cheers

I'd say at least 1.5" of sand above the daltons just to be safe

I'd say I'm at that as a minimum

On a tank your size I'd probably have two small canisters

I bought a big ugly internal - I will look at upgrading in the future. My last tank's canister died, so i used the lid filter, and the water quality remained great. However, I have a lot of planting to do

[bobo]

Hey Tim long time!

I answered a few for ya.

Cheers mate -was overseas for a bit. Saw you have been busy with that nano of yours

Cheers Pete

[bobo]

New Tank:

Substrate/Heaters/Filter/A few Neons:

Does the plastic cap that goes on the bottom of a heater matter? I lost one.

The filter is kinda ugly, but I don't care too much; if it isn't up to scratch I'll replace with a canister/canisters in the future.

I think I will move the filter to the left a bit, and put some hard-scaping in-front of it.

Next step is hardscape. Followed by some initial planting

[alexyay]

Just as a "next time" (there's always a next time, you can never have one tank ) do the hardscape before you put any water in it - it's waaaay easier and much more room for change. You would often put plants in first too and mist them for a few days while you get the perfect scape (I've never done this as I've never had any of the tools and always received plants after I need to set up the tank!)

[bobo]

Just as a "next time" (there's always a next time, you can never have one tank ) do the hardscape before you put any water in it - it's waaaay easier and much more room for change. You would often put plants in first too and mist them for a few days while you get the perfect scape (I've never done this as I've never had any of the tools and always received plants after I need to set up the tank!)

Yeah totally; in the past I set it up from the get go.

This time, with just coming back from overseas, I'm trickling money into it, rather than buying everything upfront, so will slowly add to the tank.

Thanks for the feedback btw