# First planted Tank here we go



## j.thomson (Mar 28, 2014)

Hey all so thought i would start a journal of my first go at a planted setup. I have been in the hobby for years and have gone from Community tanks, Breeding angels, Saltwater, Breeding cichlids and now looking to do the planted aquarium thing. 

To start off i traded my old 55 gallon tank from cichlids for this and added a bit of my own stuff laying around,

29 Gallon cube tank with stand

Fluval C4 Filter

200W heater

lighting is from a saltwater setup i had its running T5 HO blue and white 10,000K bulbs... looking for help on this as ive read these arent the best for planted tanks what bulbs should i run instead ideas and oppinions appreciated 

Substrate is a fine black sand i believe a ive seen the stuff at big als also has a bit of the fluval substrate that comes in shrimp nano setups normally

I purchased at Fluval 88G co2 system complete for 40$ on kijiji and picked up a three pack of co2 from big als for it. I plan to buy and adapter and use one of my paintball tanks once i go through these. 

Current live stock is
Gold gromi, 1 kili fish, bristle nose pleco and a self cloning crash fight that is munching away at the only plants in the tank currently ..


I am looking for any and all suggestions for switching this tank over to a complete planted tank plans are as follows...

Get rid of the groumi and cray fish, move around some of the drift wood within the tank start a nice carpeting plant and maybe some bigger stuff at the back. I would like to get some shrimp at some point maybe some bumble bees but i really like the entire carpet HC look.

Thanks all


----------



## j.thomson (Mar 28, 2014)

So today was my first day off so i figured I would do some work on the tank. The current light fixture is a T5 HO 18W so I figured I would go to my LFS and grab some 6500K or 6700K bulbs after recommendations from here and that would be a day. Nope not my luck at all I found out that the 18W bulbs had a very limited selection and after hitting multiple stores, PJ's, Petsmart, Bigals, Luckys, I couldnt find the bulbs I needed anywhere some of the stores said they would order them for me but it would be about 25$ a bulb that just wasnt going to work for me. I finally went to a place accross from pacific mall and told them my situation the guy there explained he had the same issue a little while back and he bought a new fixture. He then went to the shelf grabbed a coralife fixture and said he would put two brand new 6700k bulbs in it for me and give me a deal so i went through and grabbed it. One issue down

But as many of you have experienced when you enter the LFS you dont leave with just what you wanted.... I ended up thinking about my substrate and how it was prior used before me so god knows what was in and ended up picking up a 4KG package of the Fluval Stratum substrate as I plan on keeping some shrimp in the tank as my primary focus other then a bed of HC cuba i want to carpet the tank with. I added some API root tabs into the tank substrate so when the planting starts im hoping to give them a kick start.

When i got home i ripped apart the tank and completely gutted it to start fresh. Everything was going great until i took a break and went downstairs to eat and my brother decided to give me a hand and add the water when i came up stairs i found a nice thick stew of dirt water going that god knows how long it will take to settle. 

Plans for near future:
Get some Dwarf Baby Tears to start planting
Get some moss to wrap on drift wood
Let this tank Clear up
Setup my Fluval 88G Co2 system
Decide what Shrimp I want to go with
Educate my brother more on aquariums to save future trouble 

Long Term:
Glass diffuser with bubble ladder ( I like the look of ladders)
Get 88G fluval adaptor for 20oz co2 tank
Look into more plants maybe some clovers


----------



## coldmantis (Apr 5, 2010)

I don't know if its the way you took the pic or the tank looks really tall to me. If the tank is like 24" tall good luck on growing Cuba with 2 bulbs. I only grow low-medium carpets on my 45g tall that's 24" because i actually want to see a nice thick carpet not something that's barely growing. I have 156w quad t5ho on mines. But at least your on the right track converting the co2 to a paintball. I don't think the bubble ladder is efficient enough though for diffusing your co2.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


----------



## j.thomson (Mar 28, 2014)

im at 18.5" to from top to bottom think i will have issues with a successful carpet?


----------



## wantzz (Apr 2, 2013)

Other than the height..is there any concerns over the spectrum? I noted ur post says marine light...always wonder what's the impact if used over fw? maybe u can tell me how it goes


----------



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

you need to change to new freshwater bulbs, those are saltwater bulbs and will create huge amounts of algae. The standard most like is either 6500 k or 6700 k, depends on company, same thing basically.

dual t5ho should give you pretty good lighting in a tank that size


----------



## j.thomson (Mar 28, 2014)

Yea actually i had plants in the tank before I restarted everything and had the old marine lights going and they were done was going to just leave them out of the new setup, but i figured id give them one last chance with the dual t5 6700k's looking today from the center of the three plants you can see new stuff coming in and pushing out and off the old dead brown parts. Great to see things coming in, Im picking up some Red ludwigia, Xmas moss, and handfull of sags and some baby tears that have def seen better days along with some blue velvets off someone on kijiji so i will post some pictures once i get things planted.


Summary : old lights didnt work, 6700k are growing things like a dream and bringing things back to life from just bare roots. Thanks all for the help in getting this thing going


----------



## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

not uncommon for plants to melt. But after a few weeks if you see some new growth, you are golden


----------

