First off, this is my first post on this forum. Been reading posts and learning as much as I can for the last several weeks. I admit I've been spending more time learning about fish species and compatibility than I have on the plant end of things. I've mostly just been writing down plants that I think look nice and would likely fit in my low-tech set up. I do not have any established tanks, haven't had a tank in almost 30 years and even then it was just a little 10 gallon. I'm taking a big first step here, so any advice would be appreciated. If you can't tell by many of my choices, this is to be a budget build with as low a maintenance requirement as can be expected.
Water specs per city disclosure, haven't tested for myself yet (7-7.5 pH, 16-18 dGH, 72ppm Calcium, 26ppm Magnesium, 4.7ppm Potassium, 91ppm Sodium)
Bold indicates I already have it or already on order.
[*]72 gallon bow front (48" width) [*]48" chinese LED light ("rated" at 7200 lumen with 96x 10k white and 48x RGB LEDs) [*]Sunsun HW-304b canister filter
Heater? (suggestions please, many reviews for most of the big brands have claimed issues causing fish loss) [*]Black Diamond substrate only, approx 2-2.5" thick (decided against a fertilized or clay based substrate, going ultra low-tech here) [*]Granite and driftwood hardscape
Plan to run liquid ferts and root tabs (suggestions please!)
Plan to go the fishless cycle route with some Seachem Stability to hopefully cut down the time
Fish I have on my shortlist for this tank with the notes I've made regarding them.
Opaline Gourami / qty 2 / Top-middle of tank / do not mix with Angelfish
or
Platinum Angelfish / qty 2 / Top-middle of tank / do not mix with Gourami
-------------------
Boesemani Rainbowfish / qty 4-6 / Middle of tank / Rather expensive but they are beautiful
Schooling fish / qty 10-15 / Middle of tank / Zebra Danio, Rummy Nose Tetra, Cardinal Tetra (can't decide)
Bolivian Ram / qty 2 / Middle-bottom of tank / I absolutely love these, so much personality this is a non-negotiable fish for my tank
Oto cat / qty 6 / Bottom-middle of tank / Another one with a ton of personality, heard they sometimes aren't all that great of algae eaters
Siamese Algae Eater / qty 2 / Bottom-middle of tank / Great algae eater, not quite as "fun" as the oto cat
MTS / qty alot / Borrowing / Keep substrate turned over and healthy
Assassin snail / qty 1-2 / Keep the MTS numbers under control
And now for the plants, like I said I haven't really made any major research or decisions. I really like how the Bacopa and Jungle Val look in a tank with moderate current.
-If you're trying to go budget consider flood lights.
-People have had success with SunSun, but others find them poorly made and fragile.
-Water heaters are the most unreliable products in the hobby. By far the best way to heat your aquarium is to use an aquarium controller like the ReefKeeper. They're an added expense but they will save the life of you fish if your heater was to fail in the on position.
-Many people really like BDBS with root tabs.
-Aquarium Co-Op has some really good product available.
-granite?
-Even if you go the stability route, I recommend you add fish very slowly. Start with whatever schooling fish you want and only add a few fish at a time. Say 10 rummy nose at a time. The slower you go, the easier it will be for your beneficial bacteria to keep up.
One thing I notice you did not mention is a QT system. As you add fish, some of them may get sick or bring parasites. It is much safer for your fish and your wallet if you quarantine any new fish before adding them to your main tank.
-If you're trying to go budget consider flood lights. If this LED light is crap, I'll consider that.
-People have had success with SunSun, but others find them poorly made and fragile. We'll see.
-Water heaters are the most unreliable products in the hobby. By far the best way to heat your aquarium is to use an aquarium controller like the ReefKeeper. They're an added expense but they will save the life of you fish if your heater was to fail in the on position. I'll look into that, thank you.
-Many people really like BDBS with root tabs. I'm sorry, what does BDBS mean?
-Aquarium Co-Op has some really good product available. Great, thanks.
-granite? I think it's granite, it's a big piece of very heavy rock that looks very much like granite. Came with my tank.
-Even if you go the stability route, I recommend you add fish very slowly. Start with whatever schooling fish you want and only add a few fish at a time. Say 10 rummy nose at a time. The slower you go, the easier it will be for your beneficial bacteria to keep up. Definitely will start with the schooling fish first then add all of my potentially territorial species in a second round at the same time.
One thing I notice you did not mention is a QT system. As you add fish, some of them may get sick or bring parasites. It is much safer for your fish and your wallet if you quarantine any new fish before adding them to your main tank. Hadn't considered this. We may add a second 10 gallon tank, but we planned to let the kids stock and design it since I will not allow a scuba dude or treasure chest in my tank.
So I've been a little busy with the aquascaping (if you want to call it that, it's like calling a 2 year old's scribbling with crayons "art") while I wait for the fishless cycle to finish. My nitrites have spiked and my nitrates are slowly starting to increase.
Anyway, here's my plant list and a few pictures. The first picture is my initial attempt, and was left alone with a little Seachem Flourish and decent lighting for a bit over a week. Last night I changed the scape around a bit and trimmed off some of the melted parts of my stem plants. Hopefully I didn't go overboard with the trimming... Oh don't mind the bladder snail bottle trap and the wife and kids happy vibes in wet erase marker on the glass. Rocks in the bottom pic are not in final position, just set them there until I can decide what to do with them.
Plants:
Rotala Indica
Dwarf Sag (2 sad little sprigs is all I could find)
Ludwigia Ovalis and Ludwigia Repens
Crypt Wendtii
Trident Java Fern
Anubias Nana
Narrow leaf java fern (tiny guy on rock)
S Repens
Anacharis
Amazon sword
Bacopa Caroliniana
Pennywort
I highly recommend Cascade filters. I have two, one Cascade 1000 I've had for 2 years and one Cascade 500 I've had for a few months. Both are solid builds and have never failed to restart after a power outage. I really like them!
There's nothing wrong with SunSuns. I've had mine for years with not a single hiccup. Just don't hulk out on the quick disconnect lever and it'll be fine. Might want to get consider adding another filter at some point depending on the bioload. Whenever a manufacturer gives you an assessment of how many gallons a filter can handle, cut it in half.
Heater--Could get a Hydor ETH for the 5/8" hose on your SunSun and keep a piece of equipment out of the tank.
A reef keeper is a real choice piece of equipment but for most of us totally unnecessary. A 30$ temperature controller will work just fine and safeguard against "stuck on" heater malfunctions--Finnex and Inkbird both make these for aquarium applications.
Root Tabs--Osmocote root tabs. Cheap, effective, long-lasting (For Sale section of TPT)
Ferts--I've had excellent luck with NPK+M one of our members sells that provides complete EI [estimative index] dosing (again For Sale section). But there are many other concoctions and commercial products that may be worth looking in to.
I also use Metricide as a carbon supplement, this can be found on Amazon as a professional disinfectant but for a low tech tank this shouldn't be necessary and Val species do not like it unless they have time to get used to it.
Would be nice if you could provide a bit more information on the light. We have PAR results for a wide variety of lighting brands and models that enables a more informed choice of power levels for particular applications. You may have to just wait and see but for a tank like a 72 bowfront that is 18" from front to back one light fixture probably isn't going to cut it in terms of coverage.
Thank you very much for the detailed and thoughtful response. So far the SunSun is running without problem, only been a few week of fishless cycling so I know that doesn't mean much. I've been using the AqAdvisor stocking suggestions and they are really conservative on the flow rating of the filters.
I ended up going with the Aqueon Pro 300w heater, good to know about the $30 temp controller though, that seems like a really good idea.
I've already put together 250 Osmocote root tabs with the 00 gelcaps, popped about 8 of them in the tank yesterday.
Also got the small 250ml of Seachem Flourish until I can decide a potentially better option, seems to be doing fine.
My lighting is the 48" Aquaneat, 144 total LEDs (96x 10k .5w, 48x RGB) and 7200 lumen. It's a cheap chinese light so I take the ratings with a grain of salt, from what I can tell it's probably comparable to the Beamswork (maybe even just rebranded). So far my plants are showing some growth with 10-12 hours a day light. The Dwarf Sag is showing the least growth, but my Anubias have both new growth, my sword has 2 new sprouts, the Anacharis is going wild, Rotala/Ludwigia/Bacopa have about an inch of growth in the last almost 2 weeks. S Repens isn't doing much, but it also isn't melting back. Crypt Wendtii has several new sprouts of new growth on a few of them. Trident Java Fern has 2 new sprouts. While I wish I knew the PAR of this light, I'd say for a low tech low maintenance tank it might be just enough.
That's the one, those PAR ratings aren't as bad as I assumed. Well the plant growth I've been getting supports that this is sufficient, I wouldn't expect more without additional CO2. Thanks!
I'll just touch on heaters. According to convention, my 60g requires one 150w heater.
Instead I have two 200w Aqueon heaters hooked to an external Finnex controller.
Why the two heaters? In case one goes bad (which happened not long ago). Why Aqueon? They're guaranteed for life! I contacted the company, emailed a copy of my heater receipt I kept on file and they sent me a new heater no charge. Why the external controller? I don't have to rely on individual thermostats - both heater settings are cranked up so when the control kicks on both heaters come on. Because there are two and they are oversized, they turn off again pretty quickly. It's working really well.
Thanks for info! Unfortunately I had a major setback last night. My preowned tank sprung a pretty massive leak last night. Came home from dinner and had about 10 gallons on the floor with a pretty steady dribble out the front. One of the lower front seals let go. Luckily I don't have any fish to worry about, just my floors, plants and bacteria. I ran out and picked up a 10g tank to house the plants and keep the pump running while performing emergency drain and move tank to the yard. I just picked up a brand new 75g marineland combo from Petsmart, setting it up today. *sigh*
Quick update on the tank. The new 75g is up and running, the plants seem to be doing well despite the rescape (and constant fidgeting). Cycle is still in a nitrite spike, hoping it'll drop any day now. This time around I put a 1" layer of Flourite down under the black diamond sand cap, the root feeders seem to enjoy it so far.
2 1/2 weeks after my nitrite spike hit, it has finally dropped off down to zero. Doing a quick 24 hour test on ammonia and nitrite, then I think I'm ready for a big fat water change and some fish!
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