Finally! Take 3 (pg15 or 16)!

[James From Cali]

Originally Posted by skabooya

Thank you for the updated list. Its great LOVE IT!
I cant imagine growing some of those plants in 1.1wpg. Would that be a list for 2wpg and under?
If so maybe there should be a category next to it for minimum light threshold for each plant?
Again its a wonderful list and I will definitely be using it.

I can add that if you wish. I was thinking about doing that but many people had figured it was meant for anything 2wpg and down, definitely is too. I will add lighting requiremnets now :-)

[A Hill]

My current 10g Black Diamond tank is considered "low tech" All I do is give top offs and flourish excel when I think about it during the day. It has the stock hood which is around 1.5wpg and it grows plants fine. This current scape has a large portion of the tank covered in vals that I bought labeled Italian vals. They're nice and narrow and look pretty good (would look better in a 15-18g but I used what I had at the time)

From my experience the flourish hasn't killed the vals. It seemed to possible keep them from sending out a ton of runners but I can't confirm this because over time when the plants get established they throw out more runners anyways and I was dosing flourish much more regularly when the tank was first set up.

Here is a picture of my 10g. This is also my journal of that tank.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...tml#post496541

Good luck and don't worry too much about the light, if you're really worried maybe you can seal it off by using a piece of glass to top the back part of the tank.

-Andrew

[Homer_Simpson]

Originally Posted by skabooya

That is an interesting thread. It looks like most of the reasons for choosing eco were colour and ease. The most common cons were compaction and leeching. Im gonna look for one of these about fluorite.

As for the wpg thing I guess when I start to specifically choose plants i am unsure about I will post here and see what people say.

I will be dosing excel here and there I wont be dependant on it. Also I will not have C02 in my tank. (just for more info )


I was staring at my empty tank earlier and I was really afraid of the exposed lights being so close to the top of what will be the water surface. The only thing protecting the wires are endcaps. Hagen waterhome manual says its fine but it really freaks me out. What about splash or condensation? Its a fully sealed top so it worries me.
The lights were about 1.5 -2 inches from the top of the water surface. So I took the frame for the bottom of the tank (its an optional item with this tank so you can make it rimless) and I put it on the top to make a frame around the top of the tank (acting as a riser) and then I put the hood on top of that. The lights are now about 3-4 ? inches away from the waters surface but it still freaks me out.

Any ideas on what i should do about this? I dont want to have to go out and buy a whole new lighting set up. I mentioned it to my husband once and it hurt him because he thought the gift he gave me wasent good enough. It took me all day to fix that problem.

So any ideas?

I don't have any experience with that type of tank, but to be quite honest with you, I would not worry too much about it if the Hagen waterhome manual says it is fine, I would trust that. Hagen is a pretty reputable company and although I could be wrong, I think that they would be pretty careful in designing their aquariums, including the electrical layout, so as not to put customers in danger.

The urea in jobe sticks leeching ammonia and causing algae is another one of those things that I find interesting. Some people swear that its use will induce an algae bloom while others state that they have used them without problems. If you want to be totally safe, I would consider Seachem Fluorish Root Tabs. I bought some from a place called Pet Cetera for about $6 for a pack of 10. The Seachem Fluorish root tabs are highly talked about. This lady who set up a low light tank, uses Seachem Fluorish tabs in her low light tank and as you can see it is an absolutely beautiful tank.
http://vickisaquaticplace.com/PlantsChapter1.html

She also has a really good link on how to wash the fluorite before use so it does not cloud your tank up too much and for too long. You might find this interesting.
http://vickisaquaticplace.com/fluorite.html

I like her tank so much that for my next low light tank project, with the spare 10 gallon I have lying around, I was thinking of setting up that type of tank with the only difference is the substrate(I would use either Soil Master Select capped over eco-complete or redsea flora base, one inch schultz aquatic soil capped with 2 inches flora base, black Seachem Fluorite Sand, or pool filter sand over Seachem root tabs).

[Tabatha]

I agree with Homer, in my first tank I used Flourite and found it a difficult planting medium. In my current tank, I used Eco-complete and although outrageously expensive, infinitely easier to plant in! It will be interesting to see how the plants grow in the Eco!

Do you find these two substrates equal in terms of growth, Homer?

Originally Posted by Homer_Simpson

I hope you don't mind me asking, but was there a reason that you chose to go with Seachem Fluorite over Eco-Complete. Don't get me wrong, they are both great for growing plants, but for some reason the Eco-Complete tends to be more popular, so I was just curious. The only problem that I found with Fluorite was that it did not seem to hold down fine rooted stem plants like rotala indica and ludwiga repens too well.

[Homer_Simpson]

Originally Posted by Tabatha

...Do you find these two substrates equal in terms of growth, Homer?

I have a bag of Eco-Complete on standby and ready to test drive "when" I can find the space, lol . These are pictures of a 10 gallon tank that I used fluorite in. The biggest problem that I found was that I had a hard time keeping fine root stem plants like ambulia, rotala indica, ludwiga repens, and moneywort anchored down. I would always notice that within a few days of being planted(no matter how deep), the stems would always float to the top of the surface. Mind you the floating stems developed several side shoots and aerial roots. I eventually had to tear the tank down because of an out control snail problem plus I wanted to test Aquasoil II and needed to get rid of one tank to set that one up. Anyway here are pictures of plants growing in 10 gallon fluorite tank. Excuse the aquascaping, but this is a "test" tank and not a "show" tank.

[skabooya]

Ive been reading a bit more on fluorite and to correct this problem a mixture of sand is aparently a good thing. The sand will help to hold plant roots much better.

Oh I forgot the dimensions of my tank. Just for furthur reference
31.5"L x 14"W x 17.5"H not including canopy with lights. Box says 32gals.

Im hoping for about 2-3 inches of substrate in the front and 4-5 inches in the back. Yes quite high for the back. I love the look of extreme sloped substrates but we will see how it goes with my substrate tomorrow... I hope it comes tomorrow

This is the tank with the raiser on top. I think I am going to remove it again. That means the black strip on the top of the tank will be just one level instead of two. Oh and that smudge on the back will be wiped off so no problems and I will be getting new tubing for the filter set up so what you see in there is not the final look.
That is one piece of driftwood I plan on putting in my tank. I am also strongly considering tearing out the other two in my 20gal to put in here. We will see.

[Tabatha]

I like your tank, it's a nice size, I also really like your driftwood!! Let us know how planting goes.

[skabooya]

It came it came my fluorite came! It feels like christmas!!! YAY SUPER YAY!

Im not used to its super small grain size wow. And its light... maybe thats because ive been working out lately I dunno.
Now i need to rince it eeek i need to find a strainer.

Im so excited!!!!!

[James From Cali]

Please post pics when set up. It looks like it will be a very nice tank.

[bsmith]

Have you thought about c.spiralis for your long skinny back ground plant? I haveit in my 29g and love it!!!

http://www.plantgeek.net/plant-76.htm

[skabooya]

Geez Ive been cleaning 1/2 bag of fluorite for quite a while now, must have done at least 20-25 rinces in a rubermaid bin with constant stiring and its still not comming clear. It will only stay slightly clear if i just let the water run hard and NOT stir it. Is that clean enough? Can i finally move on to the second half of my first bag? Or do i keep cleaning until water runs completely clear?

[bsmith]

Originally Posted by skabooya

Geez Ive been cleaning 1/2 bag of fluorite for quite a while now, must have done at least 20-25 rinces in a rubermaid bin with constant stiring and its still not comming clear. It will only stay slightly clear if i just let the water run hard and NOT stir it. Is that clean enough? Can i finally move on to the second half of my first bag? Or do i keep cleaning until water runs completely clear?

From what I have read it will never run completely clear.

[skabooya]

Originally Posted by bsmith782

it will never run completely clear.

Lovely.

I knew it was bad but sheesh!. This is BAD! I took pictures to see if what i have is normal or if i just got a very very very dirty bag.

[Homer_Simpson]

Originally Posted by skabooya

Lovely.

I knew it was bad but sheesh!. This is BAD! I took pictures to see if what i have is normal or if i just got a very very very dirty bag.

It will eventually clear, but may take a few days even after you rinse it. This is what happened to me, but after about 3 days of using and replacing polyfibre floss in my filter and doing 50% water changes and using a strainer to fill replacement water, the cloudiness finally dissipated. This is the major complaint most people have about fluorite and a big reason why many use Eco-Complete over fluorite.

[skabooya]

I am now using a modified rex grigg method It may not be as good but the cleaning is going by a lot faster with less effort on my part