Help With My First Planted Tank :)

[Beyorn]

I have ordered a replacement 75 gallon tank and was wanting to try making it a planted one. I was wanting to try a freshwater low tech/low light because this will be my first attempt. The tank will come with a 120 watt cover (roughly 1.5 watts per gallon). For the filter system I will have an Emperor 400 and a under gravel filter. I have gravel from a previous tank already so I was going to use that. My question is will this set up work for low light plants? Do I need fertilizers? I have done a great deal of reading on these boards and it seems there are differing opinions on some of the things I listed above. Any help you could give a newbie would be greatly appreciated.

[sick lid]

You'll likely run into problems down the road both with the plants and the under gravel filter as the roots of the plants grow through it. Plants generally prefer to have their root systems undisturbed, but with an UGF, the roots grow below the grate into the water column. Plus, it'll be much harder to move plants if you want. First choice would be a canister. Second choice, a cannister. Third choice, a HOB.

[lauraleellbp]

Welcome to TPT! I've got an aunt and uncle that live in Canton, I go there every other Thanksgiving...

I personally would do without the UG filter; the plant roots will grow down into the plates and cut off the water circulation. That could get nasty and will definitely make replanting very difficult if not impossible down the road.

You'll probably also need to get more filtration in the long run that just the Emperor 400, depending on how heavily you plant the tank. Planted tanks need good water circulation as the plants really interfere with water movement otherwise. Most ppl use canister filters on a tank your size, but you could also use some powerheads with sponge prefilters if you'd prefer. I'm personally running an AquaClear 110 HOB paired with a Rena XP2 canister on my 90gal lowlight. Not enough circulation will lead to nutrient buildups and algae blooms.

Using straight gravel it is likely you will need to fertilize. Depends on your plants and bioload, however. Fert tabs might be sufficient if you're looking for very low maintenance; they typically only need replacing every 3-6 months. I'm using a mostly Fluorite substrate, fert tabs, and Flourish comprehensive to supply trace.

Your lighting sounds good; what bulbs do you have in there? Bulbs rated between 5000-10000 kelvins are generally needed to support FW plant growth.

EDIT ninja'd by sick lid LOL

[Beyorn]

I will drop the ugf. How about if I add another Emperor 400? I hated my canisters when I had them before. They were messy and pulling out the filter mediums to change them was a pain. Also one night one of the hoses came loose and flooded my living room 75 gallons of water all over the floor. Im open to suggestion as far as filtering goes or anything for that matter. I just wanted to stay away from canister filters if I can. I may not be able to though. The gravel Im using from the other tank I had at a depth of 4 inches. Without a ugf will I need to lessen that or will I be fine? Thanks again

[lauraleellbp]

Not all canisters are made alike, that's for sure. Eheims, Fluvals, Renas and Marinelands all have good reps. My Rena is super-easy to clean, almost as easy as my HOB.

You could add another HOB if you'd like. I'm personally totally sold on AquaClears- they don't develop that annoying rattle over time that Emperors and Penguins tend to.

I'd say 2-3" would probably be a better substrate depth. I'd also recommend pea gravel over large gravel- smaller grain size will help encourage the plants to grow roots. You could mix the two sizes if you'd like.

[Beyorn]

Thanks again for the replies. I just have one last question. I have already ordered the Emperor 400 (that is what was recommended to me by the aquarium store). I have read on some post that peeps take out the biowheel. Should I do this as well or is this for something special? The post I have read really don't say why they take it out.

Also should I be worried about adding CO2 to the water? Is there a non expensive way to do this?

[lauraleellbp]

You'll be OK with the Emperor 400 and I'd leave in the biowheel.

Your lighting level leaves you squarely in the low light/low tech tank category, which does not require CO2 injection. (This means that you don't have to worry about outgassing CO2 since you aren't injecting CO2 gas to begin with.) With your current setup plans, the biowheel is only an advantage, not a disadvantage.

[Beyorn]

One last question and I will shut up. Since I wont have the ugf I was thinking about adding a substrate under a layer of gravel. For my set up which substrate would be better and how deep does my gravel need to be. My gravel is roughly the size of a pea (I hope that is what you ment). Thanks again very much! The idea of adding dirt to an aquarium just sounds foreign to me.

[lauraleellbp]

Hey ask all the questions you want- it's one of the best ways to learn! The only stupid questions are the ones we don't ask

I'd recommend a substrate underlayer. If you can afford it, ADA AquaSoil is one of the best on the market ATM- full of nutrients for the plants. Eco Complete and (my personal favorite) Fluorite are also good and provide some nutrients to the plants.

Cheap ways to go would be to use regular play sand or pool sand, SoilMaster or Turface, Schultz Aquatic Soil (made for potting pond plants and found at Home Depot/Lowes) or Colorquartz. None of these last substrates contain nutrients but they are small in grain size and promote root growth.

[Beyorn]

This my sound silly but once the soil is in do you need to change it down the road say after a year or so and how deep should the substrate layer be?

[lauraleellbp]

No, the only time I change out the substrate is if I decide I want to start all over, and then it's usually just for aesthetic reasons or decide I just want to try something different. (I'm breaking down my 10gal with Red Fluorite to replace it with black Flourite, for example).

Substrates will lose nutrient content over time but that's easily supplemented with fert tabs and/or ferts in the water column. It shouldn't ever be necessary to change a substrate.

2-3" total of substrate is usually plenty for most plants. I have 4-5" in areas of my 90gal but that's just b/c I want to grow some large swords, and they put out some massive root systems.

[Beyorn]

Thank you for all the wonderful information. Once I'm finished I will post pics (If I'm not ashamed of what it looks like

[dthb4438]

Hey Beyorn...

I have started my tanks with Flourite and added some Eco-complete in it as well to give some of the foreground plants something to hold on to. I have found the Eco-complete the best to look at and the consistency is nice and has lots of nutrients. Everybody has a personal favorite, I suppose depending on what kind of aquascape you want to have.

[sick lid]

I used regular quartz aquarium gravel topped with an inch of vermiculite, and then topped with HD play sand. I filled a 180 for under 50 bucks. The biggest problem I had was disturbing the vermiculite layer when I re-planted, and also you do get some layer mixing if you slope the substrate, especially with loaches in the mix. I went that route because I was running out of funds in the set-up, end result is that the plants grow fabulously. In the past I have always used flourite,but the biggest tank then was a 32, so money didn't matter so much. If I had more moola, I would have used flourite or EC in the 180 too, but I was going broke, so researched other options.
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Plant,%20Vermiculite.htm
Even though it looks a mess in the pics in the link above, my tank doesn't look like that. I don't gravel vac. Would I use vermiculite again? For the dollars saved in a big tank, yes. In a small tank, no. If you use it, you do need to plan ahead, though.