Plz Help me quickly make the right choices

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by ddrfreak_tung

use prime for a dechlor and yes you need to add a dechlor when you're adding new water. For clarity, i've kept many different substrates before and when it came down the how clear my water is, they all appeared the same. The only time it would change is if i added wood/peat, or something similar that would stain the water. Now of course when you disturb the substrate, the water will be cloudly but that's with most substrate and would clear up within hours. While the soil itself can play a big part in your success, other factors like light, co2, and the chemistry of your water is also important. People have had success using many things from ada soil to cat litter. Have you had issues with unclear water in the past?

This will be my' very first planted tank, I've had an aquarium a couple times before but nothing serious. -- Prime? By what company? Seachem? I'm wanting to buy all of my' things from one store if possible to save on shipping costs. Are there any stores out there that sell ada besides the main website?

[ddrfreak_tung]

the only store i've been to that sells ada stuff is in cali x.x other than that im not sure. For seachem prime, you can find that at petco =) its easy to find.

[glassguppy]

Can anyone tell me the difference between the power sands? i'm confused.. my' tank is only 14 inches high.. what does the S, L and M stand for on each of these different bags? It doesn't seem Ada says much about this on their' site.

[ddrfreak_tung]

small, medium, and large size granules.

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by ddrfreak_tung

small, medium, and large size granules.

I thought so, Any thoughts on the quality of power sand? compared to just buying bacter and super clear?

[bacon5]

I don't think that you really need power sand in my opinion. If you want a sandy look you can very cheaply get play sand from home depot, rinse it and it looks pretty much the same and is only a fraction of the price. Also as for water clarity, the best way to do this is 1) a strong filter 2)and weekly water changes. All these products to "clear" water really only hide the problem and don't really solve it. Hope this helps

William

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by bacon5

I don't think that you really need power sand in my opinion. If you want a sandy look you can very cheaply get play sand from home depot, rinse it and it looks pretty much the same and is only a fraction of the price. Also as for water clarity, the best way to do this is 1) a strong filter 2)and weekly water changes. All these products to "clear" water really only hide the problem and don't really solve it. Hope this helps

William

I'm looking at power sand to place beneath my' amazonia substrate because it contains bacter 100 and super clear. I will also look into getting cosmetic sand but for the beach area of the tank I want to create. I have an eheim aquastyle 9, I think the filter should be good enough.

[Green_Flash]

Originally Posted by glassguppy

Well what I want to know is if there are any particular advantages worth buying the bacter for example... especially if I get something like the power sand... I want my' water to be very clear as well and ada has products for that but if super clear is one of them and the power sand contains it and bacter, do I need to buy either? Also, I've been looking on ADA's site and have been wondering where they have a dechlorinator or if I even need anything like that with their' products.. If you were to compile a list of things you'd get based on what I've described so far, what would it be? Suggestions welcome definitely!

I think you are aiming for something like this?


You are asking if the five elements ADA sells, if they really have an advantage over aquasoil? That is currently an active debate. A matter of personal choice.

ADA makes a couple of dechlor they are called Rio Base, Chlor Off and Brighty K. Brighty K is also a fert. I gather you would need two of them to do something one bottle of Prime does.

You asked for a list of what I would buy based on what you have said, well I would get these:

9L Aquasoil New Amazonia
ADA Power Sand Special S (I would get this over the powders)
La Plata Sand or Nile sand, smallest bag
5 lbs of Yamaya stone, request in order notes for smaller pieces for your river bank
Brighty K (you can use this for chlorine neutralization)

[etane]

For clear water, put a bag of purigen in your filter.

Amazonia leaches ammonia and breaks down too easily for me. So, I use UP aquasoil and mix in some Amazonia directly into the areas where plants are planted.

Also, this works for me as I choose not to use demanding plants nor CO2. So, I don't need to drown my plants with nutrients. If you get more demanding plants and choose to use CO2, then you might need to upgrade your light to something stronger. With my low tech set up, my LED is about 18 watts (18 x 1 watt diodes), and I wouldn't go lower than that for my 18 gallon.

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by Green_Flash

I think you are aiming for something like this?


You are asking if the five elements ADA sells, if they really have an advantage over aquasoil? That is currently an active debate. A matter of personal choice.

ADA makes a couple of dechlor they are called Rio Base, Chlor Off and Brighty K. Brighty K is also a fert. I gather you would need two of them to do something one bottle of Prime does.

You asked for a list of what I would buy based on what you have said, well I would get these:

9L Aquasoil New Amazonia
ADA Power Sand Special S (I would get this over the powders)
La Plata Sand or Nile sand, smallest bag
5 lbs of Yamaya stone, request in order notes for smaller pieces for your river bank
Brighty K (you can use this for chlorine neutralization)

What about iron or tourmaline? how do those play into things? - and how much powersand do you think I'd need for my' tank? - I'm just so overwhelmed and confused about what to get... It almost looks like I'll need everything just to keep a good tank but I know that can't be true.

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by etane

For clear water, put a bag of purigen in your filter.

Amazonia leaches ammonia and breaks down too easily for me. So, I use UP aquasoil and mix in some Amazonia directly into the areas where plants are planted.

Also, this works for me as I choose not to use demanding plants nor CO2. So, I don't need to drown my plants with nutrients. If you get more demanding plants and choose to use CO2, then you might need to upgrade your light to something stronger. With my low tech set up, my LED is about 18 watts (18 x 1 watt diodes), and I wouldn't go lower than that for my 18 gallon.

Do you have any plant suggestions? I don't think I'll be using co2 and I don't want plants that are extremely demanding. Do you have any suggestions for plants that are kind of like baby tears? With fine little leaves and can carpet except that does okay in medium light and isn't demanding? And also, do you think Brighty K will be enough? I also want to make sure my' plants stay green and healthy.

[etane]

Originally Posted by glassguppy

Do you have any plant suggestions? I don't think I'll be using co2 and I don't want plants that are extremely demanding. Do you have any suggestions for plants that are kind of like baby tears? With fine little leaves and can carpet except that does okay in medium light and isn't demanding? And also, do you think Brighty K will be enough? I also want to make sure my' plants stay green and healthy.

Do you like to prune? I don't, hence I stay away from aquarium lawns. But, if you don't mind mowing the lawn once in a while, e. parvula is rather low maintenance.

Can't tell you much about nutrients as I only use Flourish comprehensive. However, my guess is you don't need to buy any specialized nutrients if you go low tech.

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by ddrfreak_tung

use prime for a dechlor and yes you need to add a dechlor when you're adding new water. For clarity, i've kept many different substrates before and when it came down the how clear my water is, they all appeared the same. The only time it would change is if i added wood/peat, or something similar that would stain the water. Now of course when you disturb the substrate, the water will be cloudly but that's with most substrate and would clear up within hours. While the soil itself can play a big part in your success, other factors like light, co2, and the chemistry of your water is also important. People have had success using many things from ada soil to cat litter. Have you had issues with unclear water in the past?

This is my' first planted tank, so no... - Someone suggested that I use Brighty K to dechlorinate my' water, do you think that would work as well as prime? See I'm just trying to figure out what kind of overall system to get, I don't want to possibly mix the wrong things and cause trouble...

[Green_Flash]

Originally Posted by glassguppy

What about iron or tourmaline? how do those play into things? - and how much powersand do you think I'd need for my' tank? - I'm just so overwhelmed and confused about what to get... It almost looks like I'll need everything just to keep a good tank but I know that can't be true.

You will be perfectly fine using just plain aquasoil with zero additives.
The 5 elements are just extra options.

One bag of power sand S is plenty, it will leave you with quite a bit leftover I think.

For more info on the additives check out these threads:
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...ght=tourmaline
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...ything-special
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...g-you-products

[glassguppy]

Originally Posted by Green_Flash

You will be perfectly fine using just plain aquasoil with zero additives.
The 5 elements are just extra options.

One bag of power sand S is plenty, it will leave you with quite a bit leftover I think.

For more info on the additives check out these threads:
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...ght=tourmaline
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...ything-special
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread...g-you-products

OMG thank you! -- So would I be good just getting aquasoil, cosmetic sands and maybe Brighty K? I'm trying to come up with a final list of everything I'll need for my' tank. Basically the stuff one'll want to get from the start, very few frills and just what is very useful and good to have... and then some things which will not be used as often perhaps, but are essential, like a water testing kit or indicator thingy..

So far my' list looks like this:
Aquasoil -9 liter
Cosmetic sand(s)
Eheim/Jager water heater
Brighty K / Seachem prime "still not sure about which one to get."
Some stones/wood "haven't looked into this yet but want to."
-Anything that'll keep my' plants green and water clear lol
-Something to catch/trap livestock

Guys am I missing anything obvious here? I see tweezers and stuff like that for sale too....I can only see myself getting pruning scissors though, what do you think?
I'm a beginner but I just really want the best possible results as possible at a low cost... I don't think I could afford any sort of Co2 system right now but I'd like that if in reality I don't actually need alot of the other chemicals etc out there... It's just incredibly hard to be certain with all of this marketing going on lol... I want to have my' list of supplies ready by Thursday this week if possible.