[Mako]

I have a few questions about setting up my 20 gallon high as a planted tank.

Now I'm torn 3 ways, between going low tech with my coralife 28watt unit, medium tech with my 28 watt coralife unit with DIY co2 with nutrafin canister and bubble ladder, and going high tech with my coralife 65watt unit, co2 and the whole shibang(daily ferts).

So from my reading, if I were too put my 65 watt unit on, I would need to add daily ferts along with my co2? Or with this tank size would I be able to do just weekly trace like Seachem Flourish?

If I were to do a hybrid like mentioned above, with the 28 watt unit giving me 1.4wpg and diy co2, could I get away with adding Seachem Flourish only once a week?

Thanks

 

[rullypullyfishhead]

go hitek you know you want to

 

[Mako]

Any other opinions?

 

[bcreque]

I think it is just a matter of you weighing your options based on cost, time, what plants you want to keep, etc.

 

[mrbelvedere]

You don't need CO2 with 28 watts, but it will help. Why don't you want to dose ferts? It's so easy. Plants will grow better and you will have less algae problems if everything they need is present.

You also don't need to daily dose with high tech setups. I dose maybe once every 4-5 days (during waterchange) with a tank size similar to yours. I have pressurized CO2 on that tank with a 65 watt Coralife fixture.

 

[Mako]

Well, I was under the impression that if you have a high light tank you need to dose EI or similar to keep the plants growing faster than algae.

So you saying that with co2, I can dose ferts like once or twice a week even with 3.25wpg(the coralife 65 watt fixture)?

Right now I'm kinda leaning towards a hybrid setup, a 28 watt coralife fixture, with co2, and trace ferts once or twice a week.

 

[mrbelvedere]

You can't dose just trace indefinitely.

 

[mistergreen]

you can go low low tech..
http://thegab.org/Articles/WalstadTank.html

 

[epicfish]

Like bcreque, it's up to you...cost, time, etc...plants you want to keep?