Lighting/Substrate for a 75 Gallon tank?

Hi caall99,

With Turface Pro League Grey and Soilmaster Select (SMS) Charcoal discontinued, Aquaiumplants.com substrate is a good choice. Rumor has it that it is the SMS product, but I cannot confirm that however if it is then your tank substrate will look something like this:


I would hold off on the plant purchase until your aquarium is set up and the lighting is in place. I find the quicker I can get plants settled after shipment the better they do.

1. I am looking at doing a 4X54 DIY in the canopy of my 75 gallon project tank with an Icecap 660 and either TEK2 or Icecap SLR reflectors.

2. See comments above.

3. My Corys root deep into the substrate continuously....no problems whatsoever!

What are your thoughts on filters, CO2 system, CO2 reactors? Inline heater?

Thanks for the quick reply!!

The DIY option would be a possibility with the wooden canopy that i currently sport. I know a 660 would overdrive 54W T5HO to something like 80 watts, which sounds like over kill to me. Down the road i plan to get a rimless 75 gallon and would like my lighting purchase for this tank to work for a suspended light fixture application down the road. This means i need a self contained fixture and not a DIY mess of light bulbs and reflectors. Maybe you have a more convincing reason for me to go DIY lighting...

I have a 5 or 10lb container for the CO2, Ph controller, needle valve, solenoid and all the other goodies. The filter is an eheim 2028 i think. Quite a big canister. I would like to go inline heater down the road but will use in tank heaters until i figure out my stealth setup. My reactor is a Boyu inline diffuser: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TzITsl7rB...ABNI/fiSzsKJcSY0/s400/Boyu-CD-01_CO2_diff.jpg

Inhabitants will be SAEs, clown loaches, Discus, cardinal tetras, pair of GBRs and some corys.

I know someone that will buy a bare 75 gallon in a heart beat. The light i will hold on to. Also, when i go to a rimless setup the light will be suspended at which point i need more bulbs anyway. So 4x54W is set in stone. Now the question remains, which brand and model??

I actually don't know what eheim model the filter is, but w/e it is, it supported a 90 gallon planted tank in the past. I kinda pulled that model number out of my ass since i saw a picture of it and it looked somewhat like mine. I have just too much stuff going on with other aquariums that i haven't checked what model it is.

People have recommended clown loaches with discus in the past, but you do bring up very good points nonetheless. I would totally consider smaller loaches perhaps even dwarf loaches.

I did not want to go with a layered substrate. i want to avoid making a mess with constant rescaping and gravel vacuuming. An all in one consistent substrate is the goal here. I am pushing the buy button on the aquariumplants.com black substrate since i cannot find black colored Turface or soilmaster select stuff.