[BrianT]

Hi, just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Brian and I live in Austin, Texas. (Where are all the austinites!) lol

I currently have a 150 gal tank. (48x31x24) I have 4 discus, 40 neon tets, 5 gold tets, 2 bumble bee cats, a gold ancistrus and two small clown loach.

I planted a variety of plants, not sure of their species, other then I made sure from the saleman that they were hardy for now. My tank was renovated from a cichlid tank (very hard wate) to the planted tank.

Ph 6.7
temp 82
water/hard

all the rest of the tests were fine. I am currently replenishing the tank with RO water held in a 50 gal drum in the garage. Im trying to bring the hardness down , its at about 11 or 12 , it was 14. I think i can do this with random water changes and buffer.

My lights right now are two pc 48" lights with 6700k bulbs (65watt ea). I just built a rack for the top of the tank and plan on putting the following lights on it

175 watt 14k / 175 watt 20k / 175 watt 14k
in that order.

I went to the metal halides because of the depth of the tank, figureing it would penetrate deeper. There is a 400 watt halide right now on my tank with one pc light until my rack is completed.

hope to hear from you all..very nice sight you have here..

I'll attach some pics of my 9k gallon koi pond when i can

Brian

 

[BrianT]

Sorry forgot to flip that second photo!

 

[mynameisjonah]

Over 500 watts of lighting above! Yikes. Two 175 watt fixtures would be plenty, and a lot less headache. Especially if you are beginner when it comes to aquatic plants and aren't willing to spend the money on a compressed C02 system.

 

[BrianT]

Iv'e got the Milwaukee PH control, with the shutoff silonoid, and a 7.5 lbs Co2 Tank and Diffuser.

So, you think the two 175 watt (14K)halides would be sufficient to reach the depth of my tank? If I figured it right, it was like 4.5 wpg with those three light fixtures.

 

[BrianT]

i have a Milwaukee PH control, sylonoid shutoff, and Co2 tank and diffuser. Is the two 175 watts (14k) gonna be enough to reach the depth of my tank?

 

[Centromochlus]

Agreed - 500 watts is probably way too much. Try two 175's, and see how that works for a few weeks. If everything is fine, then stick with it. 500 watts will probably just lead to lots of algae problems.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Are those Parlor palms in your tank?? (The tall dark green plants that are leafy on top but not along the stems?) If those are Parlor palms, they're not aquatic plants (though are often sold in pet stores that way) and you'd do much better potting them as houseplants. They do need quite a bit of water, and can be grown emersed, with their roots always in water, but not the leaves.

The tall stems along the back of your tank are Ludwigia repens.

The short, broad-leafed plants are Anubias. You need to tie those to wood or rocks, or at least pull the rhizome up out of the substrate. The rhizome (green "stem" that the white roots grow out of) needs to be exposed to light or it will die and so will the rest of the plant.

The long-leafed green plant in the back with the L. repens is Java fern. This needs to be treated the same way as Anubias; I can't tell from the photos if you've got the rhizome buried or not?

I'm going to guess your moss is Java moss, though can't really see it well in the pics.

The stem in the front where the leaves are all growing in whorls is Cabomba. Lovely plant, though one I never can keep growing for long without it getting leggy and losing all the leaves along the bottom... if you've got good CO2 on the tank you may have better luck than me, though.

 

[BrianT]

Ok, I'll try the two 175's and see how that is, my concern is just reaching the bottom.

sorry for the crappy pic's Laural, was takinmg them on my Iphone..lol, to lazy to break out the rebel.

I'm glad you named some of the plants, all i wanted to do was get some plants for now that would start off the tank. I was going to research and place some more in there when I learned more.

So, on that note, what type of plants do you think i could achieve in this tank, not sure how to rate the lighting as low, med or high.

 

[jules2k]

I thought for fresh water aquatic plants we should stay withing 6500k - 10000k.

 

[henkychif]

You can grow some really tall plants in there! I had a 65-gallon that was tall and these crinkly-leafed crypts that would produce these really long leaves. You're going to have a lot of fun!

 

[EdTheEdge]

The BEST tip that anyone can give to someone new to planted tanks is patience, patience and even more patience. It takes a lot of patience.

Also like anything else.... start off easy and work your way up.

 

[BrianT]

I agree on the patience part..lol I'm waiting for the tank to really get going and then put some ground cover in, hopefully it will grow..got any suggestions?

 

[lauraleellbp]

Marselia minuta, E. tenellus, dwarf sag are some of the easiest groundcover plants to get going.

 

[brion0]

E. tenellus (chain sword) is a good ground cover to start with. Most of the plants you have dont need much light, so you pry wont have a problem using less than you planned on. You might try Wisteria, an a large sword plant would be cool in a tank this big.

You might like this http://www.lonestaraquaticsociety.com/forum/index.php?referrerid=9