your plan looks good to me. everything should work well. You can throw in any plants with that kind of set up. you dont have to go for the easy plants if you want a crazy looking scape.
Setting up on-campus aquarium. Looking for advice on setup.
Currently, a club that I'm a president of is looking to set up a small aquarium on campus at my university. It is a school dedicated to the environmental sciences so it should fit in quite well.
I personally have been taking care of aquariums ever since I was a little kid but the maintenance will be shared by club members with varying levels of experience. Consequently, I have decided to go with a low-tech planted tank as it minimizes the amount of maintenance required.
We're going with a 20-gallon high aquarium with eco complete. For a filter, I'm leaning towards an Aquaclear 30. Given the height of a 20H I'm currently debating between a Fugeray and a stingray. I would love to get an opinion on that. I figure if I can push it into the medium light spectrum we can "carpet" S. repens or Monte Carlo which would be cool.
For fertilizer, I'm leaning towards excel every day and Nilcog liquid NPK+M twice a week as I don't want people who are inexperienced with aquariums to have to mess around with dry ferts. would 25% weekly water changes be acceptable with a reduced EI routine in a low tech tank?
livestock is looking to be 5-8 male fancy guppies. I wouldn't be opposed to adding some more fish but I don't want to push the bioload too high. Any hardy fish that might work well. I'm thinking some cherry shrimp would work as a "clean up crew" just to touch up any minor algae growth on the plants.
I have an idea for which plants I might like to use (crypts, Anubis, bacopa, Java fern, Sagittaria) but if anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them.
Thank you for any and all input!
I personally have been taking care of aquariums ever since I was a little kid but the maintenance will be shared by club members with varying levels of experience. Consequently, I have decided to go with a low-tech planted tank as it minimizes the amount of maintenance required.
We're going with a 20-gallon high aquarium with eco complete. For a filter, I'm leaning towards an Aquaclear 30. Given the height of a 20H I'm currently debating between a Fugeray and a stingray. I would love to get an opinion on that. I figure if I can push it into the medium light spectrum we can "carpet" S. repens or Monte Carlo which would be cool.
For fertilizer, I'm leaning towards excel every day and Nilcog liquid NPK+M twice a week as I don't want people who are inexperienced with aquariums to have to mess around with dry ferts. would 25% weekly water changes be acceptable with a reduced EI routine in a low tech tank?
livestock is looking to be 5-8 male fancy guppies. I wouldn't be opposed to adding some more fish but I don't want to push the bioload too high. Any hardy fish that might work well. I'm thinking some cherry shrimp would work as a "clean up crew" just to touch up any minor algae growth on the plants.
I have an idea for which plants I might like to use (crypts, Anubis, bacopa, Java fern, Sagittaria) but if anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them.
Thank you for any and all input!
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
Do you think I'd be better off with a fugeray or a stingray? would it make a significant difference other than in the plants I could grow?your plan looks good to me. everything should work well. You can throw in any plants with that kind of set up. you dont have to go for the easy plants if you want a crazy looking scape.
not really. its def enough light to grow. I wouldnt consider them HIGH light. More like Medium low. if you run long light hours like 8+ you can get solid growthDo you think I'd be better off with a fugeray or a stingray? would it make a significant difference other than in the plants I could grow?
Alright. I'm probably gonna go with the stingray than. Hopefully, that will be enough for the dwarf sag or the monte Carlo. Fingers crossed :grin2:not really. its def enough light to grow. I wouldnt consider them HIGH light. More like Medium low. if you run long light hours like 8+ you can get solid growth
Why not finnex 24/7? It's even easier the burden on taking care of the tank.
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20 gallon high? I wouldnt bet on that stingray doing all that great at growing plants at that kind of depth. The stingray is a nice aquarium light; but really not the best choice for a planted tank. I dont know if the "fugeray" still exists (and if I recall was really high light) but there is the planted+ and planted+ 24/7 which I believe are technically fugerays.Alright. I'm probably gonna go with the stingray than. Hopefully, that will be enough for the dwarf sag or the monte Carlo. Fingers crossed :grin2:
The stingray is a great light and I have 2 of them on my 20 gallon long, but that's only because it's the long not the high. For the high you'll need the fuge ray because of how much taller it is especially if your wanting to have a carpet and with excel you'll be just fine!
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Not sure what your club budget is, but Excel is not that cheap. Pressurized CO2 is even cheaper than dosing Excel.
Have you considered dirt? It's the cheapest route, and it definitely grows a greater variety and much healthier plants than ecocomplete+excel.
Have you considered dirt? It's the cheapest route, and it definitely grows a greater variety and much healthier plants than ecocomplete+excel.
I agree eco-complete is not that great in my opinion
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In my experience, this is setup where there will be a quite a lot of competing ideas if a group is involved. With the competing ideas, there will probably be a fair amount of "stir" in the tank setup as competing ideas come up.
In hobby clubs where there is a definite physical layout to keep, I view it working two ways. There can be mass confusion and definite stress or an agreed upon "ruler" who makes the physical decisions.
Depending on how many differing opinions are brought in will determine how often things get changed in the tank. With that in mind and expecting a fair amount of changes in the tank, I would lean away from things like the dirted tank as they require more practiced patience. Something that requires less drama would be my recommendation.
Group efforts can become a hassle at best so a stable design may be needed.
In hobby clubs where there is a definite physical layout to keep, I view it working two ways. There can be mass confusion and definite stress or an agreed upon "ruler" who makes the physical decisions.
Depending on how many differing opinions are brought in will determine how often things get changed in the tank. With that in mind and expecting a fair amount of changes in the tank, I would lean away from things like the dirted tank as they require more practiced patience. Something that requires less drama would be my recommendation.
Group efforts can become a hassle at best so a stable design may be needed.
A dirted tank will make it much easier because most of the nutrients are in the substrate which will help with algae and provide healthy growth and it also looks much more natural.
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That's actually a fair point.In my experience, this is setup where there will be a quite a lot of competing ideas if a group is involved. With the competing ideas, there will probably be a fair amount of "stir" in the tank setup as competing ideas come up.
In hobby clubs where there is a definite physical layout to keep, I view it working two ways. There can be mass confusion and definite stress or an agreed upon "ruler" who makes the physical decisions.
Depending on how many differing opinions are brought in will determine how often things get changed in the tank. With that in mind and expecting a fair amount of changes in the tank, I would lean away from things like the dirted tank as they require more practiced patience. Something that requires less drama would be my recommendation.
Group efforts can become a hassle at best so a stable design may be needed.
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
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