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Well, on monday i will be buy my complete 29 gallon setup. I have a few questions which i will ask first off.
1-I will be getting the Eco-complete substrate for planted aquariums. Has any one ever used this or have it right now? Does it work well with the plants? Can you siphon the debris out of it as you would with normal gravel?
2-Will a power strip rated for up to 1875 watts support two 150 watt heaters and 2 ???watts emperor 280 bio wheel filters?
3-What power strip should i buy? The one from Walmart that says it is not recomended to be used around water(which i think it is just saying that you should use caution such as putting a loop in the cord)or the one at the pet store which is more expensive with nothing more on than the one from Walmart?
4-The driftwood i bought stoped leaking tannins the other day, is it ready for the tank now?
5-can i put a bunch of ancharis in the tank when i start the cycle( would it throw it off or no since most say it takes a few weeks for plants to actually use nutrients from the tank) to help the fish feel more comfortable or would my best shot would be to wait after the cycle is completed?

Last edited by clownloachfan at 01-Dec-2004 16:50

I'll try to anser a few of your questions:

1- Is this the sand substrate? If you're going to be planting the tank, you really cannot gravel-vac like you would on a non-planted tank.

2-Yes, it wll support it. If I remember correctly, HOB filters don't use that much power (much much much much less than the lights). You'll have no problems. (I actually think it was only a handful of watts).

4-Sure, put the driftwood in!

5-You can add the plants right when you start cycling. It'll actually help the cycle a long (a tiny bit) and can only be helpful to your tank.

HTH

3- The wal*mart one will be fine, just make sure it's got a short protection circuit (the little reset deal) and mount it high up so you can put in a proper drip loop on all your cords.

5- Yea, it'll be fine, and an article i read in TFH a while back showed that plants use up ammonia rather rapidly due to ammonia's less complex structure than carbon based nutrients, but they'll be fine

thanks, the substrate is described as porous which gives the substrate great surface area for biological colonies to build up. It also says that the smaller particles go to the bottom while the larger ones go to the top. It says its for planted aquariums.

Eco complete should instantly cycle your tank as far as I know, and yes you can plant as heavily as you want when you set the tank up.

As far as gravel vacuuming, in a planted tank you can't really dig into the gravel like you would if you had fake plants, siphoning over the surface is usually enough to keep it clean.