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hi everyone

i have seen many different tank logs on this, and other sites so i want to give it a go.
Curent tank info:
aqua clear 70 outside box filter, suitible heater(got this when i bought the tank off a freind not sure of the watts.)
the tank measurements are 36 inches long 12 wide and 18 tall. the lighting is a 25 watt plant bulb,(going to upgrade,) it has been up and running from june 2006 to january 2008. it is stocked with 7 neon tetra's, 5 platy's, 3 bleeding heart tetra's, 2 l82 gibby plecos, 1 rainbow shark or rtbs, and my 2 cory's, i know theres not many but there leaving very soon so im not puting more in, and i have no room if i wanted to add to there group
before i posted this i did a water test the results are ph 7.5m, nitrite 0ppm, ammonia oppm,nitrite 0ppm wow a perfect test! here are some pics of the tank,
http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t83/zzz099/

my plans for this tank is to get rid of all stocking and replace with a gourami or 2 (pearl's probably). 3 otos and some cory cats. then plant with anubias nana or bateri, some corkskrew val's, java fern and mabey some more, in june i want to switch over to sand.

i hope i can keep this log going with your help

thanks

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Hello Platy boy , welcome to the log crowd . Couple of points , Firstly I wouldn't
switch to sand if I were you ...can cause all sorts of problems in a planted tank .
You can find all sorts of discussions on the pro's and cons here at FP .. but to
me 2 major factors stick out ..
1. Sand can compact and crush the roots of the plants .
2. This can also cause pockets of anaerobic bacteria to form which can release
poisons into the water column .

Looking at you choice of plants ... you will probably need some fast growers in
there... Wisteria , Water Sprite ...something like that . Helps to soak up the
nutrients and keep the tank stable .

Like your fish choices ... tank looks like a beauty should be fun , just acouple of
questions .
What lights do you plan to get ? Do you plan to fertilise ? Have you thought about CO2 ?

Good luck .

Garry

if you want to go sand you should jsut switch to a smaller grain gravel...

sand has to many problems, but if you have MTS (maylasian trumpet snails) they can probably solve some of your anerobic air pocket problems... but the root crisis will always be present!

tank looks good! and good lick with live plants!

i like that java moss clump!

you should get some drift wood or rocks and spread it out!!!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Garry

What lights do you plan to get ?

2 40 watt florecent would be nice unless i can find. better

Do you plan to fertilise ?

i have realy never thought about it but i guess i have to so i might need ALOT of help.

Have you thought about CO2 ?

i have thought about it but i was told i probably wont use it because i want the lower light plants

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Platy ... Ok 80watts of light over 30 g thats around 2.5 wpg so you will need some sort of carbon source .
Light and carbon are the fuel for plant growth ...then you need some macro and mirco nutrients .
So you should use something like flourish for your micros . As far as macros are concerned (NPK) ,
you can get away with fish poo for N&P but K (Pottassium) is vital to healthy growth so you should look
to add that.... Seachem has one but there are lots of others .

Garry

i have a problam with the lights

it turns out the light i thought the lfs had they dont order anymore and they cant make a speicel order for me but he did show me a new light he had that would be good for 109$ and for some one this young thats a lot of money for a fish tank light he said that it was t5 buld with 21 watts and theres two bulbs and beacuase t5 are double there watts because there that good it is 80 wats almost 3wpg but i dont know is this a good choice will this help me?

good things about light
i would be able to keep better plants with this extra light
i would have healthy plants

bad things about light
its alot of money for a light

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Mate ..sounds a bit strange... are you saying that there are 4 bulbs with 21 w each ?
Or 2 bulbs with 21w each.. which he says are equivilant to 42w each because T5
is double normal flouro's ?

If its the first your right with that much light you would have a high light tank and that
brings on lots of other issues .

If its the second ... I've never heard of T5's being that ...I've got T5's on my 60g tank
,it has 4 x55w = 220w and its never been suggested to me that is equivilant to 440w
Sounds like he's trying to sell you something off the shelf which will only give you 42w ...
only a little over 1wpg ...not a lot of light and only a few plants will grow at that wpg .

Perhaps Frank or Ingo might be able to shed some light on this statement from your
LFS because to me it sounds a bit far fetched .

Lets see what the others say

Garry

Hi,
I agree with you Country, something is off.
PB, if you can get the brand name of the light/canopy/hood,
We can look it up on the Internet and see just what it is
that he's trying to sell you.

Fluorescent bulbs come in various sizes. These sizes are
known as their "T" numbers. Each "T" stand for 1/8 inch
in diameter. Hence a T-12 is 12, 1/8ths of an inch in
diameter, in this case the bulb is 1 1/2 inch in diameter.
A T-8 bulb is 1 inch in diameter and a T-5 bulb is 5/8 inch
in diameter.
Fluorescent bulbs also come in various Kelvin or "K" ratings.
The K rating is the frequency or span of frequencies of
light that the bulb gives off. A scientist by the name
of Kelvin gave us this. It is based upon a black iron
object and the color of light it gives off as it is heated.
Think of a welding torch being applied to a black piece of
metal. Or, if you have not seen that process think of an
electric burner in an electric stove. They start off black
and as they heat up, they give off light as well as heat.
The lower the K rating the lower the light frequency.
Starting in the red light spectrum through yellow to white
to blue. Aquarium plants use light in the red and blue
parts of the spectrum. However, if you use only red
or blue light to look at your fish, you won't see
the colors of the fish nor the plants.
So we use a white light.
6500K through 20,000K are the K ratings of the most
frequently used lights. 6500-10,000K bulbs are used in
freshwater tanks, and 10,000+ K rated bulbs are used in
Saltwater reef tanks. The higher in K rating you go, the
white light starts to give of white light that has some
blue in it and the true blue lights are called Actinic
Blue. The "white light" is even divided into a couple
of classifications. "Warm or Cool" light are terms for
white light that is designed for reading. "Sun or
Daylight" are terms used for lighting up areas for
human traffic (walking etc.) We should use only DAYLIGHT
or SUNLIGHT bulbs on our tanks as we are trying to
replace sunlight with the use of a flourscent bulb.

Fluorescent bulbs can also be either NO or Normal Output,
or they can be VHO or Very High Output. VHO bulbs require
higher voltages and currents than do NO bulbs, and the do
give off more light. If those T-5s that the dealer is
trying to sell you are VHO bulbs, and not all T-5s are,
then a 20 watt bulb could be as much as 40 watts.

See if you can't get some more information (brand name,
model, etc.) of the hood that he's offering and let's see
what it really is.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

thanks frank and country fish,

i have no information like brand name and stuff but i could find that out next time im there.

what is VHO

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Hi PB,
"or they can be VHO or Very High Output"

VHO + Very High Output.
By hitting the bulbs with higher voltages and
currents, they put out more light.
These bulbs are constructed with more materials inside
the bulb to fluoresce and the starter coils in the bulbs
are heavier duty to handle the higher currents necessary
to ignite the phosphors. Also, the end caps are much more
substantial to handle the heat and current.

PS... Anytime you see something in Fish Profiles that
looks like this:
VHO
CO2
Simply place your cursor over the letters and FP will
automatically give you an explanation of that abbreviation.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

platy boy- I had the same problem as you.....I wanted more lighting, but couldn't afford a lot of money. With the help of some people in chat I found two places with the least cost for lighting. One was on e-bay, but you have to know what kind of light you want. The other was a site on the web. I just looked it up for you, but it seems the site has changed & I cant' find the light that I bought on there. But even though I ordered my light on this site, the light actually came from a different company called Catfish Lighting. I looked this site up on the web & I found my light. I paid $76 & some cents with free shipping! This is a 48" light with compact bulbs, to fit my 55g. tank! I got two 65 wt. bulbs which equal 130 wts. & it's 12000k daylight. Since your tank is smaller, it will cost you even less! I believe I saw T bulbs on there also if you would rather have those. Mine came with legs, but I don't use them. I just laid the lights down on my glass lid, which I bought over the net for $33. plus shipping.

If you have the plastic lid with the special insert for a light to go into, be sure the new light you buy will fit that insert. My new compact light fit my old plastic lid except it fit outside the rim instead of inside the rim. It made no difference. The only reason I got a new all glass lid was cause my old plastic one was falling apart.

I know nothing about lighting, except for I wanted & Frank told me that. So any questions about lighting will have to be answered by someone else besides me. This is the site...check it out. http://www.catfishlighting.com/body_lights.htm

thanks for the post patty but im not alowed to order of the web my parents are out of date
thanks anyway


33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

hey all
5 days later and i found the light he wants to sell me i guess this isent the best site but hope you can see what it is
http://www.bizrate.com/fishsupplies/oid686419023.html

tell me what you can

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Hi,
When I went to the link you provided and clicked on the
picture itself, it opened up into more detail.
Please note, it contains ONE 21 watt light bulb "Suitable
for Reef and Saltwater tanks." If you purchase this
you should immediately discard that bulb and purchase
another one that is somewhere between 6700K and 8800K
for your freshwater tank.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

frank,
i see two but that might just be me but i know for sure that the one the LFS is selling me has 2
if this is the EXACT fixture but with 2 bulbs should a buy it?

ps.if you want to find it for yourself to make it easier the info is
ESU aqualight 21 watt t5 fixture


33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

This is what I saw when I went to your link and then
clicked on the picture of the light fixture:
http://www.pawsuppetsupply.com/pd_esu_aqualight_light_fixture_with_fluorescent_t-5_lamp_-_10000k_-_21_watt_-_36.cfm

In the second paragraph of the description it says one
21 watt bulb. If the one you are looking at has two,
then that would be fine. Just junk the bulbs the 50/50
bulbs are not meant for freshwater tanks, only for salt
water fish and reef tanks.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

hi all,
im off to spend the weekend at my freinds cottage in sprague so i wont be back till mondy i will give some reports when i get back
ps.frank i know my light issues dont end here but i learned alot and now next time i go to the LFS i will come back proud and holding a light thanks

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

hi all,
like i said last post

now next time i go to the LFS i will come back proud and holding a light

well i went and came holding the light!
this is the light we were talking about before turns out the link i found was a whole different light this one is a 36inch t5 2 21 watt 6700k plant bulb
i already see the diffrence in the amount of light i am so happy!
but my wallet isent
any way heres some pics
light no hood

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t83/zzz099/light003.jpg

light with hood

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t83/zzz099/light001.jpg

light

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t83/zzz099/light002.jpg

ps.sorry pics are horrible

do you think it looks better hoodless or with the hood?
and can i have the light on without the hood?
will a fish jump out?

water quality after 25% WC sits at ph.7.5 nitrite 0ppm ammonia 0 ppm nitrate 0 ppm

time to plant so i need some ferts what kinds work best?

33 gallon 7 neon tetras-5 platys-3 bleeding heart tetras-2 corys-1 rainbow shark-2 L83 gibby plecos

Congrats platy!

I like it better with the hood. Besides that yes, fish can & sometimes do jump out. Also you do not want the bulbs exposed that close to the water without a protective layer under the light like glass. Water should not be capable of splashing the light bulbs. Sorry,I don't know enough to comment of ferts but nice looking lights.

So you have the light .... on to the plants and ferts ...there are lots of commercial options for Ferts ..but first some required reading ...
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/62-estimative-index-dosing-no-need-test-kits.html?highlight=estimative+index

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/articles.htm.

Once you've read up on Ferts you can decide how much you want to get into it . As I said before you need Light (tick) Carbon ( C02 or Flourish Excel) then Macros and Micros. These can be obtained in various ways ...read the articles and then decide .


Garry