FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hi,
If I was doing it and I wanted to keep costs down, here's what I would do:
Keep lighting between 1 - 2 watts/gallon and buy all low light plants. This will avoid the need of an expensive co2 system and also avoid the chance of an overgrowth of algae (which is always a risk but even more of a risk without co2). Also you can get many low light plants that are not rooted which means your substrate won't make any difference so you can just get the cheapest substrate. Plants such as java fern, anubias, java moss, etc. are not rooted plants and all do very well with extremely low light in my experience. I was able to successfully grow java ferns with about 1/2 watt/gallon and they actually did better because with the higher lighting the algae was killing them off. But of course if you want to have some of the really nice plants that require higher lighting and more expensive substrate, it's better to put out the money at the beginning and get the substrate, lighting, and co2 system that you'll need to grow them.

Dear all,

Mabuhay!


thank you so much for all the information, at least it gives me confidence to start my planted aquaria whenever the funds are ready.


Heaters
i live in the Philippines and we only have 2 seasons here the dry and wet season. We dont have or rarely have dramatic/rapid changes

in temperatures so i guess it not necessary for the time being.

Filtration/Filters
does anyone here uses an overhead filter or a hang-on filter for their planted aquaria? Canister filter is really expensive here, if

its $50 over there here it would be $100. Anyhow, im not planning to put in some fishes yet i'll do that maybe a month after, i guess

I prefer a fishless cycle. And i have seen this product by Tetra its called "cycle" its ideal for newly established aquariums to

hasten the cycling process. Does anyone here have heard of it actually used it? And just yesterday, i went to this pet shop and saw a

RESUN external canister filter has anyone used it?

Lighting
i've scouted the places where i can find those lights mentioned by these sites as well as others and to my dismay there were only two

stores who can give at the least the lights that my aquarium would need. I am planning to buy 3x40 watts (10000k) and 2x36 watts

(casio) at the least it can give me 2 watts/gallon. That's the only light i can find here.

Substrate
Much to my dismay, just like i've said i have exhausted every place in town to find the best substrate for my aquarium and yet no

ECOCOMPLETE around. Ok, i got an information from the internet about growing aquarium plants (cheap) and how to build a soil

substrate. Of course, i want what is best for my plants, anyhow it was mentioned there the use of garden soil as part of the

substrate. Then, I found a sterilized garden soil being sold at our local hardware store but it says there it contains SILICA and

DIATOMITE intended for potted plants. can i use this as a substrate? and it also says if one is going to use a substrate with organic

materials better mix it with sand. So what do you think guys and gals?


Actually, im planning for a substrate is what i have mentioned sterilized garden soil, sphagnum moss, soil-less potting mix and mix

it with lots of aquarium sand then top it off with a regular aquarium gravel. do you think this would work?

heres the link : http://home.infinet.net/teban/how-to.html


CO2
lighting and substrate are hard to find aquarium requirements and this one im not just lucky. can anyone give me a link on how to

make a CO2 and if its not much to ask at least there's a drawing on how i am going to run it. I am quite visual when it comes to

learning. thank you for bearing with me guys.




fertilizer
just in case, should i add fertilizer at once?

thank you so much for any response.

Godbless you all



Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

"thank you so much for all the information, at least it gives me confidence to start my planted aquaria whenever the funds are ready."

SHOULD BE :

thank you so much for all the information,it gives me a lot of confidence to start my planted aquaria whenever the funds are ready. Admittedly, i understand what planted aquaria is all about by your statement guys/gals. the books are giving me a headache most of the time. thank you so much

Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.

Hi,
From my experience (and I think most will agree) Cycle doesn't work. I have heard of success with Biospira but I've never tried using it. If you can get some used filter media from someone to jump start it it will make it go a lot faster.

I use a hang on back filter for my 32g planted and it works fine. I don't have experience with larger tanks but I'm sure you would need to make sure you get one large enough for your tank or get two of them. One issue with hob filters is that they can cause surface agitation which can cause you to lose your CO2. This can be helped by making sure the tank is full enough that you don't have a lot of splashing with the water falling back into the tank.

I am also attempting diy CO2 on my 32g and with enough bottles it can be done. You might want to invest in a couple of co2 ladders or some other reactor to help with diffusion on a large tank like that. Someone who has more experience with larger tanks can probably help you more. The basic idea is that you mix yeast with sugar and water in a bottle and rig up a completely air tight tube out of the bottle into your reactor in your tank. The biggest problem for me has been getting air tight seals, all you need is a pinhole leak to lose all your co2 before it actually gets to the tank and this has happened to me a large number of times. The yeast mixture has to be changed every week or so or it dies off and stops producing co2. Someone else might know of a good link on how to build it. The common way is to use 2L soda bottles, for a tank of your size you will probably need at least 4 bottles. I drilled holes in the caps and then inserted airline tubing, then sealed it around with silicone on the inside and outside of the cap. Then I ran the airhoses into a gang valve such as is used for airrators and ran a hose from that into my tank.

I forgot to mention about the substrate. If you add anything with silica in it you are risking an outbreak of brown algae. Brown algae are actually diatoms and they are more or less made out of silica so any water high in silicates will be e to brown algae. This may or may not be a huge problem because the silicates will leach out of the soil over time and will be removed with water changes, but if you have an option I would go for something without silica if possible.

is there such a thing as low-cost planted aquaria? hihihihiii

It's called a 10gal with a 15watt fluorescent bulb and a bag of fluorite. A cheap <$15 timer that keeps the lights on for 5-9 hours a day (usually turn it off a couple hours midday). Lowest upkeep tank I have ever had. Keep small fishies in there that don't make much mess. Hardest part is trying to keep the guppy population low.

thank you so much for sharing your experiences. how about the others?

Star of the stormy sea of my mortal life, may your light shine upon me so that I do not stray from the path that leads me to heaven.