FishProfiles.com Message Forums

firstly im really excited about this so I dove in to this heads first with out doing much research so i would like some help on how i am going so far the tank is 55 gallon i think its 4foot standard and i have dual t5 54 watt 10000k bulbs well its a quad but the other bulbs in it are actinic and for filtration i have a sump filter and the tank is set up with dual overflows the questions i have are what should i fert with should i be worried about using co2 do i have the right equipment just all those types of questions i will be very grateful for that info bellow is some photos to help U guys give me and idea on what my next step will be

and my pics are not working on this site it seems

[img]

Hi and welcome to Fish Profiles!
What plants do you have so far? What is your temp in the tank? What type of fish are you planning to get? That's just starting questions... I'm sure Frank & Keithgh & Babelfish will chime in... Some fish just won't let you plant anything; others will eat everything and there are a few that just don't care! We need to have an idea of what theme you're going for when you set up the tank.

TTFN --->Ta-Ta-For-Now
Kelly ;o}

Hi,
Welcome to the "Greener Side" of aquariums.

Start by reading the "starred" top two entries on this
forum. One is for new planted tank folks, such as
yourself, and the other concerns the use of CO2 in an
aquarium.

For starters, I'd remove the actinic bulbs, they are
primarily for corals. Being a "4ft standard" tank, I
think that makes the height of the water column about
18 inches.

Generally speaking, we multiply the number of bulbs by the
wattage of the bulbs and divide that result by the capacity
of the tank. 2x54=108/55= 1.96 watts per gallon. That is
enough light to grow "Low light" plants such as
varieties of crypts, and varieties of anubis.
You would want to increase the watts/gallon to 2-3
watts to grow most of the common varities of plants,
and 4 watts or over to grow some of the
"high light demand" plants.

Initially, staying with the low light plants, and
a normally stocked tank, would be your best bet.
That would eliminate the need for additional CO2
(which would be difficult with those filters riling
the surface of the tank) and might eliminate
the need to fertilize the tank as well.

Once you get your feet wet (green) and master the algae
problem, then you might want to think of raising the
wattages of the bulbs and adding more varieties of plants.

Please read and ask! That's how we learn!

Frank


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

hey guys had to resize pics i think here are some photos there is still some obvious things i need to do wipe writing of etc but here are some photos to give u a ruff idea of what i have temp is 29 and i plan to have discus corydoras an tetras and a pair of pep b/n

Attached Image:

and the other side

Attached Image:

and the other side so theres
java moss
wistera
some crypt
and some sort of val i think not sure on the other types
oh there is java fern there also i know it should not be buried ill fix it up now

Attached Image:

i also need to adjust my overflow because it is making it seem like the tank is not lvl and yeah cheers for advice on lights ill order some more plain daylight ones and perhaps one of those purple lights is there any advantage to using one of those purple bulbs

Hi,
Very nice looking tank

Personally, I would stick with the "Daylight" bulbs.
The actinic bulbs emit a bluish looking light and for
every one of those bulbs, "they" (the factory) install
a "white Daylight" bulb to counteract the blue.
The purplish bulbs are not my favorite either, I
don't like the subdued off color light they give off.

Keep your bulbs in the 6700K - 10,000K range. If you are
going to have low or "carpet" plants, then go with the
higher K bulbs (10K max). The higher K range will penitrate
the water column and deliver more light energy to the
substrate where the carpet, and small plants live.
If you are going to have "regular" plants that grow to more
than say 3-4 inches tall, then stick with the
lower K bulbs, or have one or two of each in the hood.

If you want the carpet plants in the foreground, then you
could try putting two 10K bulbs in the front of the hood
and two 6,700K bulbs in the back of the hood.

Frank


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