# Is this how upgrading will work?



## pretzelb (Nov 13, 2005)

I'm reading more about aquatic planting in my tanks and I think I can see an upgrade path in my future. I wanted to see if my theory sounds correct. FWIW, I started with a run of the mill 29g kit from a LFS that came with a stock hood and 20w light and a bio wheel powered filter. So I'm thinking that:

1) Need to upgrade the light to something in 65w range
2) New light will require a new hood fixture unless I go with open top
3) Soon after new light I will probably need to look at diy co2
4) May need to consider new filter after that

Does this sound typical or what I can expect?


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## wannabescaper (Oct 14, 2005)

Yup, those are all things that will likely need to be addressed. I would try to address steps 3&4 simultaneously, since the biowheel helps keep the co2 levels in the tank at atmospheric.

Another issue that is important to planted tanks is the substrate. Have you considered this aspect at all?


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## pretzelb (Nov 13, 2005)

wannabescaper said:


> Yup, those are all things that will likely need to be addressed. I would try to address steps 3&4 simultaneously, since the biowheel helps keep the co2 levels in the tank at atmospheric.
> 
> Another issue that is important to planted tanks is the substrate. Have you considered this aspect at all?


Well that's a good point. I think I should probably give up on plants, or almost all but very easy plants, just because my substrate is .25 inches of gravel. I might add a bit more gravel but I don't see myself making a major substrate change again (I switched from sand).


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

pretzelb said:


> I'm reading more about aquatic planting in my tanks and I think I can see an upgrade path in my future. I wanted to see if my theory sounds correct. FWIW, I started with a run of the mill 29g kit from a LFS that came with a stock hood and 20w light and a bio wheel powered filter. So I'm thinking that:
> 
> 1) Need to upgrade the light to something in 65w range
> 2) New light will require a new hood fixture unless I go with open top
> ...


You might be able to retrofit hood. See "ahsupply.com". I have a 37 gallon and used them and have been very happy about it. With a 65 watt bulb you are just over 2 watts per gallon and could skip CO2 if you wanted to keep it simpler, to be safe you'd be better with a 55 watt if you go this route. In this case you could also leave the filter in if you wanted. Next step either way would be to figure out fertilizing plan.

Good luck, Bill

PS
To some extent you can use weights to hold down plants, if you want. Seems like it's be better to add some more substrate though.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

pretzelb said:


> Well that's a good point. I think I should probably give up on plants, or almost all but very easy plants, just because my substrate is .25 inches of gravel. I might add a bit more gravel but I don't see myself making a major substrate change again (I switched from sand).


You can always go with plants that you don not have to plant in substrate like mosses, riccia, anubias, java fern, bolbitis, floating plants. This way you could go with less lighting, because these are low light plants. Also if you have 2wpg or less you would only need to use Seachem excel, no need for C02 injection.


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## pretzelb (Nov 13, 2005)

Regarding ah supply - I've been looking at that a lot lately. The one stumbling block is having a light fixture so close to the water surface with my filter shoving all that water along. I would want to build one of the custom hoods too, which means my stock hood will go away, which means I will need some glass to cover the tank. Not a huge deal but I'm trying to plan my next upgrade (for once).

Regarding the plant list - I have been trying to get java moss, java fern, and anubias but they are very hard to find locally. After researching I was out looking for these low light and "cling" type plants to give this a try but it's been hard finding them thus far. 

I think I'd enjoy the light fixture upgrade even without any plants. More and more I'm finding the tank view to be annoying because of low and uneven light. I need to search for a glass cover mechanism to get my tank ready for the upgrade.

Thanks.


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## stcyrwm (Apr 20, 2005)

Robert Hudson at "aquabotanic.com" has all of the plants you have listed and more in his "low tech" plant section. He is a sponsor here and his prices are very, very reasonable.

Bill


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

pretzelb said:


> Regarding the plant list - I have been trying to get java moss, java fern, and anubias but they are very hard to find locally. After researching I was out looking for these low light and "cling" type plants to give this a try but it's been hard finding them thus far.
> Thanks.


Try our "For sale/trade forum" and our sponsors for these plants.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

You can grow rooted plants as well, but you would reley on fertilizer tablets in the gravel. Larger plants need a deeper substrate. You need a deep enough substrate to at least keep the plant planted. If you are going to all the trouble of upgrading everything else, adding a couple more inches of gravel shouldn't be a big deal.


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## pretzelb (Nov 13, 2005)

Robert Hudson said:


> You can grow rooted plants as well, but you would reley on fertilizer tablets in the gravel. Larger plants need a deeper substrate. You need a deep enough substrate to at least keep the plant planted. If you are going to all the trouble of upgrading everything else, adding a couple more inches of gravel shouldn't be a big deal.


The only problem I have with adding more gravel is throwing off the chemistry of the tank for the fish. I think I will do this but very gradually so that I don't end up killing any bad bacteria. Although the idea of buying MORE gravel is just driving me crazy.

In the meantime, I'm thinking of putting my amazon sword in a small clay pot filled with flourite. The pot prevents the flourite from dispersing all over and gives the plant a good substrate. The drawback is that it's confined to the pot. I'm thinking eventually I can build up the gravel and then just carefully place the sword and flourite in with the gravel and replant the sword.

FWIW I did pick up a new Coralite 65w fixture. It's nice to have just a better view of the tank. I'm glad I bought the fixture all completed because I've found a few snags in building my own custom hood.


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## skinns (Apr 8, 2004)

pretzelb

I took the same route about a year ago. I actually found a 29Gallon tank $5 at a garage sale about the same time I found this site. So it was nice to have an empty tank to test all the theories. Regarding the AHSUPPLY light kit and how close it will sit to the water was an issue with me as well. But I found a nice solution for getting the light off the tank. They sell "Replacement Legs (clear)" for the Compact Fluorescent lights at most LFS, they are only about $10 and easily screw into the side of your existing light fixture.


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