# 75g NPT questions



## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

Hello fellow wet thumbs.

I have recently purchased a 75g for my new display tank, I have a nice wet/dry system on it now however I also am purchasing my first house with my wife and kids and $$$ will be very tight so I started thinking NPT.

What is the best soil to use? I hear miracle grow has an additive that will foul the tank fast(this was on their fert spikes though)

I have 100# of Baylee's Better Bottom 3mm-5mm tumbled gravel fresh ready to go in the tank.
What lights will I need for this? the tank will be in a no-sun room. 
Is sand better to go with as a cap or will the gravel work just fine? I just spent $1 per pound for this stuff a few weeks back and dont want to let it go unused.
The tank has no center brace so I will be hanging a light above it as I cannot use my 36"T5ho on a 48" wide tank. I kind of want a light fixture that isnt made for fish or as a hydro gro light. Will LED and the like medium base bulbs be enough if they are wattage and Kelvin temp OK'd?

I am reading the stickies now and have quite a few tabs open as I will need to make this decision quickly.
Here is the tank that I have now that EVERYTHING living inside of it will transfer into the 75g.








pic was taken on or around the first of april, today the tank is a jungle, I dont dose or add any ferts right now just light and fish food and poop feed the plants and its pretty thick in there now.

I appreciate the time as this is something I have never dabbled in and am a little nervous about the switch over.


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## ming shipwreck (Mar 24, 2011)

I'm still a beginner myself, but here's what I can say:

soil additive--
When you go to buy potting soil, look at the ingredients. Avoid soil or potting mix with anything called a "wetting agent". Avoid soil with the little styrofoam beads or vermiculate. Some pearlite is okay, IIRC. Peat in the soil will make it acidic, but I don't think the effect is too large, and you can easily compensate for this by mixing some shell matter in with the soil or adding it to the tank some other way later.

Make sure you let your soil sit in a bucket of water in the open air for a day or three before you set up the tank, or else you can get a really bad ammonia spike when you first set it up.

Make sure to get potting _soil_ and not potting _mix_, which will be way too rich for a substrate (you could water it down with sand, I'm not sure about the proportions).

I used the el-cheapo potting soil from the Ace Hardware in my neighborhood. Water was crystal clear in a few days.

sand vs gravel--
All the instructions I've read say you can use plain gravel. I have 1/2" sand under 1/2" gravel, but the only reason I didn't want gravel all the way down to the soil is that I keep crayfish in my tank.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

Miracle Gro "Organic Choice" is what people have used (does not contain the additives). You can also use soil from your yard or topsoil that is mineralized per the article on "Mineralized Topsoil" in the APC Library.

You can use whatever you want as a cap. On NPT's I use about 1" - 1.5" soil capped with 1" - 2.5" gravel/eco-complete/flourite/whatever. *HOWEVER*, with sand, you'll want to limit that cap depth to 1/2" - 1".

If you have this tank where it gets window light, you can get away with 1 - 1.5 WPG. If you don't have it near a window, give a little more light. (That's for any light other than t-5HO, which you can use less of. )

I have not had good experiences with LED's and have not heard of others using LED's successfully except the more expensive ones. If you are on a tight budget and can afford a particular LED fixture, it probably will not be sufficient for a planted tank, IME.


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## 1aqumfish (Jul 28, 2008)

The fine gravel can work very good. Diy led's can work but are surprisingly expensive done right. A two lamp 48" T5HO would be a lot of light. Catalina Aquariums sells them cheap. Regular t5's or lift them up could be a good option. You got a deep tank that you could grow large sword plants in. I have used the Miracle Gro Organic Choice. I have found if you sift it and get the wood chunks out the start will be easy. I have a Journal on my 55 playing in the dirt, it's similar to your set-up but my light is PC. I hate them now, but with NPT's its not all about the light anyway. Good luck with the tank.


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## Astex (Jun 10, 2009)

My happiest/healthiest NPT is Miracle Grow organic topped with the Bailey's gravel (which I love). On two other ones I used sand and it just doesn't work as well.


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

I got Baylee's gravel the 3-5mm grain size, the sand was too small for my liking.

I will try that and I will read the articles on here. I do appreciate the help thus far and I will see where I can squeeze it in upstairs to get the natural light as well.

As you can tell in the pic I got quite a few plants to put in and I am going to be trimming some out of this tank below to fill it in.









And an updated pic of the 52


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## 1aqumfish (Jul 28, 2008)

Looks nice I like the discus school.


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## WhiteDevil (May 7, 2009)

Thanks, That tank is staying with my father(the 210) my house isnt strong enough to support that weight other then in the basement and I really dont want to go up and down another flight of stairs with it. I am going to possibly get some discus for the 75 but I am really weighing my options with them and an NPT.

Friday I will know for sure weather the 75g is gonna have room upstairs on the main floor to go NPT but if it goes in the basement I got a feeling as there will be ZERO natural light it will use the wet/dry again. 
LED bulbs were those they sell at the home depot and stuff, I looked at em last night, both pricey and color temps are about 4K too low.


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