# New setup



## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

I have the jewul trigon 190 so its 70cm (28") deep, and has a silly narrow lid (70cm @ its widest), so getting lights into this tank is going to be difficult.

the standard light bar has 18w bulbs on it (and no colour rating either) giving me a total of 36w in a 60 (US) gallon tank, which I know is woefully inaducate. I'm considering picking up a Interpet CF twin starter and 2 55w bulbs which I'd have to create a reflector and holder to fit into the tank and then use T6 bulb which would give me 24w per bulb, which would give me a combined total of 158wwhich is a little over the 2.5w per gallon rule.

For substrate i was planning to buy a load of aquatic soil and put a layer of 1 1/2-2" over heating cable with another 1" of silver sand above. would this be nessesary or not.

I'm not sure which plants i'd be using, as i was hoping to make this a discus set up they'd have to be plants with a low Ph tolerence. there would also be otos, whiptails, pencil fish, rummynose tetras and corydoras.

due to the warmer tempratures (about 28c i think) I'm slightly worried about oxygen vs carbon dioxide and fishes health. so not sure if dosing with carbon dioxide is going to work.

I have a slight oddaty with my water however. Though there is little hardness (1/2dGh 1/4dKh) (official water report from supplier) the Ph is aaround 7.4 when its oxygenated (when it comes straight from the tap (with an inline carbon filter which removes chlorine and chloramines (as well as many trace elements i'd expect)) its 6.8)

any and all addvice welcomed


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## freydo (Jan 7, 2006)

the one thing most people will chime in about is that you probably don't need the undergravel heating cable. people have said there is no real benefit, and the supposed added warmth to the roots doesn't do much.

my opinion on them are comparable to moon lights... they're cool to have, but aren't necessary, especially in freshwater tanks. you'll also not really need the carbon filter, as carbon is only good for a limited period of time. they're good if you need to remove impurities or medication from the tank.

the big thing is to when your tank is up and running with plants, make sure to add lots of fast growing plants to ensure algae does not take hold. then you can slowly add in the plants that you want.

as for the oxygen vs CO2, there's not much to worry about, unless you overdose CO2 into the tank. otherwise your plants will produce the O2, and your plants will grow faster with some form of CO2, whether that be from DIY, Excel, or pressurized CO2.

otherwise, good luck with your setup and hope to see pictures of how things go.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Welcome to APC!

(are you the same psychotic madman that replied to my query on the Malawi tank over on Malawi Mayhem?)

Re your post, first of all, here's a good read to get you up to speed on some of the basics of well planted tanks:

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/basics/pages/01_intro.html

and another one:

www.rexgrigg.com

As freydo mentioned, undergravel heaters are not necessary. I've had tanks for years both with and without them and find no difference in plant health/growth between the two setups. The main advantage of the cable heating is that the heating system is out of sight; but this can also be achieved with either a Hydor inline heater (if you're using a cannister filter) or an Eheim thermo filter with the heating built in.

Depending on the size of the aquatic soil you are talking about, any fine grain sand on top of it will tend to end up underneath it anyway. What do you mean by aquatic soil?

At 2.5wpg you'll be much better off with CO2... in fact, without CO2 I'd recommend you don't use so much lighting. Don't worry about CO2 displacing O2 as the relationship between them doesn't work like that: CO2 in the water does not displace O2. And if your plants are healthy, they will produce more than enough O2 and will in fact saturate the water with it (which is when you see the plant leaves streaming bubbles)!

Start with *lots* of plants, especially fast growers (they can always be removed later). When you think you have enough, add some more  . I find the biggest mistake people make with higher lighting planted tanks is they start with too few plants.

Do you mean 0.5GH and 0.25 KH? If that's the case, you'll want to raise the GH as 0.5 will not have enough calcium or magnesium for your plants. I'd also raise the KH to around 3 or 4 just to provide an extra bit of buffer for the pH.

Good luck. And remember, with that much lighting and the addition of CO2, you will need to dose NO3 and PO4 because your plants will use it all up.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Jun 12, 2006)

> (are you the same psychotic madman that replied to my query on the Malawi tank over on Malawi Mayhem?)


yeah thats me, i keep the same nick everyware, saves confusion.

as for the aquatic soil, was thinking pond soil as that shouldnt make the water go cloudy if disturbed.

would a yeast based CO2 system be ok, as i havent got the money for pressurised system (cheapest i've found is £144, little too much as i have to SERIOUSLY upgrade the jewul lights.

the only thing im slightly worried about would be having to do loads of addatives. as this isnt technicly my tank (parents) and I'm the only person doing ANY tank maintanence. I used to do the "physiological salts" @ the 0.1% dosage,@ which level the plants grew ok, but never thrived, though that could have been due to the poor lighting.

would something like BioTrace http://www.prodibio.fr/anglais/biotrace.htm be enough with the addition of fertalisers (though i'd image with the hefty bioload from the fish i should get a fair bit of nitrate as well as phosphate)


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