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OK some one gave me a tank

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Anonymous

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Some one gave me a tank this week end and I want to start a new tank. I like the idea of alot of plants with a lot of neon tetras. The tank is an Eclise and measures 20''wide 10"deep and 22"tall.

It has hood, heater, and pump for filter and bio wheel. I have RO, or RO/DI water. So you guys already said in other threads I shold use RO water with chemicals and my daughter's tank looks great that way so I can stick with that.

My question is how many gal. do I have and what type of substrait should I get? I wanted something different then rocks for the plants to grow in.

Thank you
Teddy
 
A

Anonymous

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I believe thats a 20 gallon tank. I have used eco-complete, and nice black substrate with good results.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Thanks Dan,
I have seen those threads before and even though I like the Idea of not doing anything, My experience is I need to do maintance. I will look into the eco-complete. Is black substrait just like black rocks?

Thanks again for your help.

P.S.
I am planing on running the pump with the bio-wheel in the hood.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Also I rember reading a thread about someone changing there substrait and I can't find the thread now. I looked through a 3 pages and I don't see it. Do you rember that thread and could you give me a link to it?

Thanks
Teddy
 
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gpodio

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As far as plants go, Flourite and Eco-Complete are the more popular substrates, I prefer Flourite personally but have had good results with both. RO is not necessary for plants but there is no harm in using it, just mix it with enough tap water to get a KH of 3-5 and it will give you a good hardness for the neons or cardinals to be happy in and enough buffering capacity in case you decide to use CO2.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo Podio
 
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SnowManSnow

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I'll probably be shot for saying this, but I've had GREAT results with plants by using Tap Water.. .. Gives them plenty of nutients to eat up that the RO water would suck out. I guess it has a lot to do with your co. water system.

B
 
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gpodio

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I agree, besides the obvious removal of heavy metals and other toxins, tap water provides nutrients for the plants. Plants don't care much about hardness, just nutrients, so using RO water simply means you will need to reconstitute it and dose more nutrients. It's a valid argument to use RO water if you have really bad well water or very high levels of certain elements but they are rare situations. Fish on the other hand do have preferences as to hardness so those with very hard water may want to cut it with RO but it will make little difference to the plants. In a heavily planted tank the plants consume far more nutrients than tap water can provide, even with moderate levels of phosphate and nitrate in my tap water I have to dose much more of both to sustain a good growth rate.

Giancarlo
 
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Anonymous

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I've never used anything but tap water for any freshwater tank. Only in reef tanks do I use RO water.

Jim
 
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Anonymous

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My heavily planted nano at work gets buried with algae if I use tap water, but RO with some minerals added back in does fine.
 
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Anonymous

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Thank you all for the information.
Fishfanatic2,
What did you end up using?

Teddy
 
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Anonymous

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danmhippo

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Tap water varies from city to city, use with caution
Fertilizer tablets definetly work, and IMO is easier to work with.
 
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gpodio

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danmhippo":3sm3z8go said:
Tap water varies from city to city, use with caution
Fertilizer tablets definetly work, and IMO is easier to work with.
Click to expand...

I agree, use fertilizer tabs regardless of what water you choose to use. Flourish Tabs are my preference.

Dan, there is a chance that something is limiting plant growth in your tank, therefore by using RO water you are eliminating the nutrients that the plants are unable to use due to being limited and starving the algae this way. Chances are if you provided the missing nutrient or nutrients the plants will outcompete algae regardless of which water you use. I have done this in the past many times, specially during the PMDD days when we though stipping macros from the water was the way to beat algae. Now we know that plants can do it on their own if you give them everything they need. CO2 is usually the more common element in short supply, not sure if you use CO2 or not in this tank, if not, give Flourish Excel a try dosing 1ml every day, it's a very effective source of carbon for tanks without CO2 injection.

Giancarlo
 
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Anonymous

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Well I went and got a bag of eco-complete. We like the look of the black color. As the cloudiness settles there is a brown layer on top. Should I vac. that off or ignore it for now?
Also its about 1.5 inches thick should I get another bag.

Thank you for the suggestions.
I am not in a rush to do any thing with this tank because I want to do it the right way so I will wait for your replys.

Teddy
 
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gpodio

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I wouldn't vacum it, let it all settle and make it's way to the bottom. I'd also add another bag to bring it to 3-4".

Giancarlo
 
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gpodio

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I don't mean to never vacum it, but eco-complete contains bacteria and organic substances that are there to jump start the substrate, vacuming them out would be counterproductive. It's a very light weight gravel so it's quite easy for the dust to make it's way down. I'd definetly clean up what's still there in a week or so but initially I would not vacum anything out of it, it's not like it contains waste or anything. But it's not going to make or break your tank so do what you feel more comfortable with, I'm sure enough of it has made it's way to the bottom to start with, just hover over the substrate, don't dig into it at any time.

Hope that helps
Giancarlo
 
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Anonymous

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Well I have to wait two weeks for another bag from LFS so I put in a plant for now. When I add the other bag I was planing on mixing them together and thinking like its a new tank all over is that the right way of thinking?


Teddy
 
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