New Planted 2ft

[easy does it]

Hi Folks,

Setting up a new planted 2ft-er, and planning on using Dupla products from A-of-A. I have no experience, so all advice is appreciated.

Substrate

Does any one have experience with this product, and could they please advise me on the amount of Laterite required.

Can you overdose when it comes to the substrate?

Filtration

Looking to reduce gases lost, so probably going to remove Fluval 101. Is there any recommendations for alternate filtration, how much do I need on a planted tank this size?

CO2

Going for a DIY job connected to a small powerhead, powerhead to turn off when lights do, therefore expecting CO2 to rise directly to the surface when lights out and have small influence on water chemistry, is this realistic?

Any other recommendations for CO2 in tank of this size.

Lighting

A double power compact with T5's, will that be adequate, and can someone recomend which of the various types and colors of "bulb" are best?

Thanks heaps in advance people,

Cheers

Adrian

[bristlenose2008]

Hi,

I was in the same boat as you. Started with the 2 FT things were going well.

There is aqua glow and powerglo that I have used at the same time. Unsure which one worked, but probably both.

Do to the difficulties with having to find locally available good quality T5 reflector with housing at a reasonable price I have proceeded with T8 tubes with very similar strenghts to T5

The tube brand was Hagen. Used the Power glo (purple box) and the Aqua glo.

I used a DIY CO2 system with yeast and sugar. First I used a weak baking yeast from Coles, it was TANDACO brand with 5 satchets. Later somone gave me a stronger one that lasted about 2 weeks.

This system is a head ache in my experience as it is not constant and the plants stop start growts spurts.

I used it for about 4 weeks just to kick start the aquarium, then many of my plants died, presumable due to lack of CO2 or the fast growth that they could not cope with.

By the time we introduced the fish, the plants started to look yellow and unhealthy.

I too used substrate from JBL at the time.

Now we moved onto a 4foot tank and use the same type of lighting but no CO2. Every day the plants get 1ml of daily-gro fertiliser by Aquasonic. The plants are not growing much but look healthy, and this is maintainable.

We are not looking for a CO2 system with a bottle. Ordering from overseas is a bit risky. Chinese tend to have a different srew fittings, so I am told. The US ones have a different power requirement from ours.

The important thing to keep in mind is that PH levels matter for plants as well as for fish. I do know one of my plants have died due to the acidic water condition introduced by my mangrove root prior to boiling the wood which has then minimised this problem.

Regards,

Damien