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Hello everyone.. starting up a new 90.. made a post about it on fishtanktv and decided to share with some of the other forums im on. copy and pasted :

Hello everyone. Allow me to introduce myself.. My name is Danny and I live in Miami, Fl. I'm starting up a 90 gallon tank i've had for months now. This is going to be my first attempt at a planted tank, though i've kept fish for years in various types of setups. The tank finally has water in it and I have the filter running. I'm open to extra filtration suggestions, as well as anything else you guys can think of as far as neccesary equipment goes. I dont really have a plan which was my reason for making the video I made. I'm a bit camera shy so I sorta just ramble and forgot to mention some things. One of those things eing the substrate im using but I took some pictures of the bags afterwards so you guys can see. My stocking plan for the 90 gallon is as follows :



2 x Leopard Bush Fish

1 x LF BN pleco

1 x Albino BN pleco

1 x Syndontis Petricola

7-8 x Bosemani

6 x Kuhli

1 x Gold Nugget or Green Phantom Pleco (not decided yet)





Most of these fish I already have, some I don't. I Think I still have room for a little more along the top so I was thinking some hatchet fish or something of the sort.. I'm open to suggestions and would really like to hear some. (any oddball fish? ) As I said I have no iea or plan as far as aquascaping and decorations go.. or the best method for delivery of CO2 to my future plants. Well for now that is all. Thanks to all who read. Below is the link to my video and i'll be linking some pics as well. I'm out.



Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ge&v=6ruBB...

is this substrate good? I got it because I was told it's good for plants.

Substrate 1 :



Substrate 2 :



(though you can't see the substate too well in the video it's one is black.. rocky/sand type look. and the other is same texture but more of a brownish soil like red, though you couldn't tell by looking at the video)

geez, I always use just plain riversand

or mix it with the nicely rounded sand that they use for pool-filtration.

it's very soft on mouths and whiskers of digging fish

the plants here grow like crazy, that's because managing aquatic plants is and will be a proper LIGHT issue.

very few plants need special substrate.

most simply thrive on good lighting and fish poo
;)

I agree with sideguppy , i also use river sand and pool sand , plants and disucs, and plecos seem to like it alot ,

Damn.. well i already wasted my money on like 150 pounds of this stuff =\ also i fixed the lik to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... ruBBtEaj48

Hi all,
You can use them without any problem, these substrates are fine, they are clay based, and clay minerals have the ability to hold on to and exchange ions.

All salts, when they dissolve, go into solution as cations and anions, in the case of NaCl (sodium chloride or salt, hence "salts") this is Na+ the sodium ion a cation, and Cl-, the chloride ion, an anion. The ability of any compound to hold on to and exchange cations is called its Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC (it will also have an Anion Exchange Capacity - AEC). Sand has no CEC, but clay minerals have high CECs, this is why we like them for the planted tank.

Untreated clays will form a suspension in the water column, but heat treatment (baking or calcining) adds physical stability. If we pelletise the clay, a really hot calcining treatment will make the clay granules physically stable (like brick or pottery), but chemically inert. A low firing temperature will retain CEC, but the particles will have less physical stability. These media are fairly physically stable, so will have less CEC than the raw clays.

All these clay based substrates ("Fluorite") use "moler clay" or similar, usually from an area which is naturally poor in "bases" or alkaline ions such as calcium and magnesium. This means that most of the exchange sites naturally have an H+ ion. When you add these media to a solution containing K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ ions (or your tank water), the H+ ion will be exchanged for one of the other cations, and the solution may become more acid.

In the case of "Eco-complete" the media has been soaked in a solution with other anions and cations befoe being bagged. The CEC is actually a 2 way process and those ions can be replaced by H+ ions etc and become available to the plant as the concentration of the ions change around the negatively - charged exchange sites of the clay mineral.

This is the "LYOTROPIC SERIES": most tightly bound H+ = Al3+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ = NH4+ > Na+ least tightly bound.

Adding large amounts of one cation will replace others, regardless of their position in the lyotropic series.

In the UK a lot of planted tank enthusiasts have been using a naturally pelleted clay (designed for Bonsai growing) called "Akadama", or a moler based catter litter "Tesco lightweight", these offer the same advantages as Eco-complete etc, but are a lot cheaper. In the US you can get "Turface" I believe.

cheers Darrel

Ha wow.. thats a lot of information to take in. I'm going to be honest and admit I didn't understand all of that.. maybe like half.. lol. But atleast I know my substrates good. As far as Co2 for my plants goes.. would I need to buy a actually Co2 setup or could I go with liquid carbon? someone suggested that to be and I know nothing about it.. is ti like drops or something? and is it an ok alternative for growing plants?

(they mentioned flourish excel)

Hi all,
You don't need CO2, or a liquid carbon substitute like Excel, (glutaraldehyde based). Light drives photosynthesis, and photosynthesis regulates the demand for nutrients, including CO2.
If you want maximal growth you can ramp the light up and make sure that CO2 and nutrients aren't limiting, this is why "Estimative Index" EI was developed. As long as you don't have ridiculous amounts of light you don't need CO2, although a complete nutrient addition (something like TPN+) will help plant growth.

cheers Darrel

I was given this as "plant food" is this good ?

Hi all,

I was given this as "plant food" is this good ?

These are almost certainly OK.
For plant growth you need all the macro and micro nutrients, as the names suggest you need a lot more of the macro nutrients - Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) & Potassium (K). You actually need a lot more N & K than you do P. If you look at the ingredients on the fertilisers it should give you a break down of their nutrient content.

For more information have a read through this post <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =4&t=26791> and I'd recommend having a look at "James' Planted Tank" http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/ for more details about fertilisers, deficiency symptoms, a dosing calculator etc.

cheers Darrel

Yeah im reading the back of the bottle now and it says it has all these..

: Potassium, Boron, Calcium,Carbon, Chlorine (why?), Copper, Iron, Magnesium, manganese, molybdenum and cobalt, Nickel, Sulfur, Zinc. (Does not contain nitrogren or phosphorous).

So is this good? and all I have to do now is find a source of phosphorous and nitrogen?

and checking out those links now.. where can i see james' planted tank?

Nitrate and phosphorous will, at least in part, from fish food/waste.

--
Mats

Hi all,

Nitrate and phosphorous will, at least in part, from fish food/waste.

This is true, but the lack of these elements in the fertiliser really goes back to the belief that nitrogen and phosphorus are responsible for causing algae in the aquarium. Again there is some truth in this, but isn't really relevant for the planted tank. Usually food will supply enough phosphorus but, dependent upon the fish load, nitrogen may well be deficient.

All photosynthetic organisms need light, CO2 and macro/micro-nutrients. The basic physiology of photosynthesis is the same in all photosynthetic organisms from the Cyanobacteria through the Red, Brown & Green algae, the Mosses and Ferns and the Higher Plants.

In the case of the Green Algae (Chlorophyta) they share a common ancestor with all the other non-algal plants. Because of this ancestry anything that inhibits the growth of green algae will also inhibit the growth of the higher plants, and this includes nutrient deficiency. One way that we can feed the plants we want, and deny food to the ones we don't, is to feed the substrate rather than the water column (Algae don't have roots) or to give plants access to atmospheric CO2 and use them to reduce the light within the water column (by using floating plants).

Substrates with a high CEC/AEC will hold nutrients in the substrate, reducing levels in the water column and this is partially why we like them.

Chlorine (why?)

It is from the salts like potassium chloride, you can't add a cation (K+, Ca2+) without an anion (PO4-, Cl-, SO4- etc.).

So is this good? and all I have to do now is find a source of phosphorous and nitrogen?

You probably don't need any phosphorus, there is a source of nitrogen that doesn't add any other ions, but it is ammonium nitrate (NH3NO3) so it isn't ideal, we usually use KNO3 to add both nitrogen and potassium.

james' planted tank?

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/

cheers Darrel

thanks for the great information guys! *update* I have brought my filtration for the tank.. it consists of the fluval 405 and the newest addition.. Two bio-wheel 350's. This should be sufficient right? If not i can always get an extra powerhead and bring it down low to the bottom of the tank and generate some current. Next step is to get some Drift wood from a nearby state park, prepare it, set it up then begin the planting/scaping. I was thinking start i'd making a journal. Which forum section should i post it on?