Back into freshwater again :)

[Annie742]

I set my 75 gal tank back up for freshwater! I ALWAYS go back to freshwater tanks LOL. I like my reef but there is something about the freshies I really love.

Ok so any way I want to try a planted tank. I have seen pics on here that are soooooo pretty!!!
I just have plain gravel on the bottom. Can I get away with this?

I also have my 90 gal Reef that holds my lionfish (Fluffy) and a maroon clown (Rosebud). I put all my corals in that tank when I tore the 75 down. But I'm going to take the coral back to the lfs and trade them in for freshwater fish. (I HAVE to keep my 2 marine fish cause I love them, they have so much personality!!)

So that leaves me with some extra Power Compact lights

I will keep the single strip pc on the saltwater, so that leaves me with the double strip for my freshwater tank. I know I will have to change the bulbs over to freshwater types.

That would give me about 3and a half watts for the fresh tank. Would this be to much? Also if I have this many watts on it would it make me have to use the co2? I really would like to stay away from that at least for a while.

Or I could use the single strip light and that would give me almost 2 wpg.

Thanks for any info you can give me!
I'll be posting more as to what kind of fish I like I already have ideas on the type of fish I want LOL.
And maybe you can help me with my selection

 

[Pure]

OK..after you get more than 2 wpg you have to do one of 2 things. Have CO2 or reduce the amount of time the lights are on. Having that much light and no CO2 your plants will not grow fast enough to out compete algae. Finding out how long to leave them on is the tricky part. You have to find just the right balance.

Any ideas what plants you want to have? Some fast growers like hornwort won't be effected much by the light restrictions and will suck up enough nutrients to help keep algae under control wile you play with light cycles trying to find the right amount of time to leave them on.

 

[Annie742]

No I'm not real sure what kind I want yet. I have been looking at all the beautiful tanks on here!
Been thinking and I think I may go the CO2 route. If I can figure it out LOL.
Seeing my tank is a 75 it prob won't be practical using the 2L bottles would it?
If I could diy it myself I would do it that way.

I do have some Water Wisteria in the tank now. I think if I read right, these are fast growers.
I am getting some Vallisneria from ebay. I know these are really tall plants but I think I had these before and I really liked them. Don't know how fast they grow.

As for fish I was thinking

Angel fish
Rainbow fish
Platys
cory cats (I really like these)

If those listed will all get along. If so how many of each could I have. I only want 1 Angel because I don't want them to pair up and get territorial and attack the others.

 

[Pure]

The wisteria is a good choice. In that much light and with CO2 it will really take off. IME it's not so fast much a fast grower without CO2. But I guess that is just a matter of opinion as to what is considered fast.

Yeah you can do a DIY CO2 on a 75 gallon. How many bottles you need really depends on how heavily planted the tank is. You can try 3 bottles, just make sure to run the lines into an overflow bottle before running into the tank, and put a valve on the line just in case it produces too much. The over flow bottle will act as a storage tank for excess CO2.

In a tank as big as a 75 and the stocking you want you have enough room for quit a good number of fish. Just make sure you have at least six of the Cories and of the rainbows and you will be fine.

 

[Shady Milkman]

I'm a week into my planted tank experiment. For the substrate I put iron enriched laterite then regular gravel on top. I only picked up three plants because all the stores in this area have horrendous plants and also one of the plants I was sold (Selaginella Wildenowii) as aquatic is actually not, I found out upon further research. In a couple weeks I'll order some serious plants from the internet. My lighting is not so good I'm told, and I made a diy CO2, which was incredibly easy to do. A week later, both my plants look great and are growing in pretty rapidly too. My fish genuinely seem happier too. I heard people say that they will but I thought it was bull. My 4 tetras are even schooling, something they did not do since my 5th tetra died.