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New adventure, advice on equipment, deep tank!

Gavster29

New Member
Joined
20 Mar 2019
Messages
4
Location
Oxfordshire
Hi all,

It's been a while since I last had a planted tank, however I still have lots of equipment but this time it will be bigger and better than ever! I need some advice.

The tank is 48"x27"x24" (lxwxh)
1x FX5 and 1x FX6 canister
2x 300w JBL heaters
Neptune Apex computer (I used to run Marine tank)
I have an Art Co2 dual valve regulator and I have 5kg Co2 canisters
I have a dual dosing pump for feeding the plants
I also have an RO unit

The tank is currently running without any of the plant stuff as that was used on my smaller tank, it is running the filters, heaters and a single aquasky LED light, I have some large wood in there but no plants as I have large cichlids and silver dollars.
The reason for change is that I miss my planted tank, I closed it down as my daughter is disabled and we needed to make room for adaptions, the adaptions are coming to an end but now I need to close my big tank down to do flooring and put up new walls so it is easier to empty the tank and rebuild once all the work is done.
My biggest question is what lighting do I go for, I like the control of the Fluval but also I have the Neptune so I can get stuff that integrates with that, the 24" height might be an issue so any advice would be great, and also the depth 27" means I might need a few lights to cover the whole tank.
In terms of plants I have no idea but I do know I want Conga Tetras in a large group.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
 
Hey Gavster,
Congo tetras are gorgeous when in a sizeable group. They can be quite boisterous so plant choice should be designed around that. If you are going for an African biotope style, there are lots of large Anubias species which could be attached to the wood you already have? or if you are looking at a more general aquarium, giant vallis would look amazing as a background plant. Whatever you select, the dual stage regulator you have (pro SE?) will work well with our large in-tank FLUX_diffuser. This is a very popular choice for FX6 owners who don't want to perform any adaptions on the pipework.
 
Thank you for your response @Carbondioxide!

I haven't even thought about a diffuser, I will check out the FLUX diffuser and yes it is the PRO SE regulator 👍.

I love the look of some of the Vallis thank you for the suggestion and i guess the Anubias is quite a hardy low light plant do would work well, I still don't know what lighting to go for?

I have modified the FXs both are exiting from a spray bar which gives greater flow through the tank.

I am a little conflicted now as the wife wants a large group of Rummy Noses I guess that would then be a large group of Cardinals to match and a completely different biotope!
 
Thank you for your response @Carbondioxide!

I haven't even thought about a diffuser, I will check out the FLUX diffuser and yes it is the PRO SE regulator 👍.

I love the look of some of the Vallis thank you for the suggestion and i guess the Anubias is quite a hardy low light plant do would work well, I still don't know what lighting to go for?

I have modified the FXs both are exiting from a spray bar which gives greater flow through the tank.

I am a little conflicted now as the wife wants a large group of Rummy Noses I guess that would then be a large group of Cardinals to match and a completely different biotope!
I love the Rummy nose tetras, they are absolutely worth going with. If you do, how about adding a group of Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi along with them? both come from the same locations and look amazing.
 
I love the Rummy nose tetras, they are absolutely worth going with. If you do, how about adding a group of Mikrogeophagus Ramirezi along with them? both come from the same locations and look amazing.
Yes I was looking at biotope and noticed these are compatible, a group would be great!
 
Could you elaborate on this? What kind of plants are incompatible with congo tetra? Are they more boisterous than full sized rainbowfish or do they have some particularly destructive behaviors?
In my experience, they are always nipping and chasing each other around the aquarium. When they begin to reach their adult size, this can cause quite the disturbance depending on other tankmates. In the past, I kept them with fine leaved plants like Cabomba and limnophila which were always loosing leaves due to the constant darting and bumping of the Congo Tetra. Maybe I was just unlucky.
 
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