HighEndOfTheLow
New Member
Hi All
After the endless tasks required to maintain our 750XXL RedSea Reefer as a marine aquarium, We relatively recently decided to downgrade to a smaller marine system and convert the now empty 750ltr tank to a freshwater planted system.
We've been keeping saltwater for over a decade and it had always been on our to-do list to do a big freshwater system so now seemed an Ideal time to try however the last time one of us had a freshwater was over 20 years ago (although we've kept a fringe interest in the freshwater world - consider us beginners!).
We both have interests in all things green and had often marvelled at these larger densely planted jungle style tanks.
The first steps have involved sourcing hardscape material whilst we research the rest of the design, we've managed to grab 3 large pieces of corbo root which is currently floating in the tank plus some smaller left over bogwood from a previous project, partly to see if we can get it to sink and to leach out the tannins, Though we're aware we'll probably need to attach these pieces of wood to rock to get it to sink long term. We'll fully drain this water and refill once we've got our substrate ordered; we've yet to source any rockwork but thats probably the next step.
Substrate wise our intention (unless told otherwise) is to do a pea gravel based substrate to get the bulk of the height, followed by a layer of Nutribase (I've got 3 bags ordered but i'll probably need more) + Tropica aquasoil (or similar), finally to cap it with pool filter sand.
Lighting wise we'll stick with the AI hydra 26's that were used previously in marine and just knock a lot/all the blue out of the spectrum until we find a happy balance.
Filtration wise I also have a near empty sump I'm contemplating filling with bioballs and or ceramic media, its currently got a small amount of sponge sheeting.
Ultimately our goal is to try and heavily plant from day one to try and keep on top of any early algae blooms etc. stocking wise we're both interested in smaller fish so ultimately hope for larger shoals of tetra other options include danios and Raspora (if we feel we have the density of planting - the overflow worries me a little also) etc we're not in a rush to get it stocked so this will probably be a bit of a slower build and concentrate on getting the density of planting up before we thrown any significant fish stock in there.
Whilst on the subject of planting, Its obviously going to require quite a bit of plant density to get this filled out (and an slightly wincing amount funding wise), I know there's a large chunk of plants that are commercially grown emersed before being dispatched and converted to fully submerged, We're trying to work out is possibly worth grabbing some plant stock early to grow emerged in a grow out tank (inch or so of water, clingfilm top, light etc, room temp? heated with a small heater?) to increase their size in preparation as we have time on our side etc or are we better banking the money and just putting it to a larger order in a few months time etc as the risk of them actually dying is greater then the risk of them flourishing (apologies if this is a commonly discussed topic we've yet to start deep diving it on the forum!)
Ether way we'll see how it goes and any support and advise would be appreciated.
- HighEndOftheLow.
After the endless tasks required to maintain our 750XXL RedSea Reefer as a marine aquarium, We relatively recently decided to downgrade to a smaller marine system and convert the now empty 750ltr tank to a freshwater planted system.
We've been keeping saltwater for over a decade and it had always been on our to-do list to do a big freshwater system so now seemed an Ideal time to try however the last time one of us had a freshwater was over 20 years ago (although we've kept a fringe interest in the freshwater world - consider us beginners!).
We both have interests in all things green and had often marvelled at these larger densely planted jungle style tanks.
The first steps have involved sourcing hardscape material whilst we research the rest of the design, we've managed to grab 3 large pieces of corbo root which is currently floating in the tank plus some smaller left over bogwood from a previous project, partly to see if we can get it to sink and to leach out the tannins, Though we're aware we'll probably need to attach these pieces of wood to rock to get it to sink long term. We'll fully drain this water and refill once we've got our substrate ordered; we've yet to source any rockwork but thats probably the next step.
Substrate wise our intention (unless told otherwise) is to do a pea gravel based substrate to get the bulk of the height, followed by a layer of Nutribase (I've got 3 bags ordered but i'll probably need more) + Tropica aquasoil (or similar), finally to cap it with pool filter sand.
Lighting wise we'll stick with the AI hydra 26's that were used previously in marine and just knock a lot/all the blue out of the spectrum until we find a happy balance.
Filtration wise I also have a near empty sump I'm contemplating filling with bioballs and or ceramic media, its currently got a small amount of sponge sheeting.
Ultimately our goal is to try and heavily plant from day one to try and keep on top of any early algae blooms etc. stocking wise we're both interested in smaller fish so ultimately hope for larger shoals of tetra other options include danios and Raspora (if we feel we have the density of planting - the overflow worries me a little also) etc we're not in a rush to get it stocked so this will probably be a bit of a slower build and concentrate on getting the density of planting up before we thrown any significant fish stock in there.
Whilst on the subject of planting, Its obviously going to require quite a bit of plant density to get this filled out (and an slightly wincing amount funding wise), I know there's a large chunk of plants that are commercially grown emersed before being dispatched and converted to fully submerged, We're trying to work out is possibly worth grabbing some plant stock early to grow emerged in a grow out tank (inch or so of water, clingfilm top, light etc, room temp? heated with a small heater?) to increase their size in preparation as we have time on our side etc or are we better banking the money and just putting it to a larger order in a few months time etc as the risk of them actually dying is greater then the risk of them flourishing (apologies if this is a commonly discussed topic we've yet to start deep diving it on the forum!)
Ether way we'll see how it goes and any support and advise would be appreciated.
- HighEndOftheLow.
