Hi folks,
My new tank arrives on Thursday! I can't wait, I'm also have having serious problems making my mind up what to do. I'm want to do a newbie low tech planted tank with lots of nice beginner plants. I dug up some big slabs of slate from my garden so want to use those too. I'll be putting my random mix of tetras in, I'm not overly bothered about selecting the right fish to compliment my tank at this point, I just want to make a nice habitat for my peaceful little fish.
The tank is 5ft by 1.5 ft by 2 ft high. Its roughly 400l but once all the hardscape is in it'll probably be around 350l.
The first thing is how to lay out the tank. On the one hand I want it to be easy to maintain so was thinking of keeping it simple. Then I started farting around with this slate out the back door and made a nice mountainous looking scape. I also cut some of it to make a tier which I'm not sure about. So if I go for a fancy looking mountain I'm worried about deep substrate and dead spots. And if I keep it flattish and simple I'm worried it might look a bit plain. Also if I make it look like a nice mountain then cover it in plants then it might look out of scale or just take over the rocks.
I'm currently trying to choose substrate, due to the size of the tank and my wallet I can't bring myself to fork out for the premium aqua soils as it would cost £120-£150. Instead I'm going to go for Westland Aquatic compost which I'm using in my 60l tank. I also read the dirtied tank thread which recommended peat moss so was going to give that a try. I live in a soft water area in the West of Scotland.
I'm going to cap it with sand and have been trying to find some suitable coarse sand. APS do 30kg for about £34 with a grain size of 0.8-1mm. On ebay I can get some around the same price with a grain size of 1-3mm. Any thoughts about that? I think a light coloured substrate would contrast nicely with the dark blue slate.
I also stumbled across horticultural grit sand which is a coarse sand but I can't find what the grain size is. Has anyone ever used that? I have worked out that it is coarser than play sand which is classed as fine.
I've got a new APS 2000 lph filter with a small pre-fiter, and an inline Hydor heater which my pal has given me but I reckon I might need 2 heaters.
I've still to choose the lights but I'm thinking about using 2 60cm Chihiros A-Series Plus and joining them up, that way I can dim them. The version of the light that's 120-150cm can't be dimmed.
I'll be dosing ferts too. And I might stick a bit of wood in too
Any thoughts folks?
Cheers,
Col
My new tank arrives on Thursday! I can't wait, I'm also have having serious problems making my mind up what to do. I'm want to do a newbie low tech planted tank with lots of nice beginner plants. I dug up some big slabs of slate from my garden so want to use those too. I'll be putting my random mix of tetras in, I'm not overly bothered about selecting the right fish to compliment my tank at this point, I just want to make a nice habitat for my peaceful little fish.
The tank is 5ft by 1.5 ft by 2 ft high. Its roughly 400l but once all the hardscape is in it'll probably be around 350l.
The first thing is how to lay out the tank. On the one hand I want it to be easy to maintain so was thinking of keeping it simple. Then I started farting around with this slate out the back door and made a nice mountainous looking scape. I also cut some of it to make a tier which I'm not sure about. So if I go for a fancy looking mountain I'm worried about deep substrate and dead spots. And if I keep it flattish and simple I'm worried it might look a bit plain. Also if I make it look like a nice mountain then cover it in plants then it might look out of scale or just take over the rocks.
I'm currently trying to choose substrate, due to the size of the tank and my wallet I can't bring myself to fork out for the premium aqua soils as it would cost £120-£150. Instead I'm going to go for Westland Aquatic compost which I'm using in my 60l tank. I also read the dirtied tank thread which recommended peat moss so was going to give that a try. I live in a soft water area in the West of Scotland.
I'm going to cap it with sand and have been trying to find some suitable coarse sand. APS do 30kg for about £34 with a grain size of 0.8-1mm. On ebay I can get some around the same price with a grain size of 1-3mm. Any thoughts about that? I think a light coloured substrate would contrast nicely with the dark blue slate.
I also stumbled across horticultural grit sand which is a coarse sand but I can't find what the grain size is. Has anyone ever used that? I have worked out that it is coarser than play sand which is classed as fine.
I've got a new APS 2000 lph filter with a small pre-fiter, and an inline Hydor heater which my pal has given me but I reckon I might need 2 heaters.
I've still to choose the lights but I'm thinking about using 2 60cm Chihiros A-Series Plus and joining them up, that way I can dim them. The version of the light that's 120-150cm can't be dimmed.
I'll be dosing ferts too. And I might stick a bit of wood in too
Any thoughts folks?
Cheers,
Col