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Lots of questions

shady

New Member
Joined
29 Oct 2009
Messages
9
Location
Tewkesbury
Hi all, not sure if this is the right place to ask so many questions but it’s a good place to start. I am currently in the process of changing my fish room from marine (sorry) to freshwater. I used to have a nano planted tank years ago and so after 15 years of marine I’m changing back.
Anyway , if I can find a way to download the video of my fish room this will be a lot clearer.
Firstly the whole system is sumped and therefore I am looking into using K1 filter media as the main filter , this will flow through a series of sponges into the return section.
(1) Is K1 ok to use, at most the system will be over 1000 ltrs and only hold about a dozen bettas and a few cardinal tetras so nitrate won’t be that high ( especially as I will have 13 planted tanks all plumbed in together)
(2) Secondly the tanks are currently divided into 3section. I plan to have a fighter in each section, the question is would you try to do 1three foot planted tank with dividers in it or do it as three separate 1 foot tanks ? Not sure which way to go on this

(3)main question is currently all the tanks are painted blue on the sides and back, would you keep them blue or go black or try a smoked film or similar , which ever option I go for all the tanks would have to be the same otherwise my minor ocd would get the better of me.

(4) The tank on the left that was the seahorse tank would be used as a water change tank and filled with a fast growing plant to help alleviate algae growth hopefully, what’s the fastest growing / best plant to put in there , I was thinking some kind of hygrophyllia

(5) the lights over the tanks are 4x39w units. I take it these will be ok as the tanks are only 15 cm deep , probably overkill for some plants but I can turn 2 bulbs off if needed

I will try and get a video attached to this but did it doesn’t work don’t blame me lol



 
Your sump setup is just fine, freshwater sumps are a lot simpler than marine. K1 and sponges will be plenty of surface for bacterial growth. In regards to the tank separation, I think one big tank would be easiest, however, three different tanks could be three different aquascapes, so that’s a plus. But might also be overwhelming as your first planted setup. I would definitely get rid of the blue unless you like it, does not compliment a planted aquarium. Either clear, black, white, or frosted is normally best, really up to you and what you think looks nice.
 
Hi. Thanks for the comments although I’m not sure if I explained myself on the three split tanks , the dividers will stay in place but I wasn’t sure whether to do 3 separate aquascapes or try and incorporate the look of one big one but split into 3 ( ie cut wood branches where the dividers are and silicon them the other side so it looks like it goes through the divider ) Also looks like I’d better get the scrapper out and get rid of the blue ( shame really as the racking is blue to match lol )
 
With blue racking I guess black would visually look best for the tanks.

mid probably use something like elodea as the fast growing plant or use a floating plant if suitable for your system as these are both more easy to remove sections of as they grow.

I love the idea of doing one scape across three tanks - probably easier to scape than three separate “tall and thin” aquascapes. The other option would be to do three very different scapes - aquascaped, biotope style, and a blackwater for example. This could look awesome too and give you a range of options to play with in future.
 
My local pet shop once had 3 nano tanks side by side. Different soil and scapes but a few stones and branches going 'through' as you mentioned. Looked pretty cool, like 3 different seasons:cool:
 
Wow that’s an awesome idea... any chance they have a photo on Facebook?
Was some time ago, and not active on facebook so probably not.
I do remember a seiryu (or similar) and ohko rock of similar size and shape splittet down the middle and half in each tank. Amazing effect.
 
Well I have 3 x 3 foot tanks all split into 3 , I can’t do different waters etc ( black water style ) as the filtration is the same for all three ( in one end out the other ) but I can do a mix. I might do one rack all the same but going through the dividers , one rack so all three are totally different and one rack as suggested of the same rock wood but different soils/ plants. The other issue I have is all tanks are only 10 inches tall.
 
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