jayne
Member
The current situation with the big tank is that we have the wood and substrate in place.Two of the eventual four 150w halides are here and the tank has cover glasses.
The sump will be fitted in approx 2/3 weeks so there is no filtration/Co2,but we can put heaters/water circulation pumps inside the tank.The remaining 2 lights will be added over the next few weeks.
We are wondering whether now would be a good time to add plants to get them started or whether to wait until everything is ready.
We did consider starting the carpet plants before adding water but realistically we need to plant the back of the tank first,as we have to climb in to do that,so the whole tank will need to be planted out at the same time.
So if we plant out the tank now,then fill half way,fix up heaters/pumps and leave the whole thing running for a few weeks before the main filtration system/Co2 is added,would that be a good idea to get the plants established or would we be asking for trouble?
The sump will be fitted in approx 2/3 weeks so there is no filtration/Co2,but we can put heaters/water circulation pumps inside the tank.The remaining 2 lights will be added over the next few weeks.
We are wondering whether now would be a good time to add plants to get them started or whether to wait until everything is ready.
We did consider starting the carpet plants before adding water but realistically we need to plant the back of the tank first,as we have to climb in to do that,so the whole tank will need to be planted out at the same time.
So if we plant out the tank now,then fill half way,fix up heaters/pumps and leave the whole thing running for a few weeks before the main filtration system/Co2 is added,would that be a good idea to get the plants established or would we be asking for trouble?
putting in plants without the infrastructure to support them is a bad idea. There is nothing to gain by having lights with no CO2/filtration and even less to gain by turning off the lights to compensate. Had you been able to do the carpet plants alone for 4 weeks you would have cycled the substrate and built up bacterial populations in the sediment.
